I love getting email from Montana Gary. His response to the last cobbler post is challenging and inspiring. I want to share it with you.
Quite the contrast between the tyranny of the urgent and the simplicity of the cobbler, the difference between being caught up and living in the moment versus living in God today.
One of the apparent difficulties of the current age is that Christians tend to judge the value of their relationship with God by the moment and not the long duration. In the age of the instant, long continuance is displaced for the satisfaction of the momentary. Yes, it is valuable to have moments with God but feel-good moments cannot be the expression of a life devoted to the Lord; we cannot measure the value of preaching, worship, devotions or even prayer by whether it was a feel-good moment. First, none of these have value to be measured by us rather than God; second, feelings are ill-equipped to assess the value of commitment. While it may feel good to have a moment with God, our enduring perspective is in an ongoing relationship with the Eternal One, to be developed into His image by His Spirit working within. This is a continuing process which may have moments but is not measured by their frequency or emotions.
This is an age where attention spans have drastically been reduced, where preaching must become shorter to match the attention span of the audience, where devotions become “on-the-run” remembrances, where we do not set aside time because we are already committed to filling all of our time with moments, of bursts of attention to whatever hold our fancy.
One of the apparent difficulties of the current age is that Christians tend to judge the value of their relationship with God by the moment and not the long duration. In the age of the instant, long continuance is displaced for the satisfaction of the momentary. Yes, it is valuable to have moments with God but feel-good moments cannot be the expression of a life devoted to the Lord; we cannot measure the value of preaching, worship, devotions or even prayer by whether it was a feel-good moment. First, none of these have value to be measured by us rather than God; second, feelings are ill-equipped to assess the value of commitment. While it may feel good to have a moment with God, our enduring perspective is in an ongoing relationship with the Eternal One, to be developed into His image by His Spirit working within. This is a continuing process which may have moments but is not measured by their frequency or emotions.
This is an age where attention spans have drastically been reduced, where preaching must become shorter to match the attention span of the audience, where devotions become “on-the-run” remembrances, where we do not set aside time because we are already committed to filling all of our time with moments, of bursts of attention to whatever hold our fancy.
Instantacy has taken away the desire to take time to slow down, meditate, study, know, learn and relate; we have become a people of momentary gratification in which we grab bursts of experience but have little lasting change before we move on to the next moment. Commitment and satisfaction in the momentary does not promote the enduring and eternal in our minds and souls.
Thanks, Gary.
Thanks, Gary.
No comments:
Post a Comment