God is in Your Now

Tim Miller: Is it on? Yes, it's on.
So I know some of you are thinking, what's this guy doing here again?
That's two chapels in a row.
Honestly, I have the distinct privilege of introducing Marty Solomon to you.
I mentioned him in my chapel talk Tuesday morning.
Marty is the president of Impact Campus Ministries.
He's also the founder of the Bema podcast.
As president of Impact Campus Ministries, they are on college campuses across the country,
and they're always looking for help, interns.
They especially need women who are interested in being in a ministry position on a college campus,
so you can talk to him about that later.
They have exotic places like Portland, Oregon, and Fort Myers, Florida.
They're open.
Or my favorite, Altoona, Pennsylvania.
I unsuccessfully tried to date a girl from there one time, but I have some memories of Altoona.
Let's just take a breath for a second and allow peace and calm to come in.
When I spoke Tuesday, I talked about the idea of partnering with God.
And the reason I feel so strongly about having Marty here is because more than anybody else I know, this is a guy who has partnered with God.
So I know that you are going to be blessed by his time today, so please welcome Marty Solomon.
Marty Solomon: Hey, everybody.
I want to start by playing a song that will be relevant to what I am going to talk about today.
How's everybody doing?
Okay.
I'm kind of an interactive guy, so you have to, like, talk back when I ask questions.
Is that okay?
Yes.
Fantastic.
All right.
Let's see if they can cue that song up.
I was hoping what happened as we listened to the song is that exactly what I heard,
which is that some of you know that song, which is really good.
You were singing it as it played.
I sat watching, not watching, I sat preparing for my chapel talk this morning. I went back 22 years
to when I sat in chapel as an undergrad. And I kept thinking to myself, what happened in chapel
that I enjoyed? And what irritated me? And what in the world am I going to talk about? And logic
would tell you that what I should probably do is I should get up here and like wow you with my best
Bible material and at the end have a slide that's like, listen to my podcast.
Logic would tell you I could do, I could talk about something really cool and unique and catchy
and a great hook, like my Jewish identity as a follower of Jesus and talk about that. And
it just wasn't where I was at for my chapel talk. And so what I want to do today is I just want to
share a testimony, not my story testimony, but just share a little bit about where I am. And
that's going to make more sense here in a moment by the time I'm done. But I wanted to share a
story. I don't want to communicate by the time that I'm done. All of you should know this
because there's no way to know this except to learn this, what I'm going to share with you.
I'm now the old guy. I can't believe it. I'm the 42-year-old old guy that's lived too much life.
And the things I want to share is not something you're supposed to know.
And it's not something you're going to know just because I share it with you.
But part of what it means to belong to the community of faith, I believe,
like the scriptures routinely call us to like ask your parents and they will tell you.
Ask your elders and they will teach you. And a lot of what they're going to tell you and teach
you and a lot of the stories they're going to share are not something that you can just know
intellectually, but you hear people share the stories of faith, and then you walk the path.
And even though you don't know it, the Hebrews have a word, yadah. Say yadah. Yadah. Here's a
verse. The word is to know. To know is to yadah. In Genesis it says, and Adam knew his wife Eve,
and she conceived. If you're doing the math on that, you're like, wait a minute,
what is that knowing talking about? Thank you for laughing at that joke.
This knowing is not an intellectual knowing is what I'm trying to say. This knowing is a very,
for the Hebrew mind, you learn something, you experience it. You can trust something that you
haven't yadad yet, that you haven't experienced yet. And I want to share a little bit of that.
Earlier this year, I was writing my second book out in April, by the way.
There's my commercial.
It'll be called The Gospel of Being Human.
And I was finishing up the manuscript, and I went to Scotland to do that
because I had some good friends that basically kind of essentially let me stay there,
essentially for free, and it was a great place to write and get away from everybody.
And nobody knew me there, so nobody was going to bug me.
And so I got away to Scotland.
I spent about a week writing.
Towards the end of the week, things were going well.
I was on schedule.
I'm kind of getting worn out.
Just been doing nothing but writing for about seven days straight.
And so my host said, how about we get out and I want to take you to Aberfeldy.
And so we went to Aberfeldy.
And there at Aberfeldy was the Dunkeld Cathedral.
And Dunkeld used to serve almost 1,000 years ago, 800 years ago.
Dunkeld was the seat of Christianity before the Reformation when it was just Christendom, Catholicism.
And the seat of Christianity in Scotland was at Dunkeld.
Now, later it would move, but this ancient cathedral still stood there.
