Beginning Easter Sunday, we will spend several weeks talking about heaven, through a series that is meant to re-orient our focus on eternity, taking God's "long-view" approach to life. Part of this is considering what heaven really means.
We invite you to share, in this space, the questions that come to mind when you think about heaven. Also, any thoughts and observations that you've heard or come across about eternity that are interesting to you, or that might shed some light on the matter.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
"Yes, but, whose fault is it?"
There's this moment recorded in the Gospel according to John where Jesus is walking along with his disciples and they see a man who was born blind, and they ask Jesus, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" The prevailing opinion in that time was that if a person was afflicted, they had it coming for something they did, or that someone close to them did. I guess there weren't too many people who'd heard about Job, whose story serves as a blunt reminder that suffering and setbacks can come upon your life no matter how faithful you may be. Well, Jesus blows that right out of the water with the truth that it wasn't anyone's FAULT, but that the glory of God would be made manifest from this tragic disability. And then, he went and healed him.
But what gets me is the finger pointing. How often do we put more energy into "whodunit" than "How do we fix it?" Already, I've been down the road many a time of telling my son to pick up a mess after his friends leave, only to hear him say, "But, Jonathan got those out." Doesn't matter. It's yours to care for. The response of faith is to move beyond assigning blame and wondering who is at fault and take hold of the opportunity in the present to respond to what's in front of us.
I''d like to invite any who wish to recount your thoughts and comments and, if you're up for it, to share some hardship that you've been through that became an opportunity for or introduced something wonderful into your life. God's blessings to you and yours.
But what gets me is the finger pointing. How often do we put more energy into "whodunit" than "How do we fix it?" Already, I've been down the road many a time of telling my son to pick up a mess after his friends leave, only to hear him say, "But, Jonathan got those out." Doesn't matter. It's yours to care for. The response of faith is to move beyond assigning blame and wondering who is at fault and take hold of the opportunity in the present to respond to what's in front of us.
I''d like to invite any who wish to recount your thoughts and comments and, if you're up for it, to share some hardship that you've been through that became an opportunity for or introduced something wonderful into your life. God's blessings to you and yours.
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