JR. Forasteros - May 15, 2016
Spiritual Revertigo
You’re going along, feeling great about life and faith and then boom, something happens and an old behavior or habit you thought you’d kicked pops its head up. Spiritual Revertigo. It can be devastating – you feel as though you’ve made no progress at all, that you’re still the same old person you’ve always been, that God has done nothing in your life, not really. But Jesus assures us that the Spirit is making us new – and that the answer to our despair can be found among others on the same faith journey as we are.
From Series: "Identity Crisis"
Why is it so hard for the Church to live as Jesus in the world? Why such a sharp divide between the love and mercy of God and the way Christians interact with each other and the world? The Revelation offers us a powerful picture of who the Church is called to be: a reflection of Jesus in the world. By listening to them with pictures of Jesus from John's gospel, we see a clear picture of who we are called to be.
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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.
