WHO CAPS OUR IMAGINATIONS?

The older we get the younger we are to become; so says II Corinthians 5:17.  Weird don't you think?  This theme truly fits into the "Born Again" mantra of starting life over... constantly...perpetually ...daily.  We are to be new today and newer tomorrow.  Might we wake up to this fact?

We ARE to be new.  The church is to be the newest people on the planet.  Yet, we struggle to reflect such because we have voluntarily subjected ourselves to routine, preference, and habit.  And just why do these three have such firm persuasion?  It is not because of the pull of God; nor His declarations and commands.  No, it is because of the introduction of one vital element of life that happened in the Garden.

Fear.

Fear not only keeps us at bay and shuts us out from the True Garden Experience God intends.  Being afraid is cunning to the extent that it shuttles us over to a conviction that caution and hesitancy are smart life coordinates.  They.  Are.  Not.

Yes.  Go ahead and voice your valid-seeming arguments.  And I will volley that churchers are frozen in their tracks with little vision for winning a neighbor or reaching the world.  Common sense has taken command of the ship while risk and absurdity are noted as....as risky and absurd.  And, oh how we puff our chests in pride of our not being ridiculous.

And how many more decades will it take to awaken us to the truth...yes the truth...that we are losing our young by droves?  How long will we convince ourselves that this playing church safe by never coloring outside of the lines has sent our young into the world's streets not knowing exactly what church is; but convinced that this isn't for them?

Yet, we gather back next week at our tidy spaces.  We don't misspeak nor do we misstep.  Our goal is to not misquote nor to misbelieve.  We are frozen in keeping church the way...well, you know...the way church is.  Yet, the church of the Bible is full of conflict of learning, loaded with nonsensical stances, all the while accomplishing the impossible; persuading the enemy about Jesus.

How do I know that this stress and struggle goes on?  I experience it from the intimidating side of things in my own walk.  I get afraid.  Just trying to retire is driving me up a wall.  So, I learn.  I go to school in conflict.  And I learn for the millionth time that Faith is my shield and the Fear is the Enemy's most glorious tactic.

So my message for you today is to dare you to step into zones of risk and intimidation by being more concerned about the welfare of others than the self-preservation of you.  Go where you can't.  Reach where you won't.  Believe when you are scared.  And love others; even when they don't seem like very nice people.  Jesus not only said it...he did it.

Taking up a cross is not to be the rattling of church chatter.  It is for any who dare to imagine what can be when there seems to be zero verification of profound potential.  This.  Is.  Called.  Faith.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day....II Corinthians 4:16.