People will worship there this Sunday.
Like, I stood in the building, and I was just overwhelmed with this sense of, like,
spiritual community cloud of witness gravitas.
Like, there have been people for 800 years that have gathered in that room of stone
and sang songs and reflected on theology and drawn closer to God.
And then we left there, and my host was like, well, it had been raining all day,
typical Scottish day, super rainy, super cloudy.
It was just kind of a wet mess.
And he said, well, let's take the scenic way home.
The sun's not down yet.
I know it's cloudy and rainy.
That stinks, but maybe we can get some enjoyment out of the long drive home.
So we took off on this long drive home.
and the rain stopped, and the clouds kind of parted, and there was this hazy, misty,
you know how the sun comes, and it like refracts off the light, and I'm not a physicist, but you
get the, like the sun shines through the clouds, and you're driving through the Scottish Highlands.
They call it the Highlands, and I don't even have photos from that day, because I didn't want to
mess it up. Like I just wanted, like I was just driving, and every time we would turn a corner,
and head down into a new valley, it would just, like, my breath would catch.
I can't see anybody right now, but has anybody had similar experiences?
Like this moment, one person in the front row, awesome.
Me and you understand what we're talking about.
You've got to laugh at my jokes or I get real nervous, my insecurities.
These are pictures I took of the same region when I was there with my family earlier the year before,
and I met my hosts.
So this isn't the day I was driving,
and no photo can do justice,
and I'm not a photographer,
otherwise I wouldn't have put the highway in the photo.
But have you, like you've had those days, I think?
Some of you are saying like you've had those days.
This is a real place.
And guys, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest,
like in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.
I love a good, like I was totally spoiled
with amazing mountain scenery my whole life.
This is still one of the most beautiful places
I've ever been.
in my entire life.
This is a real place on planet Earth.
You can go there.
It's crazy.
It was one of, this is January, February of 2025.
Like literally one of the most sacred,
holy, high moments of my adult,
my whole life, my adult life.
I remember that day.
It was just like, it was just buzzing,
humming with like the presence of God.
I loved it.
It was awesome.
Three weeks ago, my dad passed away.
And last, not this weekend, but the weekend before,
we had our service, the memorial service.
And this is kind of why I was like,
I'm sharing my story from this place
because this is the first talk I've given since my father's passed away,
and I'm just in this weird place.
I can't even remember who I was four weeks ago.
And some of you maybe know what I'm talking about,
especially some of the older faces in the room.
I cannot remember who I was a month ago.
I can't remember what I was doing.
I can't remember what it felt like to be me.
I'm kind of in this weird, cloudy haze.
I'm sure it won't last forever.
I'm sure if I were to come speak in chapel three months from now,
I would give my typical chapel talk.
But as I sat preparing for this one,
I was just like, hmm.
And as I was getting there, I was trying to figure out,
what do I talk about, and what do I say?
And what can I share that's real about where I'm at right now in my life?
That song came on.
It's one of my favorite songs.
And I could not believe, as I just sat there and reflected,
this song about the highlands or the valleys.
And I thought, my life in 2025.
my life in the year of our Lord, 2025. Here's a song.
Oh, how high would I climb mountains if the mountains were where you hide?
Or how far I'd scale the valleys if you graced the other side? How long have I chased rivers
from lowly seas to where they rise against the rush of grace descending from the source
of its supply. I thought back to 22 years ago when I was sitting in chapel as an undergrad.
And I thought about the rivers I have chased. I thought about the anxiety that I lived with. I
don't mean this in a patronizing way at all. I mean it as like a, hopefully a move and a step
of solidarity. I can remember what it was like, and it was a different world, but I can remember
what it was like when I sat in your seat. I can remember all the things I gave, the next decade
of my life, the things I gave myself to. And the sense that God was always like more, like God was
always more there than he was here. Like when I get there, I'll have discovered more of God.
God is not at the top of the next mountain.
And he's not on the other side of a valley.
He is no more there than he is in your here right now, I promise.
And you won't know this until you know this, but it's such good news.
And if you find yourself driven by all this anxiety,
and I don't know where you're at with like grades or calling or the program you're studying in
or what's next or getting married or whatever it is that like all this anxiety that weighs on you,
God is in the now. He is not at the end of that river.
All you find at the end of that river is it meets grace descending from the source of its supply.
And it wasn't where you thought it was.
Because in the highlands and the heartache, you're neither more nor less inclined.
I would search and stop at nothing.
You're just not that hard to find.
