It's been far too long...

...since I actually blogged any of my own ideas, so here goes...:)

I've been thinking about the fact that God is God and we're not. Not anything terribly profound, but kind of it is. In teenie tiny ways we establish ourselves as God of our lives. We prefer one thing to another at church. We harbor ideas about other people or at least their situations and that begins to govern our behaviors and attitudes. The result is that the line between us and God gets to blurry and that NEVER helps the discernment process. Our desires for the future become idealized in our own minds and if we marinate in them long enough, we trick ourselves into thinking that is indeed what God wants and where God is heading.

Last Sunday at jOURney, I heard myself blurt out something about how things like healing and comfort and the promise of Heaven are the benefits to a life lived with God here and now. That what matters most is that God is God and we treat God that way. It's in our constant attempt to be more like God in our lives and in this world that creates opportunities to see healing happen in our lives and in those around us. As I leaned back into my couch, I know that it was God using my mouth to speak truth into our lives...or at least mine and everyone else was there to hear it.

In a spiritual sense, I am needy, but in an everything else sense, I'm not. I think that's where most people live, but more times than not, the way we talk about God is that God is a supplier of needs that our depravity has created. And that's not an approach that is all that relevant...at least not in the suburban US where I live.

I pray for the day when people will see that living for God and each other is a better way to live and is the secret to the inbreaking rule of God's love (or the Kingdom of God). That God's way is a benefit to all...not just to me. It's not about me, and it was never supposed to be.

I live in 'God is God and I'm not-ville.'

population, 1 (at least)