Day 4 - Wake up and recover your life!
Scripture focus: It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family, saying, I'll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I'll join them in worship and praise to you. Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says, even I live by placing my trust in God. And yet again, I'm here with the children God gave me. Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it's logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed. Hebrews 2:10-18 (The Message)
I've read the book of Genesis so often that I must confess – I developed a habit of skim-reading it. Erwin McManus finds new pearls of wisdom within the same pages that I had begun to lose interest in. In his book, Wide Awake, he woke me up to some new and exciting truths that I had missed. Why did I miss them? Because I stopped being curious! I began to believe that there was nothing in Genesis that I hadn't heard before. But the moment I stopped being teachable I stopped learning. According to McManus, we are created with unlimited learning capacity. But my example proves that we can thwart that potential if we become arrogant. If we're going to recover our lives, it will require us to continue to be lifelong learners – humble and teachable. That said, I re-read Genesis with a more wide awake perspective, and discovered that indeed, McManus is right. Here's what I noticed. According to the scriptures, Adam was able to learn all the names of all the animals. Can you imagine it? He knew the names of all the birds! At NorthStar Community we have a personality test we like to give to all our members. Affectionately termed the "bird test," partakers of this training experience are categorized as either eagle, dove, peacock or owl. I can't keep four bird types straight and yet Adam knew them all. He could tell a swallow from a finch, a crow from a raven, a hummingbird from a lark, a robin from a cardinal. Adam knew a blue jay when he saw one. In a culture and time that is telling us what we can't do – can't repair the economy, can't save our jobs, can't provide healthcare for those in need, etc., and constantly reminding us of what we lack, what's wrong, and how we seem to never quite get it right – God tells a different tale. We are created to resolve and solve, dream and fulfill. We are designed to be learners with a teacher willing and able to reveal great mysteries to us. The world may doubt our abilities to achieve, but our Creator God does not. May you dream big today, and do the next right thing that moves you closer to dream fulfillment.
Recommended reading: Numbers 10 - 12
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