SCARED TO DEATH IN ORDER TO BE THRILLED TO LIFE!

A God whom we couldn't have thought up on our own has turned to us, reached to us, is revealed to be someone quite other than the God we would have if God were merely a figment of our imagination--God is a Jew from Nazareth who lived briefly, died violently, and rose unexpectedly.  This God scared us to death but also thrilled us to life.....

.....Many Jews expected God to come and save them; few expected God to show up as a homeless man, unmarried, and unemployed.
                                                                     William Willimon (Why Jesus)

Mankind is stuck because the church is more stuck.  Hopelessness abounds when church focus is slanted toward ritual, religiosity, results.  The Good News is that all three of these are crushed by the unimaginable display of Heavenly Father taking form in Earthly Son.  Jesus defied every thing and every place where man thought he could hang his theological hat.

When one reads the Bible...and this is the Divine Revelation standing the test of time...the weird, the wonderful, and the absurd describe the Story.  Nothing is average.  The exciting Truth is that we are to be a part of this Story unfolding; overlapping into the next moment which (as of yesterday) was only known as future.  We are not to enter in as much as we are to realize we have entered in.

Might it be time that we step out of our boats of security and begin walking atop of the waters of uncertainty?  Might this be the thrill for our lives which initially, we must admit, scares us to death?  We are called to move from a lifeless living to a living kind of life full of meaning and power and God's rich glory.

Don't be afraid to step out, step up, and step into the incredible zone of defiant hope.  Do be afraid of never taking the leap.  It's when we make the bold jump that we break the bonds of fear and slip into the freedom of wonder.  Don't stop at being scared to death.  But, be scared to death in order to be thrilled to life!