Would You?
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
I want you to think about Jesus for a moment. Have you ever really stopped to think about who Jesus was? What do you see when you think of Jesus? I don’t mean was He white or black or red or yellow. I don’t mean was He the Savior or not. I think one of the biggest problems with our Christianity is that we know the role Jesus plays, but we don’t know Jesus as a man.
Picture this: It’s bedtime, and your mom tells you this unbelievable tale of angels and prophesies about a baby that’s the Son of God. It’s a fascinating tale. Then she says, “Son, that baby was you!” How confused are you? So, the man you thought was your dad isn’t, and the being that is your father you can’t see. That’s probably a bit much for a kid to handle. I’m willing to bet that God helped open his mind to some of these ideas, but I’d probably just think my mother was insane. Surely Jesus spent some time in prayer after that asking a few questions like: “Um, Dad… Why am I here?” I know that we’ll never know, but I wonder what God told His only Son to make Him understand. Do you think Jesus wrestled with God? Do you think Jesus ever had God kiss his knee when he scraped it climbing too high in the tree? Maybe those were childhood events saved for His earthly father.
Let’s fast-forward a bit. Jesus has started teaching. He’s drawing crowds who love to see him heal the sick and perform other miracles. What do you think Jesus is thinking or feeling? Is He happy that people are interested in the message? Is He disappointed that the crowds are not bigger? Does He know that these same people who shout praises at Him today will condemn Him tomorrow? How would you feel?
Now, let’s jump even closer to the end of His ministry. I personally am not convinced that Jesus knew all along what the plan was. I think God knew and revealed to Jesus as He went through life what the right path was. I do not believe that Jesus was omnipotent as God is, but rather that Jesus knew all that He needed to know to fulfill God’s plan. For me, Jesus was completely human to serve as an example of the love that we should embody. While still divine also, He could not be as omnipotent as the Father without being “completely” divine and no longer human. With that in mind, I tend to think, based on some of the order that Jesus reveals God’s plan to his disciples, that Jesus was not fully aware of the sacrifice He would have to make until later in life, after His ministry had begun.
So now picture this: you’re the Son of God sent to save His people. You’ve been out for a year or so teaching, healing, and helping them when your cell rings. It’s God, and you know you can’t ignore His call and claim you didn’t feel it vibrating, so you answer it. He sounds a little nervous: “Hey son, um, I’m really proud of you and everything you’ve done so far. You’re really doing a great job teaching, the people really like you.” You can tell He’s got something to tell you, but you let Him take His time. He always gets around to telling you when He’s ready anyway. “So, I know I kind of promised you that you’d get to save your people, and I’m going to keep my promise, but I don’t think it’s going to be exactly what you thought…” He then proceeds to explain how — instead of becoming a great King or General and leading a revolution against the Romans — you’re going to need to get yourself convicted of a crime you haven’t committed and then get crucified. This is going to save all of your followers.
What’s running through your head? I can’t even imagine what Jesus is thinking at this moment. Shock? Confusion? Betrayal? Anger? Why Me? My first thoughts most certainly would not have been, “Sure Dad, whatever you say.” And yet, that’s what we see Jesus do. What better example can we find than this? God comes to His Son and tells Him to lay down His life, and He does. Later, we see Jesus asking God in the garden if there’s another way to accomplish His purpose, and yet in the same prayer He asks for God’s will, not His own.
Jesus was completely human and lived a sinless life. The really sad part of this whole thing is that the sinless life was the easy part. We could all do that. It’s hard, sure, but not impossible. Jesus proved that it was certainly possible. The harder part of Jesus’ life was the sacrifice. After living a completely blameless life, He got to take on the blame for every sin ever committed. Talk about the ultimate scapegoat.
I have one final question for you, now that you’ve spent some time thinking about what Jesus went through. I’ll use the lyrics from Jeremy Camp’s song “This Man” to ask the question:
- “Would you take the place of this man ?
- Would you take the nails from his hands?”
Honestly, I don’t think that I could. The “easy” part is trying to live a sinless life. All I have to do for that is help people whenever I have the chance. What about making a huge sacrifice? What if you had been in Jesus’ sandals? Could you have taken up His cross and carried it? Could you lay down your life for ungrateful and unloving people? Could you offer up your own sinless soul to ransom everyone else who deserves death? As we sit down to Thanksgiving tomorrow and look forward to Christmas, let us not just remember Jesus the Savior, but let us be thankful for Jesus the man. We should be thankful that He was willing to pick up the cross and bear it for us — not just because that was His job as God’s Son, but realizing that it must have been the most difficult thing that any man could do. Would you have made the same choice?
