To God, though we have lost our way in life, we are never forgotten. God has a way of nudging back on life’s pathway. God utilizes people, providential situations, and circumstances to get our attention. There can always be a “welcome home” party for us in God’s eyes.
Author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, once wrote,
We often look at our negative circumstances in life and believe certain events are the final. Illness, loss of employment, a bad review, or a broken relationship can make us view life as bleak. However, what if God is at work in the seemingly unfortunate events in life?
Long ago, there once was a farmer who depended on a horse to work the land. Unfortunately, a lightning storm frightened the horse, and it ran away. The farmer searched for the horse for weeks but could not find it. His friends said, “Sorry you lost your horse. Bad luck.”
As churches emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, I often hear congregational leaders and pastors ask one another, “What’s next? What do we need to do?” Typical responses often center on the church becoming more digitally available to people. Indeed, churches have made essential investments in livestreaming worship, Zoom facilitation of small groups, technology, and making ministry programs more accessible. This is a pipeline approach: finding the direct vehicle to deliver religious and spiritual content.
As much as access to the internet has changed the way people relate to one another, work, live, and experience the world, the moveable type printing press has had an equal, if not greater, impact in the way people have access to information. The internet is over 40 years old, but the moveable printing press is over 500 years old. Much like the internet, the flow of information via a moveable type printing press made access to information economical and widespread in previous centuries. Christians saw the new technology as a way to share Christianity with the masses. Widespread efforts in literacy helped fuel the Protestant Reformation in Europe. The moveable type printing press enabled a free exchange of ideas and Christian theology, which were not available to the masses previously. The moveable type printing press disrupted the theological pipeline monopoly of the Catholic Church.
Continue Reading…
You must be logged in to post a comment.