Monday, May 21, 2012

Living Outside of a Box

Do you try to box God in? Have you put God in a box to fit your own political, theological, or economic opinions? We all do it, of course; but the transcendent God is not our pawn. God does not belong to us. We belong to God.                                           

Just as God will not let us put "him" into a box he will not let us put our money into a box either. God insists that the ways we spend and give our money be integrated into our faith. To render unto God what comes from God is to offer everything for God’s use: our work, our play, our time, our money, our very selves. And when we trust God with the whole of our lives, we will experience the joyful freedom of living outside a box. 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Spitting on God's Art

I walk out of my neighborhood to a main east-west road that leads to the beach, which is four blocks from my house. I carry a black hefty garbage in my right hand, along with gloves and a 'grabber' that I use to pick up trash, which is strewn along the roadside.

The sun is mid morning high and the leather gloves are sweating. Despite the three trash cans posted along this road, some people continue to toss bottles and cans, candy wrapers, fast food bags, and cig butts. All of this litter is hiding in blades of tall green grass that border a state park and bird sanctuary.

Cardinal and seagulls fly over head oblivious to my attempts at making the earth, and our community, a little cleaner. Drivers pass me by watching from their air conditioned cars; some of them chuckle and point at me, as if I'm a elephant dancing on a ball. I continue walking, bending, picking. And then I have this thought: throwing trash in the grass is like spitting on God's art. And then I wonder, "How many of these trash-?throwers profess Christian faith? Is littering a sin against God"