Fear Not

As we looked at the torn-up parking lot with the sign saying,”Parking-Lot improvements”, I made the comment “Doesn’t look like an improvement to me!” My son’s comment was...’You can’t improve anything without digging it up first ‘ And as I reflected on that comment, I found myself thinking “How true…. but that doesn’t mean we don’t try!

And soon I found myself thinking of all those things in life that we want to change but are unwilling to pay the price to do so. We envy the neighbour’s garden, but we are unwilling to invest the time, effort and money into making the same thing happen outside our door. We would like that svelte figure but the hours spent exercising we would need to put in and the denial of those goodies we love to eat is beyond us. In short, it is not very often that we are willing to inconvenience ourselves and others for the future good of everyone. But those half-measures just don’t cut it!

And so I take my hat off to the business that is reinventing itself and in that process inconveniencing itself and others and no doubt losing money in the process. They believe the result will be worth it in the improved facility that they will be able to offer the public - and yes, in improved profits down the line as well. What they had wasn’t up to the standard that they had set for themselves but more importantly customers were already, or would soon be, lured away by newer, more up to date facilities in the area. So the old was being demolished, to be replaced by the new.

What is it about this paradigm that churches find impossible to grasp? They continue to try to take the old and by massaging it slightly, changing the words around a bit, and adding some more current music make things ‘new again’! Just doesn’t happen that way! Things need to be torn up, discarded, and replaced by something entirely different that will speak both to the faithful remnant and to the people out there who are looking for meaning in their lives. We, of all people, with a leader in Jesus who continually was telling people to ‘Fear Not!” shouldn’t be afraid. Just sayin’…

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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