The more full my suitcase gets the more I question what is already in the suitcase. Do I really need this many pairs of pants? Will I really need or wear this particular shirt? I almost always bring more than I need. I almost always forget to pack something important that I wish I had brought. In the same way some of us have packed things into our lives that are unhelpful, unnecessary and might even weigh us down in our pursuit of Christ.
He could have let Jonah die a slow painful death being digested by a giant fish. Now aren’t you glad that God shows mercy to Jonah? I know I am. Because I need the sort of God who lovingly pursues me. I need the sort of God who will be merciful towards me. In spite of Jonah’s disobedience, God uses this situation to make His name great. God could have used someone else to witness to the Ninevites but God’s actions here would seem to indicate that God desires Jonah. This is good news. Even if we give up on ourselves, God doesn’t give up on us.
While suffering might be the very thing we need to help us grow we must understand that even in the middle of it that it is the thing that when we are faithful in the midst of it, is producing a crown of glory. God promises that my suffering is somehow producing life that I don’t understand.
We have taken our relationships to a much more social-media-infused format and we have traded real-face-to-face relationships that require focus and authenticity for fake-relationships that are based on pretense and social media.
While we might think that God’s grace is super-abundant in that we could have more than we would ever need or want, we act like it will run out, that there won’t be enough. Much like the Christmas cookies or hot water for a shower on a Sunday morning we might think we need to grab what we need/want before someone else takes it all and there’s none left for us. But God’s grace is more than sufficient for your or my every need.
Without the power and leading the Holy Spirit the Gospel is just a bunch of words. It takes the conviction and the invitation from God’s Spirit to lead someone to Christ (whether a first-time believer or a long-time disciple). We rely on God for the ministry of Church.
We talk a lot about grace. We insist on how we need to give each other more grace. We even insist on how people ought to give us more grace. We might even tell ourselves that we ought to give ourselves more grace. But is it possible we missed the point of grace? Maybe we got grace wrong.
You know how when you have company coming over to stay you suddenly look around your house and see how dirty and cluttered it is? What might not bother you or your family during the normal routine is suddenly not acceptable when you’re about to have friends or family staying with you. You suddenly go into a furry to clean the house and remove the clutter. Sometimes you look around and you realize you have way more clutter and junk then you need. You realize it’s time to clean house and make more permanent room in your life.
We often have preconceived notions about the what, the why and how of God’s calling. It receives no small attention from Pastors, authors of theology, bloggers, and the Jesus following Church member. I think that’s because it’s almost in no way theoretical and is extremely personal. Within God’s calling we find our guidance, our direction, our source of adventure, assurance and peace.
We seem to be caught in a vortex of articles on the internet suggesting what the church needs to do differently or better, to remain relevant. They often sound vague and like there’s someone, somewhere else that needs to do something differently about the problem. But when we talk about the church, we’re not talking about a building or somebody else we’re talking about ourselves.