I can tell you in my faith walk in the year of our Lord, 2025,
God was with me on the Scottish drive back to my place
where I went back and wrote the last chapter of my book
and was just like, yes!
And God was in the master bedroom closet
as I went through my dad's clothes two weeks ago.
almost in like the highlands and the heartache it just was the same i'm so blessed to have walked
a faith that so many others have walked in front of me i guess i'm trying to stand in the middle
and share that with you today i will praise you on the mountain and i will praise you in the
mountains in my way. You're the summit where my feet are. So I will praise you in the valleys
all the same. If you find yourself in a valley today, tomorrow, yesterday, next week, next year,
your feet, the summit where your feet are. No less God within the shadows. No less faithful
when the night leads me astray,
because you're the heaven where my heart is,
and the highlands and the heartache all the same.
Oh, how far beneath your glory
does your kindness extend the path
from where your feet rest on the sunrise
to where you sweep the sinner's past.
Oh, how fast would you come running
if just to shadow me through the night,
trace my steps through all my failure,
and walk me out the other side.
The path that has brought me to this place,
ooh, I could share stories.
God is no more, I said earlier,
God is no more in your future
than he is in your present today.
Rest assured, God is no more down a river of righteousness
than he is in your struggle with selfishness today.
he is so present no matter what kind of things you're battling and struggling with
i have been through some ugly ugly stuff in my life personal professional
god has been as present in every step of the way god is not somewhere else
God is not somewhere else
God is not the end of your study
any more than he's in
God is not the end of your character development
any more than he's in your present
promise
for who could dare ascend the mountain
that valleyed hill called Calvary
but for the one I call good shepherd
who like a lamb was slain for me
I will praise you on the mountain
and I will praise you when the mountain is in my way
You're the summit where my feet are, so I will praise you in the valleys all the same.
No less God within the shadows, no less faithful when the night leads me astray.
You're the heaven where my heart is, and the highlands and the heartache all the same.
So whatever I walk through and wherever I am, your name can move mountains wherever I stand.
And if ever I walk through the valley of death, I'll sing through the shadows my song of ascent.
The older and older I have gotten, the more I love walking the path of faithfulness as an act of subversive resistance.
Like showing up and walking the path not because it feels like it's working and not because there's any spark or fire and flame,
but because this is the path that I have seen in others' lives and I trust it on the other end of it.
I'll sing through the shadows my song of ascent.
Not because it inspires you, but because you know it to be true.
From the gravest of all valleys comes the pastures we call grace.
One of my prayers today is that you will find a different kind of grace.
Not the theological grace that we learn about in Bible college or our theological studies.
That's great. That's fantastic.
You know the grace that gets you into heaven because of soteriology and all that wonderful stuff?
my prayer for you is that you would find a different kind of grace,
a grace that is there and that catches you in like your deepest struggles
or your deepest grief and your deepest mourning.
Not just the theological abstract grace that does a theological work of justification,
but like a grace that is there where you meet God in the midst of your stuff.
A mighty river flowing upwards from a deep but empty grave.
So I'll praise you on the mountain, and I'll praise you when the mountain's in my way.
And I have probably talked just long enough that we probably don't need to play the song one more time.
That was on my to-do list if we had time to do that.
But may that be my gift from where I'm at today to you today.
God is in, let me see if I can, God is in your now.
He's not in your, he's also in your future,
but he's not in your future more than he's in your now.
And maybe sometime I'll be back and we can talk about chiasms
and literary devices and Jewish midrash
and what happens when angels show up in the story of Noah
and why I eat kosher, and it will be great.
And if you ever want to do that, you can listen to a podcast, I guess.
But today here, my heart, which is broken right now, my heart's broken, but it's so
taken care of by a God who is in the highlands and the heartache all the same.
Let me pray.
God, I am not sure who in the room is feeling what.
I'm not sure how many students today may need this word or this testimony.
God, I'm learning in my grad work right now from the Jesuits about storing up consolations.
So that when we're in a time of desolation, we have these things that we hang on to.
We have these words that do a work in us and for us.
And so my prayer is whether we're completely engaged and involved in this or whether we're
more passive, my prayer is that you would help us store up consolation today. Help us store that up.
God, we love you. We're so thankful that you are faithful and more than we could ever imagine.
I love the fact that the older I get, the more I learn and the more in love I fall with you. I pray
all of that for every single one of these students or faculty in the back of the room or anything
that you might be doing in any of our lives. May you show up and prove your gospel to be good news
over and over and over again. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thanks for the opportunity to be here, guys.
Thank you.