Today’s Readings: Psalm 18; Isaiah 45:1-8; Mark 4:21-31; Hebrews 1:1-11
I learned an important lesson in life at a relatively young age (okay, it took me 21 years – but as a 41 year old, 21 years doesn’t seem that long). The lesson is this: if we take our greatest strengths in life too far, they can easily become our greatest weaknesses. Let me give you a couple examples of what I mean. Let’s say you have a job that you love and are passionate about. That would be considered a great strength by most people. Your passion for your job, however, might consume you to such a degree that you end up completely neglecting your personal relationships. Because of that, your greatest personal strength might become your greatest weakness. Or let’s say you are an extrovert that enjoys being around people. Your love of people might cause you to invest so much time and energy in others that you end up completely neglecting yourself. Once again, your greatest strength becomes a glaring weakness. Today’s reading from Isaiah reminded me of a huge challenge our progressive faith communities face. One of our greatest strengths in progressive faith communities is our love of learning and knowledge. And yet - if taken to an extreme - we may evolve to the point where we come to think of ourselves as a god. Isaiah bluntly challenges that tendency and helps us from taking our greatest strength too far. “But doom to you who fight your Maker-you’re a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers?’” (Isaiah 45:8 from The Message). Our challenge, then, as progressive people of faith is to find the right balance where we use the wonderful gift of reason with which God has blessed us – but not use it to transform ourselves into gods as well. Til next time…
I learned an important lesson in life at a relatively young age (okay, it took me 21 years – but as a 41 year old, 21 years doesn’t seem that long). The lesson is this: if we take our greatest strengths in life too far, they can easily become our greatest weaknesses. Let me give you a couple examples of what I mean. Let’s say you have a job that you love and are passionate about. That would be considered a great strength by most people. Your passion for your job, however, might consume you to such a degree that you end up completely neglecting your personal relationships. Because of that, your greatest personal strength might become your greatest weakness. Or let’s say you are an extrovert that enjoys being around people. Your love of people might cause you to invest so much time and energy in others that you end up completely neglecting yourself. Once again, your greatest strength becomes a glaring weakness. Today’s reading from Isaiah reminded me of a huge challenge our progressive faith communities face. One of our greatest strengths in progressive faith communities is our love of learning and knowledge. And yet - if taken to an extreme - we may evolve to the point where we come to think of ourselves as a god. Isaiah bluntly challenges that tendency and helps us from taking our greatest strength too far. “But doom to you who fight your Maker-you’re a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers?’” (Isaiah 45:8 from The Message). Our challenge, then, as progressive people of faith is to find the right balance where we use the wonderful gift of reason with which God has blessed us – but not use it to transform ourselves into gods as well. Til next time…
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