Just a quick “puddle” in my brain that I’m stomping around in today…
If you are a Christian, you believe God is speaking to you in every circumstance of life… no matter how big or small. If this is the case, then we should approach the circumstances of life as a series of parables intended to teach, guide, and mold us into something bigger than ourselves… and often at the expense of who we currently are.
To live your life in this way requires a different approach than the rest of the world takes.
It requires seeing the world around you differently – or often just opening your eyes and seeing the world. Seeing the person on the street corner as being there for a reason. Seeing your child’s tantrum as an opportunity to learn patience or teach discipline more effectively. Seeing that slow driver ahead of you as someone who may be struggling with life and just needed to slow things down a bit. Seeing that thing you are struggling with as something you are not supposed to deal with because nothing in your power can change it.
It means you have to learn to not just deal with the sloppiness and hassles of your Christian life, but embrace it as an opportunity for God to do something bigger than your human-ness… transform you. This usually means you have to stop trying to be whatever you have defined as “a good Christian”. It means you have to flip the facades you have created to look “right” and expose the underbelly of yourself so that God can work his magic in you so everyone can see.
It demands that you approach life almost as school… a life-long learning experience where the more you learn, the more you realize how much you have not learned. This school is not a timed exercise, it requires setting a pace and being content that the Teacher will bring along the lessons as He sees fit. A school that runs on a schedule you do not control, but you must follow if you are to learn.
OK, I’m glad I got that out 
. It was more for my benefit, but I hope you got something out of it… if so, care to share?
3 responses so far ↓
rexhamilton // June 17, 2009 at 1:23 pm |
Good post! My first reaction is that parables are intended to be wrestled with first, before that can “teach, guide, and mold” us.
I think very few Christians see their faith as a series of parables and until they do, they won’t wrestle with the insights that you share.
I wonder how effective we’d be in sharing the Gospel if we told our “faith stories” more like a parable and less like to step by step process, or formula?
steve lewis // June 18, 2009 at 7:17 am |
I like where you’re going with this – it adds intentionality to what we do and what we attend to. I think my big area of struggle with this is in all the parables of my life that I don’t yet have a meaning for. Sometimes, I’m willing and eager to learn from my circumstances, but I can’t figure out what the lesson is – sometimes it takes weeks or months. That’s where it gets tough.
brainpuddle // June 18, 2009 at 7:57 am |
@Steve: I agree with you on the parables that just defy understanding right now… frustrating. Especially when I am impatient
. When I was thinking through this, that is the point where I reached the lifelong school coclusion… many of the parables will be understood much further down the road, but are confusing now. In the end I agree wih you though… VERY tough.
@Rex: I like the the thought that you have to wrestle with your parables before you extract value from them. I think that is part of the “seeing” part. You can see life’s circumstances as just things happening or you can choose to actually “see” and realize them for what they are.
I think there are a lot of small parables in life that God puts in our lives for pure enjoyment, but we are often buried in our own personal dramas to miss the small things… the birds in the trees, the fresh air, seeing a stranger help another total stranger… the “seeing the divine all around you” kind of stuff. I think if we live our lives transparently wrestling with our parables and seeing the diving around us, our “faith stories” will be a contant presence in our lives rather than a biographical essay.