Month: July 2019

I’m writing this from Kiawah Island where our family spends a week each summer.  At least once each year, I bike about six miles on the beach to the far northern end of the island and this year that ride inspired today’s message.

The picture below shows what it looks like on that part of the island.  The picture shows two breaks in the beach where you can cross at low tide to get to a completely uninhabited portion of the island.

When we first visited the island, there was only one break in the beach – the one to the right in the picture – but then, over time, the one to left washed through and created the marshy area between the ocean and the golf course in the picture.  This change created a new habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife.

When I rode by this area this year, it reminded me how our lives change over time and how those changes can lead to growth and make us, in a way, a new creation.

That brings us to today’s verse which is from 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

This island is a new creation after additional marsh is created and, in the same way, we are new creations in Christ once we allow Him to become our personal Lord and Savior.  And just as we can behold all of the new wildlife in the marsh, we are commanded in this verse to behold the new creation of anyone who is in Christ.

When we commit our lives to Christ, we are literally transformed into something new and this transformation makes us more useful to God.  Here are some examples:

• We become more patient with our children
• We see marriage as liberating instead of restrictive
• A business failure can be seen as a beginning instead of an end
• We see others through God’s eyes and understand how He wants us to love them
• Material things start losing their grip on us and we start changing our financial priorities.

These are all examples of new “marshes” in our lives that result from allowing Jesus to enter in and create them.

Questions:

• Do you have any personal “marsh” stories you can share with the group (something that happened in your life that allowed you to grow and become more useful to God)?
• When opportunities for growth come along, we don’t always embrace them.  Why do we sometimes prefer to maintain the status quo even though growth will help us and others?
• Is the process of becoming more useful to God typically an all-at-once thing or does it take a long time?
• Do you currently have anything that you feel God is calling you to change so that you can be more useful to Him?

 

As much as I hate to say it, you and I cannot have it all.  My guess is that the maximum number of things we can simultaneous do is probably around four.  For example, you can have a good career, be a good family guy, exercise regularly, and be a good community supporter if you spend most of your time on those four things.  If you are really good, you might be able to fit in one more – maybe an 8 handicap, or extensive personal travel, or endurance sports, or lots of fishing & hunting.

But even if you are good enough to squeeze in five things, you may still feel inadequate because your friends’ social media posts show them collectively doing ALL of these things and lots more.  You might ask “why can’t I do my four things AND take pictures skydiving in Dubai AND playing at Pebble Beach AND with a 180 pound tarpon?”.

In short, we all have FOMO (fear of missing out) and we are less satisfied with our boring four or five things than ever.  And if we try to make it seven or eight things, it just makes everything worse.  But, fear not, the Bible has the answer we need to combat our FOMO and help us regain a sense of peace.

Our verse for today is from Philippians 3:13:

Friends, don’t get me wrong: by no means do I count myself an expert in all of this but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus.

The author, Paul, was saying that even though he was throwing a lot at them at once, that they shouldn’t be anxious because not even he had it all mastered.  In a way, they may have been dealing with some FOMO of their own by thinking that they needed to master everything he was sharing with them.  But notice the real focus of Paul’s instruction which is to keep your eye on the goal of moving closer to Jesus.  In a world with an ever-increasing number of distractions, that is good advice for us too!

Questions:

1. How many things would you currently say that you’re giving significant attention to?
2. Of the things in question #1, how many are you doing well?
3. Do you sometimes have FOMO?
4. How can keeping our eyes on Jesus help us when we face the anxiety caused by trying to have it all?
5. Have you thought of anything today that you might want to do less of so that you can focus on your top three or four things?  If so, please share if you feel comfortable.