...of crisis and crises
Did you know that crises is the plural of the word crisis... ever have more than one crisis in a year... maybe even in one month....? That is what changes the word crisis to the word crises? There were times in my life when we seemed to have that plural version happening weekly! :)
There are quite a few interesting definitions of the word... like... a time of intense difficulty... trouble... or danger... with difficult decisions to make...a crucial situation.... a turning point... some negative changes... comes from the word 'critical'... a time of testing.... unexpected emergency... can be very personal... a threat to me of some sort ...whether real or imagined... political.... economic... environmental...religious....
Like those "end of our worlds" things I wrote about last time... they do happen to us... like it or not.... they do come.. unasked for.... unwanted... they just come... we don't plan for them... we don't see them coming... they just are! Then the big question... how do I handle my crisis.... my crises?
Especially people like myself... a Christian... a guy who had all the answers... I taught the answers to that big question... I preached it from the pulpit... I took it well past the 4 Spiritual Laws... they just kept growing and growing... until I got to Philip's "21 principles of Life"... boy did I ever have it together... until one day... when I came to what I call the Crisis of the Cross in my life....
The place where I discovered that a relationship with Jesus was not something I could teach... not something I could preach... not something I could talk someone into... not something I could sell... not something I could tell people they had to enter into.... not something to understand or believe or agree to... not cerebral or intellectual in any way... not something that depended on me doing anything really... but rather something that depended entirely on Him... something He did... simply an experience we have with Him... a collision... where we finally just pick up our cross (the crisis He allowed in our lives) and take it to where He took His cross... to our own personal Calvary where we do what He did... die there... so we can move through that crisis of the cross into Life.... His resurrection Life...
It is not enough just to believe the doctrine of the cross... we need to experience the crisis of the cross... we can't even make that happen...
What we can do though... is to question all the stuff... all the stuff we've been taught... all the stuff we've had preached to us ... all the stuff we have preached to others... talk to God about it.... amazing what will happen when we start asking God about the reality of that stuff....what I have come to call the reality of all the baloney I have learned....
:)
There are quite a few interesting definitions of the word... like... a time of intense difficulty... trouble... or danger... with difficult decisions to make...a crucial situation.... a turning point... some negative changes... comes from the word 'critical'... a time of testing.... unexpected emergency... can be very personal... a threat to me of some sort ...whether real or imagined... political.... economic... environmental...religious....
Like those "end of our worlds" things I wrote about last time... they do happen to us... like it or not.... they do come.. unasked for.... unwanted... they just come... we don't plan for them... we don't see them coming... they just are! Then the big question... how do I handle my crisis.... my crises?
Especially people like myself... a Christian... a guy who had all the answers... I taught the answers to that big question... I preached it from the pulpit... I took it well past the 4 Spiritual Laws... they just kept growing and growing... until I got to Philip's "21 principles of Life"... boy did I ever have it together... until one day... when I came to what I call the Crisis of the Cross in my life....
The place where I discovered that a relationship with Jesus was not something I could teach... not something I could preach... not something I could talk someone into... not something I could sell... not something I could tell people they had to enter into.... not something to understand or believe or agree to... not cerebral or intellectual in any way... not something that depended on me doing anything really... but rather something that depended entirely on Him... something He did... simply an experience we have with Him... a collision... where we finally just pick up our cross (the crisis He allowed in our lives) and take it to where He took His cross... to our own personal Calvary where we do what He did... die there... so we can move through that crisis of the cross into Life.... His resurrection Life...
It is not enough just to believe the doctrine of the cross... we need to experience the crisis of the cross... we can't even make that happen...
What we can do though... is to question all the stuff... all the stuff we've been taught... all the stuff we've had preached to us ... all the stuff we have preached to others... talk to God about it.... amazing what will happen when we start asking God about the reality of that stuff....what I have come to call the reality of all the baloney I have learned....
:)
