Living small or living large?

I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! (2 Corinthians 6:11-13)

Small spaces can be quite confining. I learned much about caves, caverns, and the formation of stalagmites and stalactites while on vacations and cave exploring. The magnificence and beauty of these spaces buried way underground is truly awe-inspiring. In those moments of taking in those beautiful displays of crystalline-like beauty, I just wanted to break out in hymns of praise! I am not an experiences spelunker. I did breathe in deeply and just sigh loudly at the amazing beauty of our heavenly Father's creative power - even when it is buried deep within the hidden spaces of this earth. Being some 200-250 feet below ground didn't even concern me. Some don't like being in those types of environments. Why? They cannot stand the thought of being in confined spaces. In those confined spaces, there was something I realized - we often feel very "confined" in our lives, but it is not the way God wants us to live. He wants us to experience the openness of what we experience when life is lived "above ground"! "Below ground" we find confined spaces, often providing pressure we don't necessarily see. Confined spaces are limited - there is a restriction in what "fits". When we are feeling "confined", we feel as though we are unable to leave the place we are in - it is as though it has a hold on us. Truth be told, we live much more "confined" lives than God would want us to live. We just don't bring into the "open" what he declares to be free! "Above ground" we enjoy the freedom of open spaces and fresh air. The pressure is different above ground, isn't it? There is still pressure, but it is not as "confining" because the walls don't seem to hold it in. Walls confine - remove the walls and what seems so limiting takes on a different light!

What do the caves all have in common? A lack of light. Until light is "brought into" the confining spaces of those caves, there is no light - the spaces are dark, dank, and overwhelmingly confining. As soon as light begins to be brought into those spaces, some of the most confining "feeling" spaces begin to open up into the widest expanses you might discover - but they are still "below ground". When the light is spent, the spaces return to darkness once again and the impression of impending confinement can return. Maybe this is why it is so important to God that we allow his light to bring into the open what has been confined "under pressure" deep within each of us. Wide-open, spacious life - what does that signify to you? Having lived in Alaska, I have experienced the "wide-open" and seen the majesty of God's handiwork in the night storms. The landscape seemingly changing overnight. I think God may just work this way in our lives once in a while - bringing a change of "landscape" into our lives in ways our minds cannot understand or fully take in at the speed it is happening. 

Newness and freshness. This is what God does for us by bringing what is "under ground" in our lives out into the openness of his light. I appreciated the glimmer of sparkling crystalline-like formations, but when they were brought to the surface, exposed to the light of day - WOW! The many facets of their beauty were able to be admired in a new way. Confined, they had beauty - but exposed in the "above ground" view, they took on majesty and splendor not previously recognized! Some of us have a tendency to live life in a "small way" - not really aware of God's intention for us to live in a "grand way" as he sets us free from all that confines us. We need to allow lasting light to bring out the beauty of what he has been creating "under pressure" in the confines of our inner life. It is only when what has been created "under pressure" is allowed to surface and be exposed to the brilliance of his light that it shines as it should! Let God display all the beauty he has created - "above ground".  Just sayin!

Live in to live out

We might attempt to define obedience by the things we do instead of some other things. For example, we define it as obedient to drive the speed limit vs. careening down the highway as whatever break-neck speed we may feel like that day. We 'do' observe the limit, then we 'keep' our foot from pressing too firmly on the gas peddle, and we 'stay attentive' to the dial on the dashboard. All this to 'do' just one thing - drive the speed limit. Yes, obedience has to do with 'doing' and 'not doing' - it is making choices and living within those choices. It also has a whole lot to do with 'being', as well. We are 'being' renewed day by day - in the love and grace of God. That 'being' actually helps us with the 'doing'. We sometimes get that backwards, though - trying to 'do' in order to 'be', but God's plan is just the opposite!

