Clay in the Hands

Today (and tomorrow) I want to deal with one of the questions I received last week.  The question was, how to live in the world without being part of it.  I have been thinking about this for a couple of days now.  Today I want to focus on the importance of living this way.  Tomorrow we will look more into some suggestions as to how to do it.

The best place to start when trying to determine how to live is to look at the life and teachings of Jesus.  If you read the stories about Jesus in the Bible, it doesn’t take long to get the picture that Jesus did not come to earth to hang out with the church folks.  He grew up learning and studying the Hebrew scripture – in fact, even at 12, he understood it as well as anyone.  So he did not live as one ignorant of the religious tradition and the truth of the Jewish faith.  But understanding the law of God, he chose to live among the less desirables anyway (or more probably, because of it).  He partied with tax collectors and had open conversations with prostitutes.  He was definitely in the world!  But the impact he had was directly related to his counter-culture approach.  He brought the love of God to life in their lives – before their very eyes.

Matthew 5:13 records Jesus’ very words when he told his followers (and us) to be salt in the world.  He tells us that we are in the world for a purpose – to season it.  I am not a big salt eater but I do like it on several things.  If we have french fries at home, the salt will certainly be on the table.  But if the salt is left in the shaker sitting next to the plate, it doesn’t really make much of an impact on the taste of my fries.  In order to make a difference, it has to be poured out on the fries and mixed in.

Jesus never intended us to live in isolation – in our little shakers – and not come into contact with the world.  He intends for us to mix it up – to jump right in and get involved with people’s lives.  Is this risky?  Is it dangerous?  Sure!  But Jesus never asked us to play it safe.  Tomorrow we will look at the dangers a little closer and then offer some practical steps on how to do this, but for today . . .

GET OUT OF THE SHAKER AND MIX IT UP – TODAY!