Advent Week 2
12/9/18 1 John 1:1- 2:2
Do you ever think to yourself, ‘I hear this same story every year’. Your wow factor is gone and you find yourself going through the motions. “I don’t even need to listen very closely at church because I know the story”.
It’s fair though, to stop and ask, “How did this happen?” i.e. what led me to the point where I do not look at the birth of the Christ with utter amazement?
If I may offer two possible causes.
One is that in reality, we don’t really know the whole story as well as we think we do, like the men who were questioning Jesus, trying to trap Him (Mark 12:24). Four chapters in the gospels is a lot to have a firm grasp on (Chapters 1 & 2 of Matthew and Luke) especially when you really only come to look at them once a year. There is a ton there! I would invite to revisit studying them with an open mind and heart. See what you didn’t see before and ask the questions that will inevitably come up. You’ll find it leads to better understanding God and how He works rather than making assumptions that lead to wrong conclusions.
Two is culture creep. We have simply left the expectations of the growing cultural Christmas overtake us and rule our hearts and emotions. This, in itself is another reason to continue renewing your mind by reminding it of the actual story itself from the gospels (which includes seeing the fulfilled prophecies of hundreds of years prior). We can get so caught up in thinking that there must be some ever-changing narrative to what we do and how we live life.
No. This is a false assumption.
Truth is truth. An ever changing narrative to life is a sign of a shaky foundation and it’s just plain hard to keep up with. Truth doesn’t continually change to suit our needs, although we will find we will have to learn to change to align ourselves better with the standards of truth. The new movie starring Steve Carell, Welcome to Marwen, (opens Christmas) looks like a very fascinating concept. Based on a true story, it tells of a man who was so severely beaten by thugs that he lost all his memory of his life prior to the beating. On his road to recovery he builds a new miniature replica world made of dolls he had created. He would make a mini-utopian world free of the kinds of things that caused his injuries. A line from Carell in the trailer gives insight to the thrust of its message, “I got beaten up because I was different so I created a world where I can be whoever I wanna be”
Can you see problems with this strategy or that this thinking could create? How might this approach fix symptoms but cure causes? It’s one thing to create a make-believe world, its’ quite another to implement it into real life. What problems might arise with this strategy in real life?
What issues might this intersect with in real life?
How does 1 John 2:1 speak to a biblical world view of dealing with failing and being hurt?