Tags: Angels, Baby, Christmas, Faith, Father, God, Jesus, man, ministry, miracles, Savior, Son, Thanksgiving
The Hunter of Peace
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
I’m a nerd. Or a geek. Whichever one still has the remnants of social skills. The point is, there’s a great anime called “Trigun” that I have now watched through a couple of times, and have the manga on my Christmas list (for anyone feeling generous…). One of the things I love about “Trigun” is the overlying Christian themes that play throughout. Without going into too much detail (as an entire book could be devoted to this), Vash the Stampede, the main character, is the Christ figure, who is lead/protected throughout the series by the “preacher” Wolfwood, who loosely resembles John the Baptist. Vash’s brother Knives is the antagonist, and is thus symbolic of Satan. Knives has a gang called the Gung-Ho Guns, which represent the demons at Satan’s disposal to create chaos on Earth. The whole premise of the “Three Guns” brings in the Holy Trinity through Vash, and its evil counterpart in Knives.
The jury’s still out in my faith about how evil manifests itself: whether Satan is real as an entity or simply as the embodiment of men doing evil. I love stories that portray such a character and the battle between good and evil. I want to talk about a couple of things from this anime that caught my attention.
First, when asked who he is, Vash responds, “I am like a hunter of peace; one who chases the elusive mayfly of love.” To me, this is a perfect one-liner for Jesus’ life. Think about it: in every situation He responded peacefully and lovingly. In every situation, He taught to love others and be peaceful in our dealings with each other. In order to live like our Savior, we should all strive to be hunters of peace, chasing the elusive mayfly of love.
Second, Vash manages to save every innocent life in every episode. In fact, he always goes out of his way to ensure that no innocent people are harmed. He specifically throws himself into sticky situations in order to help others. At one point, a disillusioned side character asks him why he does this. Vash simply responds, “The situation is not equal.” Now, we all know that life isn’t fair, so maybe it’s time we started helping out whenever we can. Why not try to make every situation equal, not matter who is involved?
Third, Vash manages to bring out the good in everyone. In the 3rd episode, he steps up to stop an armed robbery of a bank without even being armed. But because he stepped up first, the rest of the town slowly starts to step up and they stop the robbery and run the bandits out of town. You need to have a similar effect on people. When you’re around, people should just naturally want to be a better person. Lead by example, and they’ll follow.
Lastly, in a later episode, Vash is faced with a choice: kill an evil man himself to save several innocent people, or refrain from killing and allow many innocent people to die at the hands of the evil man. I love this episode for its inner conflict, but the point is very clear. There are always situations that are exceptions to every rule. It doesn’t matter how strong your moral fibers are, when faced with two dark grey choices and no white ones, you’ve just got to to the best to do what you think is right. You may choose wrong, and that’s okay. You just have to move on and do better next time. Not all our decisions are black and white — very few are. So we just do our best, learn from the decisions we make, and move on.
I’m going to wrap this up without going on and on, but suffice to say that I love the show and think there’s a lot of good conclusions to be drawn from the themes expressed. Most importantly, in my opinion, is for us to go out and make things equal for everyone by being hunters of peace, chasing the elusive mayfly of love.
Tags: Anime, Faith, God, Gung-Ho Guns, Jesus, Knives, Manga, Mayfly of love, Trigun, Trinity, Vash, Vash the Stampeded, Wolfwood
Kennedy Had It Right
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
The famous words of J.F.K. have stuck with Americans since spoken: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and to this day, I believe they still ring true. I’m not going near the political issues at all, but I will say that I’m not a fan of finding out what my country can do for me anyway.
The more important thing to talk about today is pretty straightforward: what about people outside our country?
The answer is also simple: “Ask not what others can do for you — ask what you can do for others.” This is just a simple reworking of the Golden Rule, and in my opinion, the purpose of Jesus’ entire ministry. We were not put on this earth to ask what someone else is going to do for us. We were not designed to be selfishly demanding. We were designed to love others and provide for them when they need help. Now, obviously, if we’re all trying to give and everyone is refusing to receive for fear of looking selfish, we’ve defeated the purpose of giving. The bigger point here is accepting help when you need it, and giving it when you can.
