Skip to main content

Typical Response = Epic Fail

The God of the universe - the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and e-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love.  And what is our typical response?  We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.  Francis Chan

Our response to the greatness of God, to his magnitude, to his power, to his design is lackluster and anti-climatic at best.  I have a good friend who, in walking away from faith, is enamored with our galaxy.  He feels like within the context of Christian faith (maybe any faith?) he wasn't shown how splendid our universe is.  He's got a point.  Christianese says, "God said bang and there it was."  REALLY?  That's the best we can come up with?  No wonder people think we are ridiculous.  We are!
And our response to the Creator of the universe is...well it's what the last part of today's quote points out.  Ugh.  And not only did God create the heavens but he created all that the heavens contain.  Incredible.  Mind blowing.  Breath taking.  But in the Christian life today we aren't shown how to worship fully this God who has blown our minds with his creation.  The sad thing is most of our minds aren't blown by his creation. We don't even acknowledge it - a lot of times because we can't explain it so we ignore it.  Um.  Yeah, that's gotten us far hasn't it?  C'mon people.
On top of all he created - on top of all that he has designed and put into place - a more amazing thing has occurred.  He loves us.  Not the love we attempt with others but a love that goes beyond our comprehension.  Incredible.  Mind blowing.  Breath taking.  But in the Christian life today we aren't shown how to worship fully this God who has blown our minds with his love.  And the sad thing is most of our minds aren't blown by his love.  We go to a building once or twice a week, we sing some songs, we try not to cuss and we say "he loves us" but we don't get it.  Not one little bit.  We don't get it because we don't feel worthy or we don't understand that kind of love exists or because we have pulled God down on our level and have diminished who he is.  Or any other reason you can think of.  Our typical response to the greatness of God, to the love of God, to the power of God falls into the epic fail category. 
The Creator of the universe LOVES you.  What are you going to do with that?  How are you going to respond to that?  I can promise you that a response that includes more than trying not to cuss and singing some songs that are mostly self-focused anyway is the response our Creator should get.  Does the thought of his love for you make you weep?  If not, why not?  His love for you should bring you to tears.  Not in sadness but in awe, in gratitude, in disbelief that the Creator of mind blowing things loves you enough to call you more important and special than the universe that he's designed.  Disbelief and yet belief because he says he loves you and he is not a God who should lie.
He loves YOU, oh how he loves YOU.  Whatcha gonna do with that?

** Want to see the awesome design of the universe?  Want to see what God has done?  For an layman's kind of tour check out Louie Giglio's "Indescribable" and "How Great is our God" DVDs.  That will get you started.  :)  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

April 5, 2015

The Feast of Firstfruits & Easter Go for Broke Day If it scares you this is the day to go for it no matter what. One Day Without Shoes Day Today is to raise global awareness for children’s health and education.  Why shoes? Because shoes help protect from bacteria in the dirt, rusty nails, dirty needles and shoes enable feet to withstand the long distances most children in developing countries need to walk to get to school. Join TOMS One for One There is plenty of criticism out there for TOMS and its short term solutions. Critics don't even buy the "at least they are doing something" statement.  However, you have to start somewhere. And every bit of awareness helps something go from short term to long term.  We all have a part to play. Read a Road Map Day One of the many reasons I would stink at The Amazing Race is because I never did learn how to read a road map well.  I remember doing worksheets and class lessons on maps and I was able to skate by ...

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment. 

A dime a dozen

"It's said that in the year 1796, the first U.S. dimes were produced for circulation. Hence, it would make sense for this phrase to originate sometime after." Read more here .  Today the phrase carries the meaning that something is cheap or without value if it can be lumped in with other similar or exactly-like things. It's more of an insult than anything.