Robbed of time....Robbed of words...
Robbed of time....
Robbed of words...
What makes life a giant game of he said/she said?
Why do the masses go on living a life built on a lifeboat, trying to make themselves better than those around them, or possibly worse being afraid of those they perceive as better. What in this existence teaches us that the only way to grow is over the bones of others. Those who we know, those we like, those we love, they must be less for us to be more. Why is that?
Donald Miller would suggest that it comes out of the separation we have with God. The loss of approval by a creator. Since the fall of man, the time when all self-appreciation didn't need to exist, the time when man was filled with value by being loved by a creator, the life boat emerged. From the sinking Eden man climbed aboard and the fighting for position began. No longer being filled by the presence of his very God and Creator, man needed approval by others. And with Millennia of practice we've grown in our ways. Now we can pick up any fashion magazine, buy the clothes pictured in it and amazingly become filled with satisfaction because we can associate ourselves with the pretty guy or gal on the cover. We can be filled with value because in this raft of life others can clearly see we're dressed like someone who millions of people across the world see in magazines, papers, and movies. We share the bond of clothing with someone famous and feel valued, when we used to share a path with our one and very God. Now we find that appreciation by acting like others, making ourselves better by imitating those we feel are better than us, we're people broken in our ways, following and mimicking people just or even more broken.
Then there's the other side, those that feel inferior to others. They see the person they'd like to be and run from it, towards things they don't even want to do. But the life boat tells them that they are in back, it tells them that if the water keeps coming in someone has to go to the sharks, and that person is them. They feel that in this life they don't have value, they are nothing, and so what's the point of trying. "I couldn't be like that anyways, so why try." Have you ever wondered why in kindergarten everyone is a singer, everyone is a singer...everyone can dance...everyone can draw. But when we reach Middle School the lines are drawn. We see who we're coming up against, people who do things better than us, and instantly we no longer have those skills. Ask a classroom of pre-schoolers who can draw and the entire class will not stop talking about how they draw tigers and houses, and families. Ask your Freshman English class the same question and you'll see a handful, if you’re lucky, and of that without a doubt two of them will add at the end that they aren't really all that good, they just like to do it. They instinctly feel that they must prove there inadequacy less someone would make the mistake that they were better than they really are.
Come to think of it, I bet a lot of the worlds problems spark from this tiny lifeboat. Many of my problems included, I'd prolly speak up a lot more if I didn't feel like I'd be surrounded by the people I was talking to, that I might say something offensive and then be stuck in the boat with the person for eternity. I'd prolly care a lot more for people too, if I didn't feel that by making myself flawed in people’s eyes I'd lose status in the lifeboat. This one id tricky though, because even if you do fill yourself with holes to show the world some people will still fear you, think your better because your everything they aren't, and now your honest too...
In his famed sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" John Edwards talks of how mankind is dangling on a string above the burning oblivion of Hell, and with one hand God holds the string, while the other shields us from the fire.
I don't agree with Edwards. In his opinion the only relationship we have with God is the one who is above us, the one better than us and stronger; I believe this is a lifeboat god. It's a message that preaches that God's there and better, and we only act like him then we will be safe, because no one on Gods team gets thrown to the Sharks....
I believe that If Jesus we're on the lifeboat with me and you, he'd sit in the back with us. It's funny how in a school bus the back is the cool place to sit, but in a life boat it's not, school busses must not be much like lifeboats. But I think that Jesus would probably be one of the first ones off of the lifeboat. He never really tried to be like the cool people, and he actually really made them very angry. I don't think he'd be the first person the masses would choose to appease the circling sharks of the world, instead I think they'd choose someone who had nothing going for them, the kid nobody liked, who whined and complained it was cold, he'd be the first one. But I think Jesus would tell him to sit down, and then jump into the water instead.
I think that may be heaven is like someday. A place for the people who followed after Jesus, a place where everyone on the lifeboat who were friends with Jesus would go. I don't think Heaven will be the country club everyone thinks it is. I just think that the people in the lifeboat who had a relationship with Jesus would go there when there turn to jump off the boat came.
One day I know I'm going to be cast off the boat, and when that happens I have a feeling it's going to be a lot different than I expect. I think I will jump out of the boat and land right into the vast glory of God. I can see it now, standing next to the life boat watching the people argue about who needs to jump off next. All the while this lifeboat sits right next to splendor of God. And then I imagine Jesus walking up to me, putting an arm around me and smiling, as I look on mouth gaping at the craziness of it all. A people stranded in the middle of paradise, completely surrounded by glory, but so caught up in tradition and their spot in the life boat that they just don't see it. Jesus will look at it for a while and then look to me and say, "crazy isn't it". I'll nod my head and then he'll tell me to come on and we'll walk away from the life boat, and with each and every step I'll feel better and better, and then everything will be like it used to me, just me sharing a path with God...
