••••••• INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS •••••••

Think and Live Outside the Box

Read: Isaiah 55:8-9

"Thinking outside the box" is a common phrase these days. Frequently we are encouraged to think in unconventional ways and refrain from placing boundaries around possible solutions to our dilemmas.

"Thinking outside the box" is also a great way to describe life as a Christian. Let us consider this world, our existence on planet Earth, to be the box. If we look at life from inside the box, it is rather bleak. Death is the end. Suffering has no meaning. We are bound by the laws of nature and physics. Inside the box there is no room for God.

But Jesus calls us to live outside the box. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. When we learn to do that, our whole perspective changes.

• Inside the box, life ends at death; outside the box, life is eternal.
• Inside the box, natural laws apply. From outside the box, God works miracles.
• Inside the box, greatness is achieved by having the most: money, sex, power, fame–take your pick. Outside the box, greatness is achieved by serving others and sometimes by our own suffering.
• Living inside the box means depending on our own limited resources. Living outside the box means depending on the infinite resources of God.
• Living inside the box is me, me, me–my time, my money, my life. Living outside the box is knowing that everything belongs to God. It also means knowing that God will provide for us in ways that are better than we could ever provide for ourselves.

Let me suggest yet another aspect to this concept. Too often, even though we know God is outside the box, we insist on limiting God and putting God inside the box with us. We somehow think that God cannot work miracles, that our problems are too great, that we cannot do something we feel called to do. But God exists outside the box. God can do whatever God chooses. God is infinite! But in order to tap into that divine, infinite wisdom, resource, power, and strength, we need to have faith to think and live outside the box.

Prayer: Infinite God, You are greater than anything we can imagine. Lift us out of our boxes and may we join You in ministry "out there" in the world where You are. Amen.

 

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