If you are to fulfill your main purpose — the call to love others — then daily, you must “ask not what others can do for you — ask what you can do for others.”
Tags: Faith, God, golden rule, J.F.K., Jesus, Love
A Bridge
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
There’s a wonderful song on Christian radio right now called “More Beautiful You” by Jonny Diaz. The whole premise is summed up in the line from the chorus: “There could never be a more beautiful you”. As simple and wonderful as that song is, I want to pull the bridge a little out of context and talk about that. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to pull things out of context. Well, hear me out, I think there’s a lot that’s said in this passage and I want to talk about just those things:
- So turn around you’re not too far
To back away be who you are
To change your path go another way
It’s not too late you can be saved
If you feel depressed with past regrets
The shameful nights hope to forget
Can disappear they can all be washed away
By the one who’s strong can right your wrongs
Can rid your fears dry all your tears
And change the way you look at this big world
He will take your dark distorted view
And with His light He will show you truth
And again you’ll see through the eyes of a little girl
Now there’s a lot in that bridge. In fact, I think you could write a billion songs about just this topic, but I’m impressed that it all got crammed into a bridge, not even a verse. Recently I alluded to the prodigal son, which is one of my favorite Biblical passages. I think this bridge, in some ways, alludes to the same. We’re urged to turn back around, being told that we’re not too far away to come home. Then we’re reminded, because the singer has been there before too, that we don’t have to feel depressed or have regrets. All of those things we hope to forget are things that God will forget as soon as we get home.
The passage is a beautiful call out to those who are lost. “Turn around,” you hear, “I’m over here!” Suddenly your fears are gone and your path is illuminated. You know exactly which way to go — towards the voice of God. The problem in real life is that its hard to hear him calling over all the other stuff that has to get done. It’s time to quiet down and listen for that voice that’s calling you.
And don’t just follow the voice. Let it change you. Open your eyes and see the world the way He wants you to. One of my first posts was about seeing God in everything. It takes an innocent faith, a faith like a child, to truly see God in everything. So quiet the white noise of your life down and listen for God’s voice calling you. Then run to Him, and let Him have your fears, your regrets, your tears — and most importantly, let him take the jaded way you view the world and give you the faith of a child.
Slow Down
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
There’s a recent hit in the country world called “Settle for a Slow Down” by Dierks Bentley. The premise of the song is that his girlfriend is leaving, and as she’s driving away, the singer is hoping to see the car slow down. He’s not expecting her to turn around and come back home yet, but if he can just see some brake lights… to see the car slowing down, then he’d know that there’s hope.
I want you to imagine God sitting on his front porch. He’s not particularly happy. You’ve just slammed the door and peeled out of the driveway. A big could of dirt is following behind you as you head off towards anywhere but here. God’s not angry with you for leaving. He understands why you left, even though it’s not what He wanted. He’s simply hurt, because He wanted you to stay with Him. But you had other plans for your life. You have big dreams of being whatever it takes to become a star. You head off towards L.A. or Vegas or New York City to make it big.
We’ve all done this, either when we don’t know what God wants for our lives or we simple aren’t listening. Maybe it was just a bad decision that got us off on the wrong track. Or maybe we blatantly ignored God’s plans to pursue our own. Either way, the story always ends in one of two ways: we fall into a life of bad decisions, or we stop and realize that we missed the whole idea. That’s when we turn around and head straight back to God.
Unlike the singer in Dierks’ song, God’s not looking for hope. He knows it’s possible for you to come back. God isn’t going to settle for a slow down. God wants a complete stop. God’s looking for a time-out. Instead of brake lights, God needs to see your headlights pointed right back at Him. But here’s the really great news: God’s not going to make you do all the work. As soon as He sees you coming up the driveway, He rushes out to meet you! Just like when the prodigal son returns, He’s ready to rejoice that you’ve come back.
If you’ve been driving towards your own goals and dreams, or even if you’ve just been driving around this life aimlessly for awhile, it’s time for you to take a time-out. It’s time to stop and get directions. Get out your spiritual GPS and figure out where God is. Then just point your car in that direction and head home. I can guarantee that God is waiting on the front porch to see you driving back up.
