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The Pink Room: Thoughts About
Intentional Living
Chapter 4/ Shifts. (The Slowly
Evolving Jesus.)
Part 2 (Previous post contain the
previous parts/chapters.)
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God doesn’t waste. I believe that
whether you are a fundamentalist, or the farthest from that, or social-justice-oriented
kind of Christian or the middle of the road kind or any other kind of Christian--there is real solid truth for you in the Bible and the written word. Whatever type of story or writing you like, you can find it in there. If you are fed my metaphors, you’ll find them. If you want
miracles, those are in there too. There is adventure, curious things, mystery, demons, scandal, stories of success, loss, need, conquests, and so so so much more. If you want data, it can be found…there is
something for all.
The Bible is the most profound book there is and to top it off God
doesn’t waste anything, so there is some purpose in every bit. There is truth on one or several levels of so many of
the stories. No matter how far you dig into a concept, in the Bible, you can
learn more. As I grow and study, I am amazed at the continually unfolding
meaning. It is mysterious.
I either learn more because I am
different or because I never knew something--culture or geography, or someone reads it aloud that draws attention to a piece I never heard before.
My amazement grows at this as I get
older. But it makes sense. If we aim to
have a relationship with Jesus and the word IS Him, is His telling, and like
anyone that we get to know over time, our experience deepens as they are known to us. If the
word is God, words themselves hold real power. The words we speak, we think, the
words we hear, the words we read.
We may believe a lie, that word has
power over us. If you say “I am powerless,” you will probably be powerless. If
you say “I am free,” you will probably see the ways you are free. If you hear
positive things about yourself from others repeatedly it is easy to believe
positive things—the feeling of being encouraged can change a day for someone or
a whole life for others, but the point is, there is power. If we speak
encouragement in a self-less way, not only is someone blessed but we are also
encouraged and it is doubly powerful. If we read about God, it is what is
swirling around in our souls…whatever we read does the same.
Life begets life, darkness begets
darkness, and whatever we dwell on attracts more of the same—I find it difficult to change trajectory or to shift the momentum, so I need to be diligent with what words I let in.
More often than not, I believe more
negative words. Rarely do I dwell on positives for more than a few minutes--compliments like being amazing, beautiful, or smart. Words I tend to dwell, more often than not, look a lot more like average, dumb, or screw-up. Those seems more believable, most days.
Jesus cares about this part of our lives—our
thought life. He changed the names of the disciples directly impacting their
identities, writing a vision of who they would be right on their souls. He told
the truth to them, and set people free. God said everything that was spoken
into existence was good and pleasing but that people were very good, set apart.
Special. We need to remember this. The first thing spoken over us was that we are "very good."
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I used to think that the words in my
head did not matter. The truth is that the words in my head are life and death,
moving towards wholeness or towards destruction. God wants us to be healthy:
joyful, free and whole.
I always knew that Jesus cared what we
think about and speak about. God was the word and the word was God. Every word?
All words? If this is true in all senses and in terms of physics, we, as
believers have an unbelievable power because Jesus lives in us.
