Help Me I’m Falling

The California Academy of Sciences is an amazing jewel in Golden Gate Park. We have a family pass and have found that if we visit right after school gets out, the place is empty (all of the school field trips and folks from out of town trying to beat the traffic are gone). We can get in a good hour and a half of exploring without any wait. The two domes on the living roof house the tropical rainforest and the Morrison Planetarium, which is featuring Journey to the Stars.

If you have been there, then you will understand what I am about to describe. When you first walk into the Planetarium you start at the bottom, much like an IMAX theater, and then work your way to the middle or top to find a seat. As I walked up the steps I started to experience some vertigo. I literally almost fell down trying to climb the stairs. I held onto the railing tightly following the kids. I thought I was having some health problem at first. Then when I sat in my seat and looked up, I started to get dizzy again. There was nothing showing yet, just the low level lights around the edges of the dome.

Then I heard Jake say, "Man I'm dizzy." So we were all feeling it. We were all out of sorts, all dizzy and disorientated. I looked up and realized why. I could not tell if the ceiling was five feet away, ten feet away, or twenty feet away. My eyes and brain could not process the information. I had no bearings and without an understanding of where the ceiling was, I could not even walk. Without a proper understanding of where the top was and where I fit in, I could not do something as simple as walk up a flight of stairs.

It made me think of the importance of worship. One of the things that Corporate Worship provides me and the follower of Jesus is perspective. Corporate Worship is an opportunity for me to gain the perspective that I need to place God and others before me. When I spend time worshipping with my church, it allows me to get the perspective that God is God and I am not, that I am to take up my cross and follow Him, that I am not the center of the universe, despite what the world tells me.

It is difficult to get perspective on my own. I need a time to stop and place my focus not on myself, my family, or my concerns, but on God creator of the universe. It allows me to see the world how it really is, to gain real perspective and when I gain perspective, I am able to walk without stumbling.