Tags: Dierks Bentley, Faith, front porch, God, home, plan, slow down, time-out
Survival (Faith in Zombieland)
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
I have two things I want to talk about tonight. First, basic human survival. I’ll link to a WikiAnswer that I found that I completely agree with. I’ll wait while you go read it, it’s not long.
Seriously, go read it.
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Done? Okay, good. So I agree 100% with the basic necessities for human survival here. Individually, it’s food, water, shelter (and clothing, if you don’t count that as a sort of portable body shelter). As a community, we must add civility. We cannot survive as a race without caring for each other. Our greed, jealousy, and prejudices our going to destroy us as a race long before anything else could wipe us out one at a time. Men have a knack for keeping themselves alive in extreme situations; however, it is no longer a matter of one person surviving against nature. It’s a matter of humanity surviving against itself.
So how can we figure out how to return the civility to civilization? This is where I think I would disagree with the author of the post I linked. He seems to credit religion with being the main motivator involved in the lack of civility. While I think there have been instances when men have committed atrocious acts in the name of God (the crusades or the 9/11 attacks come to mind), I don’t believe that humanity as a whole (or civilizations in particular) tend to be swayed to immoral acts by religion. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, but that it’s a rarity.
I would venture to say that religion is exactly what we need to bring the civility back to civilization, but with this one qualifier: whether it’s Christianity or not, the religion we need must be tolerant. After all, tolerance is one of the biggest keys to civility.
So I would pose the question to you this way: If the survival of our civilization relies on tolerant faith, what does it take for the survival of faith? The answer is quite simple really. Faith requires the same things as mankind: food, water, and shelter.
How do we feed our faith? “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 3:13, NIV). It is as simple as spending time in God’s Word. Read the Bible, pray fervently, and truly listen for God’s answer to your prayers. Feast on the word of God and your faith shall grow like Jack’s beanstalk.
Does our faith really thirst for water? Of course, and this is where Jesus comes in. After all, “whoever drinks the water [Jesus] gives him will never thirst” (John 4:13, NIV). Jesus is the water that quenches our spiritual thirst. I would even venture to say that, in terms of our survival as a race, actually believing in Jesus is not the key (a big one in Christianity, of course). In terms of humanity’s survival as a civilization, however; I think that believing his message of love and acceptance is all that is necessary.
The final piece of survival for our faith is shelter. In order for our faith to grow, we need a place for the Holy Spirit to dwell. This shelter is simply our heart. I’m not talking about the blood-pumper, but rather the heart like a football player has for the game. I’m talking about the place inside us where we keep our important treasures. Our faith must be placed here because this is where our priorities come from. If your faith is not a priority, it has no shelter in your life and is left to be destroyed by the storms. But if you hold your faith close to you in your heart, feed it and water it everyday, it will grow stronger than you ever believed possible.
I’ll leave you with my top 3 rules for Faith Survival:
- Cardio — Keep your faith close to your heart. It’s always the ones who forget cardio that are the first to lose their faith.
- Limber up — Warm yourself up with little acts of kindness throughout the day so you can always be ready if you need to do something big.
- Double tap — There’s no reason to skimp out on loving people, so instead of doing just something nice, go the extra-extra mile. Double tap them to make sure they know you care.
Tags: Christianity, Faith, food, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, mankind, shelter, survival, surviving, tolerance, water, zombieland
Fort Hood
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
There’s not much you can say when tragedy strikes. There’s not much you can do while people grieve. Healing just takes time, and that’s not something that we can give. But we can help people feel loved and cared for during that time. It is our responsibility now to step up and let the families of those at Fort Hood know that we are praying for them. For those of us who can do more, we should: bring dinner, clean up, handle the church responsibilities like greeting, fill in as a deacon, watch the kids, do whatever you can. It makes things so much easier if we can take even one everyday responsibility off the plate for those in grief. There are just too many other things to worry about than vacuuming or cooking dinner.
To all of those at Fort Hood or with family at Fort Hood, our thoughts and prayers are with you. We cannot make the pain or the fear go away, but we can remind you that God is capable of doing that. If you’ve lost someone recently (at Fort Hood or otherwise), I encourage you to listen to Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading Thise (I’m Already Home).” The song is a letter home from a soldier to be delivered only if something happens to him. The song is quite powerful and reminds us that while we remain here in grief, those we love are already home with God and are watching over us.
