This hope keeps us from despair and allows us to live in anticipation of that day when Christ will return in glory. Hope -Unlike those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13), we peer into a guaranteed future in Christ (Col 3:4). Even when our circumstances scream otherwise, we take it on faith that there is a bigger picture, one in which we play an integral part as members of God’s royal family.
I’d like to suggest three words to hold on to: faith, hope, and love.įaith - Like Abraham, we take God at his Word. How do we flow with the Holy Spirit in that work? Hold On To These Three Things To see with the eyes of our hearts, then, takes more than a new set of spiritual bifocals it takes an inner transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit. Instead, it was the center of our very being-the totality of our thoughts, feelings, and intentions. In his mind, the heart was so much more than a fleshy blood-pump. Or, as Paul would say, we need the eyes of our hearts to be opened (Eph 1:18). To see it, we need a vision readjustment. Our little pictures, just like those of Abraham, David, and Sarah, fit perfectly into the vast landscape God is painting. invites a disgraced adulterer to become one of the first witnesses to God’s universal work of redemption (John 4).sets a crown on a young man’s head and sets him off to stare at the sky, wondering what God is doing (Psalm 8).draws in a broken old man and his infertile wife, gives them a son, and uses them to bless the world (Genesis 21).In the Bible, we meet a God who created the world with a definite purpose in mind: to bring everything to its ultimate climax in Jesus Christ (Col 1:15-20). But, the one thing we have to say in response is this: there IS a bigger picture! Every Circumstance Has Purpose In Your Story There are plenty of things we can say for and against Postmodernism Christians have been flying that kite for a couple of decades now. What we need to do is give each other the space to hold on to our little pictures without hurting anyone. There is no bigger picture out there-only the little pictures we project onto the universe as a way of coping with our existence and controlling others.
Translation: the “big stories” philosophers and theologians tell aren’t real they’re just power plays meant to justify a particular tribe or thinker’s slant on reality. The philosopher and literary theorist, Jean-François Lyotard, characterized this new movement as an “incredulity towards metanarratives.” Towards the end of the 20th century, a new set of ideas began to take hold in philosophy, art, architecture, and literary criticism-Postmodernism. Unfortunately, that point isn’t as apparent as it used to be. The first step in learning to see the bigger picture is to acknowledge that there is a bigger picture to be seen. Through his childlike imaginings, he was able to see something much bigger and more hopeful than the pain he suffered at home. So, we can imagine ourselves in any of their shoes-looking at our bleak little world and wondering if and how we’ll ever break free.įor Bart, at least, imagination was his ticket out of that small and scary existence. The details may look different, but we all have a story to tell filled with bad beats, lucky breaks, and everything in between. We All Have a StoryĪssuming you haven’t read the story behind Bart Millard’s break-out song and upcoming movie, here are 3 of the essential images it gives us:īart: an 8-year old boy, abandoned by his mother and abused by his father.Īdele: a young wife, verbally terrorized by her mentally unstable husband.Īrthur: a broken man, stuck in a pattern of physical and emotional abuse he can’t explain. Today, I want to take a closer look at my first suggestion, seeing the bigger picture. In a previous post, I mentioned four ways to revitalize our Christian imagination and start seeing the world “through the eyes of our hearts” (Eph 1:18). This is why reflection and journaling are beneficial. But how we do that is anything but obvious. It’s something I’ve been talking about with others and something I’ve written about in a Bible Study journal.įor Christians, our ability to “see” the unseen is vital to our walk with the Lord in this world. Since the movie, I Can Only Imagine hit theaters, I’ve had imagination on my mind quite a bit lately.
0 kommentar(er)
