Life Outside the Fish Bowl

I’ve been reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey for awhile now, and just finished last week. It offered an interesting look at the life and ministry of Jesus through the lens of history, the biblical narration, various insights from theologians and modern-day interpretations. It gave me a more well-rounded understanding of life during Jesus’ days as well as how cultures over the years have viewed different aspects of his teaching.

Filled with research and thoughtful commentary, I flagged many pages while making my way through the manuscript. Such as Christ’s selection of ordinary people to stand alongside him and a humbling look at Mary’s response about what God was doing in her life.

Here’s one last poignant quote from the pages of Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew that offers a vantage point about why Jesus coming to earth was so vital and how it was the only way for humanity to really begin to understand and know and love God, in spite of everything he’d done before.

Yancey writes:

"I learned about incarnation when I kept a salt-water aquarium. Management of a marine aquarium, I discovered, is no easy task. I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the nitrate levels and the ammonia content. I pumped in vitamins and antibiotics and sulfa drugs and enough enzymes to make a rock grow. I filtered the water through glass fibers and charcoal, and exposed it to ultraviolet light. You would think, in view of all the energy expended on their behalf, that my fish would at least be grateful. Not so. Every time my shadow loomed above the tank they dove for cover into the nearest shell. They showed me one 'emotion' only: fear. Although I opened the lid and dropped in food on a regular schedule, three times a day, they responded to each visit as a sure sign of my design to torture them.  I could not convince them of my true concern.

"To my fish I was a deity. ... My acts of mercy they saw as cruelty; my attempts at helping they viewed as destruction. To change their perceptions, I began to see, would require a form of incarnation. I would have to become a fish and 'speak' to them in a language they could understand."

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Lessons About Giving Up Negativity: My Lenten Update

 

photo by garibaldi

It's a lot easier to resist to chocolate or give up soda. We're nearing the end of Lent, and my goal to give up negativity has proved much more difficult than I'd anticipated.

It's hard! It's hard to be hyper-aware of what you're saying. It's hard to apologize and repent when you let negativity slip. It's hard to keep reminding yourself, "Don't be negative, don't be negative," when you're chatting up a storm. It's hard to keep praying for strength to be positive when you're not seeing much result.

And so, little by little, I have drawn away from those principles and gone lax on my Lenten promise. I'm sorry to say I wasn't just a couple weeks into it when I let it start to fall by the wayside and retreated back to "normal." It just got too hard to keep up with it every day, every sentence, every time I opened my mouth.

I realized this the other day with disappointment. Of course it was never meant to be something I'd "go back to" when Lenten was up. It was a challenge intended to be a seed for the rest of my life, something I would continually grow and prune and eventually see a harvest for.

Even as Lent draws to an end and Easter looms (celebration! hope! redemption!), I come back again, tail between legs, to this heart challenge. To go back, and try, try again. To keep learning, to keep striving, until the ultimate Easter occurs.

God is strong and can help you not to fall. 

He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you 

and can give you great joy. He is the only God, the One who saves us. 

To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through
Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.

Jude 13:24-25

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When I was Young: Remembering what Jesus was like to me as a child

photo by erica_marshall

It was as a child that I first heard people talking about “asking Jesus to come into your heart.” I remember being young—probably five or six—and hearing the pastor invite us to pray this prayer, inviting Jesus into our hearts. I prayed that prayer and I remember going home and believing it.

Like I said, I was really young. So I took this prayer literally: In my mind’s eye, Jesus had shrunken down to a two-inch miniature and climbed into my heart’s chamber and was tacking a little “Home Sweet Home” sign up. I imagined my heart was something out of how they showed the insight of the genie bottle in “I Dream of Jeannie,” with red-velvet walls and a big plush couch that Jesus reclined on.

Being the eldest child, I was used to entertaining myself. So at night, I would tell Jesus stories, since, you know, we were having a slumber party and everything.

I’m not sure when I outgrew this idea and many times I wish I hadn’t. I wish I still pictured Jesus there with me all the time, rather than pushing him aside too much of the time or altogether forgetting he’s there alongside me. I wish I still believed so simply, so wholeheartedly, so lovingly.

I imagine that’s much of why he commended the faith of children, saying in Luke 18:15-17, “Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these children. I tell you the truth, you must accept the kingdom of God as if you were a child, or you will never enter it.”

…the kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these children.

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