Most importantly, if you’re grieving, you are not alone. We are here to help in any way we can, all you have to do is ask.
The Fabulous Fourty-Four Hundred
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Uncategorized
So, one of the things that has bothered me for a long time now is the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage. I am not even going to touch the political debate at all here, other than to say that it really doesn’t affect me one way or the other, so I don’t see how allowing gay marriage really affects me in any way. If you really feel like discussing this with me, I’d be happy to have a conversation in another forum about it. For right now, let’s talk about it from the faith and church stand point:
First off, I want to start with the issue of whether being gay is a sin or not. I honestly don’t know. I don’t expect to ever know. I know that in Deuteronomy there is a verse that states that “homosexuality is a sin” or “homosexuality is a detestable sin” depending on which translation you have. I am also of the understanding that in ancient biblical times, “homosexuality” was a practice involving a wealthy man paying a poor farmer to spend a few hours with his young son. I am certain we can all agree that child prostitution is most likely a sin, and in my opinion the Bible is referring to this. I will concede that I could most certainly be wrong; however, I believe that many loving families have been created with two men or two women because these people feel a genuine love for each other, and I don’t believe that creating a family out of love can really be considered a sin.
The more important point here is not whether being homosexual is a sin or not. I know that sounds startling to hear, but quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. Jesus didn’t shun the tax collectors because they were sinners. Neither should we be shouting and discriminating against people who are homosexual. The message was simple and clear: Love everyone. I certainly believe that people who are homosexual fall into the category of “everyone.”
On top of our charge to love everyone, we have also been called to refrain from judging anyone — to allow God to be the judge. It is God’s job after all, and I sure don’t like it when other people try to do my job for me. I sincerely doubt that God likes it when we try to judge others for Him either. Instead of judging people who are homosexual — instead of kicking them out of our churches, PTA’s, and communities — we should be opening our arms to fellow sinners (we are all sinners after all, whether homosexuality is a sin or not), and come together in fellowship and love to worship God.
I am way too tired of watching God’s people find ways of dividing up into groups. These groups are always based around finding people who are similar to yourself, as differences scare us. Those of us who are heterosexual can’t understand how a man could be attracted to another man, or how a woman can be attracted to another woman, so we shun those who are homosexuals and call them outcasts. I know it is much simpler to fear them from afar then it is to get to know them, but we have been called to learn to love them for who they are.
I want you to think about the church you attend. If you’re white, I’d be willing to bet that the church you attend is at least 90% white. The same is true if your black — your church is probably at least 90% black. We group ourselves with people that we are comfortable with and refuse to even try to understand anyone else. One of the top 5 most rewarding religious experiences I’ve ever had was at a predominantly black baptist church in Atlanta. The worship experience there was so different from what I’d ever experienced that I was truly moved by the energy and enthusiasm of each member. If I had been unwilling to set aside stereotypes and prejudices, I would not have had such a wonderful experience.
It is time for us to put a stop to the prejudice in this world. Right now, the big political prejudice is towards the homosexual community. That doesn’t mean that racism has been completely removed from our society. That doesn’t mean that women are always treated exactly the same as men. But we need to start taking a stand against prejudice wherever it is. This can be as easy as not perpetuation stereotypes and as involved as protesting against the prejudices we see every day.
However you think is best to start changing prejudice, this change starts with you. Get out of your comfort zone. I’m from a small, private, Christian college in perhaps the most conservative state in the Union, and some of the first friends that I made after school are a rowdy group of lesbians. They are possibly the funniest group of people I’ve ever met, and I’m blessed to have such a diverse group of friends. I challenge you to make friends with people you wouldn’t normally talk to. I challenge you to bring your atheist friend, your black friend, your goth friend, or even your gay friend to church with you. Help show your friend that church isn’t all judgment, and help show your church that stereotypes have no place in Christ’s Kingdom.
Most of all I challenge you to go out of your way to love everyone, not just those who look like you. Seek out those who are shunned and show them that there are people in this world that care about them. All it takes is one person doing the right thing before others will join. Instead of waiting for someone to follow, be the leader and set the example by loving everyone you meet. After all, Jesus loves all the little children of the world, not just the straight ones.
Love Like Crazy
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
Some of country music has some great messages. I’ve really gotten into a song by Lee Brice lately, called “Love Like Crazy.” For those of you who’ve read the blog before, you should notice the recurring theme here. I’m a big fan of love, as I believe it’s our main purpose.
