JR. Forasteros - April 12, 2015
Plenty of Mushrooms
We live in a world of scarcity, where we’re convinced there’s not enough to go around. But God created a very good world, one that was not a zero-sum universe. In the wake of Pentecost, we see the early church living into this abundant creation by selling everything and living in common. How can their radical example challenge us to live in abundance today? What does a radically generous church look like?
From Series: "Go There!"
What lines are you afraid to cross? In the years immediately following Jesus’ resurrection, his followers had to reimagine what their religion looked like. The Holy Spirit compelled them to take the good news of resurrection and new life far beyond every border they’d ever known. The book of Acts helps us imagine the dangerous and exciting mission God is calling us to today. Don’t Go There!
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Rag n Bone Man’s “I’m Only Human” tells a fascinating story of a broken relationship. Or rather, it implies that story, since to listen to the song is to feel as though we’re listening to one side of the end of a long, painful conversation.
Again and again, he insists that, whatever happened, “Don’t put your blame on me… I’m only human.”
I’m sorry I couldn’t solve your problems. I’m only human.
I’m sorry I couldn’t figure it out. I’m only human.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be honest. I’m only human.
I’m no Messiah. I’m only human.
The song expresses a sentiment we’re all well-acquainted with: we’re not God.
We can’t save the world – we can’t even save ourselves. So be careful not to put too much faith in me.
There’s some truth to that. We do often tend to put too much faith in other people, which can lead to a lot of heartache.
But that’s not what this song is about. This song is a person who has let someone else down. A person who doesn’t believe in himself. A person who says, “I’m only human.”
Rag n Bone man believes that to be human is to be a failure. To be human is to let other people down. To be human is to be limited, small, insignificant, unworthy of trust or faith.
When’s the last time you let someone down?
Maybe you didn’t return that phone call, or didn’t make it to their house. Maybe like me, you live far away from family and couldn’t make it back for a holiday. Or you failed to keep a promise.
We’ve all been where Rag n Bone man is – feeling the weight of our human limitations. We’ve all wanted to shrug and say, “Don’t put your blame on me! I’m only human!”
Friends, I want to offer us a word of encouragement today. To be human is to be finite, yes, but when we shrug our shoulders and say we’re “only human”, we’re lying about what it means to be human.
Today, we’re going to explore what it means to be human, and we’ll see that while to be human is to be limited, it is not to fail. We’ll see that to be human is a sacred calling, and that God wants us to live tall and proud to be human.
