Yikes!

We have a habitual tendency to reduce the irreducible. Because we cannot rest in our identity as paint strokes in a larger canvas; threads in a much larger tapestry; because we have a hard time seeing that we are not the biggest thing around, we tend to reduce things to suit our twisted and self-centered perspective. We think love too small; the earth too local; God as petty. We need to create for ourselves the myth that we are indeed the right people to determine what is ultimately the right thing for our lives. So we spend an inordinate amount of time reducing thing in our mind to bit size chunks that suit us. Case in point: the resurrection of Christ. If it is reduced to a nice story that may or may not happen we can look at it romantically. If we look at it as a historic event relegated to the past then we can look at it authoritatively. But if we see it as it truly is as something larger than the universe itself; something wild and untamed; something primal; something that simultaneously merges the earthly with the divine in the most miraculous of ways then we would have to change almost everything about ourselves. We would have to celebrate that resurrection daily by living a resurrected life. Yikes!

I Guess I Better Read the Manual

We just purchased a really effective tool for the church. It's called PhoneTree. Anytime I need to make an announcement to the whole church I get on the computer, record one message, and the computer calls all the church members and leaves that message on their answering machines. It can do a lot of things (text message, send emails, take my message and translate it into different languages). But it is more than likely I will not be able to do the majority of those things because I REFUSE TO READ THE MANUAL!!!! It ain't gonna happen. I'm a guy, I'm too busy, I'm just not feelin' it. I got it to call everyone to let them know to sign up for the potluck last Sunday and that's good enough for me. I think that's the way we are with our kingdom hearts. At the point of belief and baptism we receive a kingdom heart. While under the waters of baptism God performs spiritual surgery and gives us a kingdom heart. A heart that desires to do God's will; that desires to love sacrificially; that desires to change the world for the better! And that heart can do so much. But we refuse to read the manual! If we could only see the Bible as the manual for the kingdom heart. To see how it works; what it can do; how it can be expanded; what environment the kingdom heart must exist in to function well. I think we (and I include myself in this) live far below the potential of our kingdom hearts. We manage our day, we sin a little less than we did upon the start of our walk with Christ, we make it to church regularly, we pray sometimes, we read our Bibles periodically. And that's good enough? When the kingdom heart can exact change in our family and our world? Man, I guess I better read the manual.