Jonathan Sprang - March 15, 2015
Sleeping With Bears
Many times, we don’t recognize when we are doing things that are destroying our life. For us its just the way it is, comfortable, what’s expected. Sin works this way too. It’s hard to see that the only result of a life lived that way is death. It’s like we are sleeping with bears and surprised when we get eaten. Through the snake on a stick, and Jesus on the cross, God is peeling back the curtain on our lives to reveal where a life like that is leading, so that we can leave that life and accept the life God has for us. The only true life there is. Leaving that death is tough, and could feel a lot like dying, and it could take a long time to figure out, but it’s totally worth it.
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What is your greatest fear? Usually, we go to phobias – which by definition are irrational. But what really keeps you up at night? Fear for your safety or the safety of your family? Wondering how to make ends meet? Insecurities about your job performance, or maybe your abilities as a friend, spouse, or parent?
I want to talk about power and weakness.
We spend a lot of our lives trying to minimize risk, to protect ourselves, to keep from being vulnerable.
We’re vulnerable. We don’t like to admit that. And we want to avoid that vulnerability. We want to protect ourselves and those we love.
But to be human is to risk. We’re not fully human unless we are vulnerable. If you teach your child to walk, they’re going to fall down. If you send them into the world, they’re going to get hurt. You COULD just never give them any power of their own – never teach them to walk or speak or feed themselves or educate them in any way. You could exercise full authority over them and keep them safe.
To take away their power like that is to keep them from being fully human. In fact, the only way to raise a child well is to give them power, which then opens them to risk. To deny someone power, to take away their God-given authority to act in the world is to deny their humanity.
We can’t exercise our God-given authority in the world unless we choose to be vulnerable as well.
Following God means choosing to risk, to open ourselves to God, to our neighbors, to the world. That’s scary, but God is bigger than our fears. Today is not about avoiding risk, but embracing risk and trusting that God is faithful to bring life when we are faithful to follow his calling on us.