The chorus of the song is asking an old man how he’s made it all these years so successfully:
- “Just ask him how he did it; he’ll say pull up a seat.
It’ll only take a minute, to tell you everything:
Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse “I Love You,”
Go to work, do your best, don’t outsmart your common sense,
Never let your prayin’ knees get lazy,
And love like crazy.”
I think this is probably the best and most comprehensive list of the things you need to do to be successful that I’ve ever seen. I love when songs get it exactly right, and that’s why I love this song so much.
Life would utterly stink without a best friend. For some, that’s a spouse. For others, that’s just your closest buddy who would be there next to you no matter what. The important note from the song is not that you have a best friend, but that you be one. If you act like a best friend does, you will have many close relationships.
When we don’t tell the truth, we create this web of little lies that can lead to even bigger problems. We start to lose ourselves in the lies, and suddenly we realize that we aren’t sure who we are anymore. We can’t tell what’s real and what’s something we made up to sound cool or to stay out of trouble.
I love the idea of overusing “I love you,” because most people hold it in way too long. This doesn’t have to be the romantic “I love you.” Sure, you save that for someone special, and only until you’re really sure. But there’s nothing wrong with letting your friends know it. Tell your parents, sister, brother, kids, grandparents, teachers, students, etc. Tell EVERYBODY! Everyone wants to feel loved, what better way to show them than to simply tell them.
We’re going to have to go to work to be successful in life. But that doesn’t have to be a negative. Find that thing you’re passionate about and go to work to do that. Set out each day to work hard and accomplish something. Remember: it’s the little victories.
Do your best. My dad always told us, before any sporting event, school thing, concert, whatever — “Do your best and have fun.” You certainly can’t have fun if you’re not doing your best. It’s only fun to know you’ve really put in your best effort. Then you can be proud of the results.
Here’s a big one: don’t outsmart your common sense. You have it for a reason. It’s pretty simple what this comes down to, avoid doing dumb things. While I doubt a lot of us will ever be contenders for the Darwin Awards, simply trying to make good decisions everyday can lead you to live a very successful life.
The last one is the most important one. Even if you overuse “I love you,” but you don’t love like crazy, you have done nothing. You’ve got to actually love like crazy. Love your neighbor, love your family, love your boss, love the idiot that works next to you who can’t seem to get anything right. And how do we love everyone? Simple: we help whenever we can.
Starting today, live a successful life. Be somebody’s best friend, tell the truth, work hard and do your best, use your common sense, and most importantly: love like crazy.
Tags: best friend, common sense, lee brice, lies, Love, truth, work
Slide On Over
Posted by jawhite | Filed under Faith
Years ago now (not that many, I’m not that old) I had a wonderful Sunday School teacher who we nicknamed “Dr. God” after she got her PhD. I believe she taught my Sunday School class from 6th or 7th grade up through probably 10th grade. She had a knack for putting the ways of God into ideas that teenagers could understand and relate to. I’m going to steal a picture she painted for us here, because it still stands out in my mind:
An older couple is taking their Sunday drive along the road. The old man is driving and the old woman is looking out the window enjoying the scenery. As they are passed by another truck, she notices that the young teenage boy is driving with his arm around his girlfriend who is sitting in the middle of the truck. The old woman turns to her husband and says, “I miss the old days when you used to put your arm around me when we went for a drive. Why don’t we do that anymore?” The old man responds: “I’m not the one that moved, slide on over.”
We can pull a lot out of this illustration. First, young faith is like young love. It’s often on fire and passionate. You and God go everywhere together. You’re inseparable. But then, as time goes on, your faith doesn’t end or burn out, but it burns down to a glowing coal. You see God on the weekends, and maybe you stop by for dinner one night a week. You start to think fondly back on “the old days” when you did everything together — when God was such a big part of your life.
Most of us are probably in this stage right now (if you’re still in the on fire part, great, but keep this in mind). We long for the days when our faith was new and seemed so strong. You may even be asking God why your faith has become less of a priority. Well God has an aswer: “I am still here, slide on over.”
Have you let the world push you too far away from God? Are you too focused on what’s out the window to notice that you’ve moved away from God’s loving arms? Maybe it’s time to slide back over and let Him put his arm around you. Once you’ve done that, He can drive you down the road He wants you to take.