When you obey me you are living in my love, just as I obey my Father and live in his love. (John 15:10 TLB)

Michelangelo once said he 'lived and loved in God's peculiar light'. I think this is so true for each of us. We experience God's light in various ways, in certain seasons, and it seems so very new and fresh to us. The room you are in right now looks very different at dusk, dawn, or the fullness of midday sun. The colors you see in the yard at night are not as vibrant as those you observe as the full day dawns. Light has a way of changing things - changing our surroundings, but also changing how we see things within those surroundings. Just as it has a way of changing things in our surroundings, it can change us within, making what we 'do' begin to change, as well. What is happening is that God's light is doing the work of creating newness withing until the actions that spring forth in our 'doing' is quite evident his love dwells within.

Obedience begins by 'living in' God's love and light. It isn't about us 'doing' anything - it is all about us 'being' in the right relationship so that we can be changed inwardly until it affects our outward 'doing'. Obedience is merely an evidence of living in the light! It is evidence we are 'in God's love' and his love is within us! Obedience doesn't have to be cumbersome. It might not come quickly, as with the dawn of light in the morning sky, but when it comes - wow! It brings vibrancy into our lives like nothing else does. We don't 'make light' - just like we don't 'make obedience' come forth from our lives. Obedience is a result of the light - light given, light absorbed, and light illuminated! Just sayin!

What goes in...

We can 'swallow' things both in the literal sense and in a figurative manner. Swallow your mashed potatoes and meatloaf at dinner and you have eaten dinner. Swallow a really bad scheme and you have potentially set out on a path you will come to regret. What goes into a man or woman is as important as what comes out! When the right stuff goes in - the right stuff is more likely to come out! So many times we focus more on what "goes into" the body and completely miss the importance of what it is that "comes out" of that same man or woman in the form of action, attitude, and exemplified values. There was this day when the disciples were being criticized for not "washing" prior to partaking of their meal. Trust me, this was not based upon a real concern that the disciples practiced good hand-hygiene to reduce the spread of micro-organisms! It was a "custom", plain and simple, that they were 'bypassing' - and that drew the attention of the religious leaders who were zealous about keeping every letter of the Law.

"Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution. It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."
(Mark 7:14-15; 20-23)

In one sense, we can be too overly focused on what it is that we "allow" into our physical bodies (not to say that we shouldn't be conscientious to take in good stuff). On the other hand, we can be too nonchalant about our physical intake, bringing unwanted things like obesity, clogged arteries, and diabetes into our lives. While focusing on what "goes into" our physical bodies is not exactly a bad thing - it is not the primary focus Jesus is concerned with here. His concern is in what we allow into our lives that will ultimately "pollute" everything that comes out of our lives. The list of "outward" manifestations of things that are hidden in the recesses of a man's mind, or heart, is what he is concerned with. These are directly impacted by what we allow to be the repeated focus of our thoughts, or the continual intake of damaging things through our physical senses like sight or sound.

As we examine the list of "outward" manifestations of what is "inwardly" embraced, it easy to see why he is so concerned with our "intake". Obscenities - morally offensive, disgusting, and repulsive communication. Lusts - intense and uncontrolled desires of all types that demand fulfillment and suck up our focus in life. Thefts - the taking of what we have no right to on our own. Murders - the "ending of life" may not be literal, but even the desire to "do away" with another is a crime in Jesus' book. Adulteries - the uncontrolled urge to take what belongs to another. Greed - the continual desire for more and the competition to always outdo the other guy. Depravity - evil, corrupt, totally consumed by what pleases self and demeans another. Deceptive dealings - fraudulent, misleading, misguided actions. Carousing - loose living. Mean looks and slander - wrong conduct toward another that damages or demeans another's reputation or self-image. Arrogance - the incessant desire to be the best and to be noticed for it. Foolishness - you could name any number of things here!

The question we need to ask is simple: What is it that is "going into" our lives that could "come out" in a manner that is not honoring of others or God, or that will damage the image of what others might believe about God as a result of our behavior or actions? We need to be cognizant of the "outflow" of our lives. We can only do that by being conscious of the "inflow". What goes in is what comes out! Count on it! Just sayin!