Robbed of words...
What makes life a giant game of he said/she said?
Why do the masses go on living a life built on a lifeboat, trying to make themselves better than those around them, or possibly worse being afraid of those they perceive as better. What in this existence teaches us that the only way to grow is over the bones of others. Those who we know, those we like, those we love, they must be less for us to be more. Why is that?
Donald Miller would suggest that it comes out of the separation we have with God. The loss of approval by a creator. Since the fall of man, the time when all self-appreciation didn't need to exist, the time when man was filled with value by being loved by a creator, the life boat emerged. From the sinking Eden man climbed aboard and the fighting for position began. No longer being filled by the presence of his very God and Creator, man needed approval by others. And with Millennia of practice we've grown in our ways. Now we can pick up any fashion magazine, buy the clothes pictured in it and amazingly become filled with satisfaction because we can associate ourselves with the pretty guy or gal on the cover. We can be filled with value because in this raft of life others can clearly see we're dressed like someone who millions of people across the world see in magazines, papers, and movies. We share the bond of clothing with someone famous and feel valued, when we used to share a path with our one and very God. Now we find that appreciation by acting like others, making ourselves better by imitating those we feel are better than us, we're people broken in our ways, following and mimicking people just or even more broken.
Then there's the other side, those that feel inferior to others. They see the person they'd like to be and run from it, towards things they don't even want to do. But the life boat tells them that they are in back, it tells them that if the water keeps coming in someone has to go to the sharks, and that person is them. They feel that in this life they don't have value, they are nothing, and so what's the point of trying. "I couldn't be like that anyways, so why try." Have you ever wondered why in kindergarten everyone is a singer, everyone is a singer...everyone can dance...everyone can draw. But when we reach Middle School the lines are drawn. We see who we're coming up against, people who do things better than us, and instantly we no longer have those skills. Ask a classroom of pre-schoolers who can draw and the entire class will not stop talking about how they draw tigers and houses, and families. Ask your Freshman English class the same question and you'll see a handful, if you’re lucky, and of that without a doubt two of them will add at the end that they aren't really all that good, they just like to do it. They instinctly feel that they must prove there inadequacy less someone would make the mistake that they were better than they really are.
Come to think of it, I bet a lot of the worlds problems spark from this tiny lifeboat. Many of my problems included, I'd prolly speak up a lot more if I didn't feel like I'd be surrounded by the people I was talking to, that I might say something offensive and then be stuck in the boat with the person for eternity. I'd prolly care a lot more for people too, if I didn't feel that by making myself flawed in people’s eyes I'd lose status in the lifeboat. This one id tricky though, because even if you do fill yourself with holes to show the world some people will still fear you, think your better because your everything they aren't, and now your honest too...
In his famed sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" John Edwards talks of how mankind is dangling on a string above the burning oblivion of Hell, and with one hand God holds the string, while the other shields us from the fire.
I don't agree with Edwards. In his opinion the only relationship we have with God is the one who is above us, the one better than us and stronger; I believe this is a lifeboat god. It's a message that preaches that God's there and better, and we only act like him then we will be safe, because no one on Gods team gets thrown to the Sharks....
I believe that If Jesus we're on the lifeboat with me and you, he'd sit in the back with us. It's funny how in a school bus the back is the cool place to sit, but in a life boat it's not, school busses must not be much like lifeboats. But I think that Jesus would probably be one of the first ones off of the lifeboat. He never really tried to be like the cool people, and he actually really made them very angry. I don't think he'd be the first person the masses would choose to appease the circling sharks of the world, instead I think they'd choose someone who had nothing going for them, the kid nobody liked, who whined and complained it was cold, he'd be the first one. But I think Jesus would tell him to sit down, and then jump into the water instead.
I think that may be heaven is like someday. A place for the people who followed after Jesus, a place where everyone on the lifeboat who were friends with Jesus would go. I don't think Heaven will be the country club everyone thinks it is. I just think that the people in the lifeboat who had a relationship with Jesus would go there when there turn to jump off the boat came.
One day I know I'm going to be cast off the boat, and when that happens I have a feeling it's going to be a lot different than I expect. I think I will jump out of the boat and land right into the vast glory of God. I can see it now, standing next to the life boat watching the people argue about who needs to jump off next. All the while this lifeboat sits right next to splendor of God. And then I imagine Jesus walking up to me, putting an arm around me and smiling, as I look on mouth gaping at the craziness of it all. A people stranded in the middle of paradise, completely surrounded by glory, but so caught up in tradition and their spot in the life boat that they just don't see it. Jesus will look at it for a while and then look to me and say, "crazy isn't it". I'll nod my head and then he'll tell me to come on and we'll walk away from the life boat, and with each and every step I'll feel better and better, and then everything will be like it used to me, just me sharing a path with God...