It’s Unbelieveable

One of the most popular critiques of the Bible is that the stories are too fantastic, that they couldn’t possible be true. Obviously they must be fables or just tales passed down from generation to generation that become over-embellished.

However, look at some of the shows we have on TV today: “Most Outrageous Moments”, “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”, “Wildest Weddings Moments”, “World’s Scariest Police Chases”…. I could go on. You know, the shows you find when randomly flipping through the channels during your favorite show’s commercials and then your husband can’t peel his eyes away. You don’t necessarily want to watch, but you simply can’t understand how something like that could ever really happen.

Rewind a few thousand years. Do you think Noah really comprehended the reality of building an ark? What about Mary being told she would carry God’s son? Not only were these unbelievable occurrences, they didn’t have the benefit of cameras rolling to prove to others what they believed was true.

I just listened to a sermon about “What chair do you sit in”, basically explaining that there are three chairs each of us can sit in, that of commitment to God, compromise, or confusion. One generation may sit in the first, but it’s easy for the next to slip to the second and so on. It would be easy for us to discount the stories of the Bible as simply that, stories. But how many times have you been involved in a modern miracle story that few would believe unless they knew you personally? Are you framing the Bible in your own terms to rationalize the life that you want to live instead of the best life God has designed for you?

I hear stories all the time of “unexplainable events” happening in medicine, relationships and everyday life. Before you write off parts of the Bible as unbelievable and therefore not applicable, stop and think about how your life story will read to someone hundreds of years from now. I’d rather put my faith in the Father than end up in the seat of confusion.

 

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18

God-Shaped Hole

God-Shaped Hole

Have you ever thought about earrings. For me, they were a much coveted reward that was unattainable until I reached the age of 13. Then, for some reason, my mother agreed it would be cool if I got two piercings in my left ear and one in my right (remember, we’re going back to the age of parachute pants and jelly bracelets people).

Fast forward nineteen years later. Most people I know now are not aware of my “wild child” status since my second hole in my left ear has long since closed up. See, somewhere between college and “oh my, what am I going to do with the rest of my life” I decided the double piercing in a single ear might not be what every company desired in their ideal candidate (not that I jumped into the corporate world all that soon after graduation, unless you consider dancing the “Crazy Signs” while working for Club Med in the islands ‘climbing the corporate ladder’. Luckily for me, the gradual lack of use caused the hole to close up and my ear to return to normal.

Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, or somewhere in Mayberry, you’ve surely seen the tribal inspired plugs that some of today’s youth are wearing. From the little I know, these ‘earrings’ start out small, but by gradually increasing the size, the hole gradually stretches and grows, resulting in HUGE holes in the ears. Unfortunately, kids that walk the same road as me and decide a few years down the road that look isn’t working for them have a harder time reversing their predicament. Though the growing process was a gradual one, the end result prevents reversal in the same gradual process.

Aren’t our lives like that as well? We may over-eat little by little until we wonder why our clothes don’t fit anymore. Or we dabble in questionable relationships until we find ourselves in a predicament we promised we would never get into. Or our quiet time with God dwindles to the point where it is non-existent, creating a hole so big it seems nothing could ever fill it.

The good news is that no medical procedure could ever fix such a hole in our life; the only answer to close that gap is GOD. We rationalize that if we gradually got ourselves into trouble, we can gradually get out of it, when in fact we need to surrender ourselves to God for radical life redevelopment!

Don’t be fooled into thinking you can fill a God shaped hole on your own; before you know it, you’ll be looking through a hoop instead of a peep-hole. Expose yourself to God alone and He will not only heal your wounds, but they will be erased in the new creation that will be you!