A Pingvellir Experience

DEVOTIONAL – OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

A Pingvellir Experience

The continental divide between North America and Europe runs directly through Iceland.

At Pingvellir, the World UNESCO Heritage site, one can literally stand between the two continents and touch both at the same time.

I recently did exactly this, with two of my sons. I touched North America and beside me, Andrew touched Europe.

It is a place steeped in history, dating back to 874 AD. It was here in 1000 AD the nation turned from the Norse pagan belief system to Christianity.

I walked the route between the two and was struck, I am in a place, that is no man’s land, which does not belong to any continent. I am neither here nor there! It was a strange feeling.

As I have reflected on that afternoon in Pingvellir, I am wondering whether the church and more importantly myself, is neither here nor there? One author has termed it personal spiritual self-satisfaction.

The issue is not dissatisfaction, rather, it is the opposite. We are just too satisfied with being in the middle. We are OK to walk the route in Pingvellir where we are comfortable with being “lukewarm” which Jesus referred to in Revelation 3 about the Church in Laodicea.

• We are all just too satisfied

• We are satisfied with a little bit of knowledge about the Bible

• We are satisfied with occasional moments in ministry experience, where we see the work of the Holy Spirit and say wow!

• We are satisfied with giving a bit to God’s work

• We are satisfied to simply exist in our marriages

• We are satisfied to attend church on the weekend, or watch online, as it is more comfortable, yet too busy in our lives to have more involvement

• We are satisfied to have a fast-morning devotion and say, I did it

• We are satisfied with minds that wander with thoughts we do not want anybody to know about

• We are satisfied to read about the abundant life in John 10:10 and say, not sure what that means, and it certainly is not my experience

• We are satisfied to not take a stand when we know the issue goes against what God’s Word would say

• We are satisfied to focus our identity on doing compared to being

• We are satisfied with anxiety and read “Do not be anxious about anything” and think, well that doesn’t work very well

Yes, my friends, we are just too darned satisfied. And so, we walk the Pingvellir road and every so often have a moment where we actually become hot or cold and say wow! What was that?

I am writing this to myself, more than you, so please do not think I am being critical of you. It is a journey I am on and I will share with you in a future devotional, what I am doing about this personal self-satisfaction.

Pingvellir, thank you for giving me this analogy, for it has caused me to shift a bit from the middle. I want to keep shifting and being intentional about it.

I am so thankful, that I have a dissatisfied Redeemer who wants more transformation in my life and has not given up on me.

By the way, if you have the opportunity to go to Iceland, go. It is an amazing place. Even better, when I experience it with two of my sons.

~Bruce