January 23, 2006
Searching
When I was in Texas last weekend I read the book "Searching for God Knows What," by Donald Miller. I found it insightful and engaging, and if I could, I would quote the entire book right here, that's how much I agreed with all of it.
The gist of his book was that religion has become forumlaic, and instead of building a relationship with our Creator (which was His intention from the get-go), we cling to steps and programs and formulas to fill us up, or to prove that we're good people. When all we really need to do is, as Third Day says, "cry to Jesus."
Miller posits the "lifeboat theory", which is that everything we do in life is a way to jockey a better position in the lifeboat - proving that we're worthy of surviving, of not getting tossed out. It's why we play sports, why we have beauty pagents, why there is racism and classism and sexism. Because of the Fall, because Adam and Eve had to leave the garden, we've been separated from God, and we're looking for validation in the only ways we know how. We're missing the Light and we're dying.
Page 110:
"What we really need is somebody who loves us so much we don't worry about death, about our hair thinning, about other drivers pulling in front of us on the road, about whether people are poor or rich, good-looking or ugly, about whether we feel lonely or about whether or not we are wearing clothes. We need this; we need this so we can love other people purely and not for selfish gain, we need this so we can see everybody as equals, we need this so our relationships can be sincere, we need this so we can stop kicking ourselves around, we need this so we can lose all self-awareness and find ourselves for the first time, not by realizing some dream, but by being told who we are by the only Being who has the authority to know, by that I mean the Creator."
God's favor is free, and it comes unearned, and all we have to do is recognize it. It's powerful and it's something I try and remember, not only on a daily basis, but on a moment by moment basis. I am valuable because of who I am in light of who HE is.
Why would I worry?
Posted by hannah at 08:41 PM
