RESURRECTION POWER...QUICK...SOMEBODY LIGHT THE FUSE!

I want to encourage you about you.  All throughout our church experience, attempts--serious and strong--are made to step up the pace.  Above all else we want to appear to have cleared the faith-opposing hurdles with the assurance to others that we have learned well to follow Jesus.  Yet, very much about such a trek, if we are going to learn from him, is the constant upendedness of both our efforts and our understanding.

So often we seem to be left standing empty-handed when we thought that we were giving Him our best shot.  From Peter denying Jesus to Thomas doubting him, life unfolds constant lineage of frail betrayers who had surely hoped to accomplish quite the opposite.  What's with this picture?  Why does this road seem to be, evidently, such continual terrain?

One's deep desire to look the part may cause true discipleship interruption.  To look the part will, in our minds, mean that we appear to have matters under control.  Above all else, we want to come off looking good.  This is precisely why we settle for controlling such little turf; because that which we can control is quite a restricted territory with seeming little risk of failure.  Therefore, to be in control is to remain in a world that stays small.

Personal lack and frailty is the door opener!  That's weird, huh?  We read these, though, as to be quite the opposite.  From early childhood we do everything we can to look anything but weak.  Inadequate is not very complimentary.  But it is the road to magnificent impact.

Jesus.  Rejected.  On a cross.  Dead in a grave.  Not the appearance of world changing and quite dynamic individual, huh?

The look of a true disciple may be far from the image we strive to portray.  Have we not traded our vulnerability to grow and improve for a bowl of limited understanding?  When the Holy Spirit, coupled with the word change, are regarded as threats rather than thrill, the church will feed from a constant diet of human historical leftovers rather than sitting at the table of wonder, awe, wow, and joy.

Be encouraged.  Your disappointments in yourself are mere calls for realignment with the Call and the Cause.  Knowing Bible has left church paths strewn with fearful, angry, pew-roosters.  For me, when I began to yield to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of that same Bible information, a new freedom to try, to fail, and to try again began to arise from the self-built, self-inhabited grave I had dug for myself.

Resurrection power....quick....somebody light the fuse!  I need it again today!