The 60 Second Sermon Saturday October 26th 2013 I want to see Jesus! Our friend and Sister in Christ, Lynn from Faith Full, posted this some time ago: “As I tried to post last night my little grandson came over to sit with Meme. He was squirming and trying to figure out how and where to sit on me lol. I was trying to keep him from climbing on the computer, I tried many different positions. Matthew kept saying, meme I want to see Jesus!. As we finally figured it out, he would point to each picture and say, there is Jesus and there and there. He then would smile and clap his little hands. It made me think, even still this morning. He wanted to see Jesus!!!!!!!!!! He persevered until he saw Jesus. Jesus gave him JOY!” How much can we learn from this beautiful little guy? How much better would the world be if we all looked for Jesus within each other and then smiled and clapped when we saw Him in our Love? How much better would our world be if we expected to see that kind of Love in everyone? How much better would our world be if we Loved everyone in that way? When we come into the world, we know nothing of self and only know connectedness with God, parents, or whoever is currently holding us. As an educator, I have witnessed, in multitudes of children, the development of the self as a diametrically opposed movement from spiritual maturation in connection with God! So I wonder why Isn’t anyone telling us about this? You can ask any behaviorist, anthropologist, early-childhood development specialist, pediatric medical doctor, or child psychologist about the human developmental phases. The answer you get will vary depending on discipline, but invariably they will have something to do with a psychological, physical, and cognitive “sense of self” separate from mother and the rest of the family. The answers will continue with the discussion of maturation in the same realms and the topic of the development of the individual. Later, given appropriate social development, it will culminate in the acceptance the individual self. This is what Abraham Maslow called “Self-Actualization.” Yes that is an altogether simplified explanation of some very thoughtful and complex ideas, but the main idea prevails. What is bothersome is that the secular world completely avoids talking about our spiritual development in these stages of life, especially when it is so clearly and directly influencing all of the other aspects of development? Let me show you what I mean! Let’s call it “The Spiritual Circle of Life” When a baby comes into the world it has no sense of self. This is true, but I don’t think it is true completely due to biological factors. I think babies have no sense of self because spiritually they have not had the need to experience the self as a separate being. Look into a baby’s eyes and you see only Love! They do not know the pain, hunger, loneliness, and separateness that come with being human. They only know love. As the human experience continues, babies begin to learn more about themselves as a separate being. They realize that they have hands and vocal cords. They begin to use their human nervous systems and think about human needs and desires. All of this does exactly what it is supposed to do. It allows babies to become human beings feeling separate from God and their spiritual reality. They develop a “sense of self” but it is not solely biological in nature. This is a spiritual sense of self! Why would they need to develop a sense of self if there was not something to separate from? What is self, other than our identity apart from God and others? Now think about all the kids you have known. They continue this separating process throughout their lives. They become more “self-reliant” as they learn to physically and cognitively do more. Schools help to separate children from their families and their spiritual nature as they “socialize” students and help them to learn citizenship. More and more emphasis is placed on being a good person, or being the best one can be in human terms. It all serves to continue the separation from our spiritual nature! A quick point before I continue, I do not necessarily think any of this is bad, I just think we need to see it for what it is. It could be that this whole process is very important to our request to be saved! Now think about the pinnacle of separateness that all of us go through. Adolescence! In Adolescence our physical body is screaming for its separateness and for our attention. Children at this stage are separating from their family units and from their social norms. They are at a culminating point of striving for spiritual separation and they rebel against everything. Paradoxically, it is also at this point that children crave the connectedness most acutely as they connect to their peers. At this stage of spiritual development we are nearly as separated as we can be. Many feel completely alone, even if they have grown up in a Christian family, this time of life causes questions and seeking of one’s own understanding! Some at this stage grasp the need for spiritual connection and fully commit themselves and their lives to Jesus Christ and find the connectedness that they desire! Others tragically continue to drift away and further into self. (This is why I think youth ministry is so critically important!) From there the paths to acceptance of the Lord are as varied as there are people, but the one thing that is true in every case is that, to change that drifting apart, it requires recognition of that problem and a conscious decision to give up self and come back into connectedness with God! Once that recognition and desire is in place, and we give our lives and will over to Jesus Christ, the apex of separation has been passed by and we begin a journey of giving up more and more of ourselves and we become more connected each day. As Spiritual maturity continues, we move closer and closer to the connection with which we entered this world! It is good for us to recognize what Lynn’s grandson Mathew already knows! He knows that we are never really separated, that this whole separateness is a function of human mind and development and free will. He knows that God has never chosen separation from us! He knows that he is connected to God and that all of the people he sees on that Faith Full page are clothed in Jesus Christ! He knows that through our Love we have the ability to show people Jesus Christ, no matter where they are in their own spiritual journey! All we can do is Love one another! Let’s show them Jesus like Matthew showed us! Let’s show them Jesus in our Love! We all want to see Jesus! Let’s show them Jesus! Love first…Love always! God Bless You! With Love, Brent
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 02:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015