It's all about ideas - beliefs that we have accumulated like barnacles from the open sea. And, for the life of us, we have no real idea how and from where we got them.
Slim young ladies think they are fat. Most of us think we're "ugly." Barney Fife thinks he can sing. You and I can think that we have no value or that no one really likes us. And, just like barnacles, wrong beliefs can be our undoing!
We're in good company. Two of our traveling partners had their stories plastered on the pages of the New Testament.
One is in John 5 at the pool of Bethesda. A poor fellow had been abandoned for 38 years. He had contracted a belief like so much gossip that God was holding some sort of contest so that the “first one in” wins the healing prize. How lame an idea (no pun intended)! Certainly the place was rife with blind and cripple… those whose infirmity made sure they weren’t the first ones in.
Interestingly, the belief did not start as a boldface lie. How many of our ideas about church, the spiritual life and God are merely truths one degree off center? Hmmm! How many beliefs do we hold tightly and tenaciously about ourselves that are like the ones of the fellow at the pool?
The embarrassment comes as he lives out his idea. Verse 7 tells us that he is so misshapen in his beliefs that he deigns to teach, to correct God! Read it!
How misshapen are you and I? And, how hard are we willing to fight for wrong ideas about ourselves knowing that, although the ideas “protect us” from harm, they are infantile at the very best.
Great news: God is both aware of our ignorance, patient with our self-protection, and yet eager for us to learn the freeing truth! Read the rest of John 5:1-9!
The second story is in John 4. I tell this one second because there is a hopeful admonition right in it that gives you and me great hope.
The story is not unlike the Bethesda one. A lonely young lady encounters Jesus and talk about wrong ideas…! He promises her eternal and consummate joy, and she thinks He is about to drill an artesian well! (I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that we are “far too easily pleased.”). Sad thing: She believes that if she were to have more water and a better well, things would be alright.
What about you and me? If I only had ______, if only _______ would happen, then all would be well. Would it?
Here is the key – the hopeful admonition! Read John 4:10. “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” Again, “If you and I knew Him (the antidote for bad ideas and beliefs), we would ask (our behavior would change; prayer would be paramount) and He would give (us Himself, first and foremost!).
We get Jesus! Love Incarnate! I read this on a grave marker written by Thomas Merton: LOVE IS OUR TRUE IDENTITY. WE DO NOT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE BY OURSELVES ALONE – WE FIND IT WITH ANOTHER.
I close with a prayer I wrote a dozen years ago.
Dear Father,
Indeed, we don’t know what to do. Becoming like a child involves much un-learning. Being humble means I must forsake those structures I worked so hard to erect, and on which I so desperately depend. Ironically, those are the very structures I built in order to avoid the very fears that will inevitably flood my soul upon their destruction. But, I must realize that there is nothing to fear in nakedness – and that only in You will I find my rest (Your rest given by grace).
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28,29.
I am not somebody because of my own merit and possessions – be they mental, physical, or spiritual. I am somebody because You are my Daddy!
Lord, I must come to You, abide in You, be with You, grow to know You more, bask in Your immense love for me… rest in You.
Slim young ladies think they are fat. Most of us think we're "ugly." Barney Fife thinks he can sing. You and I can think that we have no value or that no one really likes us. And, just like barnacles, wrong beliefs can be our undoing!
We're in good company. Two of our traveling partners had their stories plastered on the pages of the New Testament.
One is in John 5 at the pool of Bethesda. A poor fellow had been abandoned for 38 years. He had contracted a belief like so much gossip that God was holding some sort of contest so that the “first one in” wins the healing prize. How lame an idea (no pun intended)! Certainly the place was rife with blind and cripple… those whose infirmity made sure they weren’t the first ones in.
Interestingly, the belief did not start as a boldface lie. How many of our ideas about church, the spiritual life and God are merely truths one degree off center? Hmmm! How many beliefs do we hold tightly and tenaciously about ourselves that are like the ones of the fellow at the pool?
The embarrassment comes as he lives out his idea. Verse 7 tells us that he is so misshapen in his beliefs that he deigns to teach, to correct God! Read it!
How misshapen are you and I? And, how hard are we willing to fight for wrong ideas about ourselves knowing that, although the ideas “protect us” from harm, they are infantile at the very best.
Great news: God is both aware of our ignorance, patient with our self-protection, and yet eager for us to learn the freeing truth! Read the rest of John 5:1-9!
The second story is in John 4. I tell this one second because there is a hopeful admonition right in it that gives you and me great hope.
The story is not unlike the Bethesda one. A lonely young lady encounters Jesus and talk about wrong ideas…! He promises her eternal and consummate joy, and she thinks He is about to drill an artesian well! (I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that we are “far too easily pleased.”). Sad thing: She believes that if she were to have more water and a better well, things would be alright.
What about you and me? If I only had ______, if only _______ would happen, then all would be well. Would it?
Here is the key – the hopeful admonition! Read John 4:10. “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” Again, “If you and I knew Him (the antidote for bad ideas and beliefs), we would ask (our behavior would change; prayer would be paramount) and He would give (us Himself, first and foremost!).
We get Jesus! Love Incarnate! I read this on a grave marker written by Thomas Merton: LOVE IS OUR TRUE IDENTITY. WE DO NOT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE BY OURSELVES ALONE – WE FIND IT WITH ANOTHER.
I close with a prayer I wrote a dozen years ago.
Dear Father,
Indeed, we don’t know what to do. Becoming like a child involves much un-learning. Being humble means I must forsake those structures I worked so hard to erect, and on which I so desperately depend. Ironically, those are the very structures I built in order to avoid the very fears that will inevitably flood my soul upon their destruction. But, I must realize that there is nothing to fear in nakedness – and that only in You will I find my rest (Your rest given by grace).
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28,29.
I am not somebody because of my own merit and possessions – be they mental, physical, or spiritual. I am somebody because You are my Daddy!
Lord, I must come to You, abide in You, be with You, grow to know You more, bask in Your immense love for me… rest in You.
