Thinking outside the box

Today at Crossings Jen challenged our thinking about God and life. We talked about how people assumed they knew who Jesus was and because of that, they put him in a box.

People do that with each other, with us. They think they know us and therefore know what we will do. But, sometimes people can surprise us. They can do something different than what we expect.

This is especially true for God. We have an assumption about God and what he is and how he works but really, what kind of box is big enough for God?

What do you assume about God? Do you put God in a box?

Letting Go.

In biblestudy, we talked about the parable of the man who had so much stuff that he needed to build a bigger barn. Year after year he accumulated stuff and built bigger storage spaces. Then, one day he said, "Ah, I have everything I need, I will rest and live happily." But God came and said, "Tonight your life will be demanded of you."

Our initial discussion found this to be very straight-forward. Don't spend your life so pre-occupied with getting a better house, better job, better car, rather make sure that you keep your eyes open to others around you.

But, the next section said, do not worry about what you will eat or drink, for the ravens do not worry and God provides for them. You are worth more than birds.

We talked about poverty and God's provision. When some people starve, how can we believe that God provides?

As we talked our conclusion was that these verses are about surrendering to God. That life is uncertain and bad things happen. We can do everything in our power to try to control that - buy insurance, get a good job, live responsibly, but at the end of the day, there is nothing we can do to prevent cancer or earthquakes or death. Those things are part of living in this broken world.

But, if we surrender. If we let go of our worry and trust God day to day. Then we are free. Our lives become light and full of color.

Of course, letting go of control is hard. Letting go of fear is harder