We will tend to bend into whatever view of God we have – whether right or wrong, good or bad. Just as a child mimics what is modeled for them, we don’t actually have much of a choice of whether or not we will imitate God. We do not sufficiently recognize how this is also a spiritual law at work in our lives. At times this is humorous, at times it is quite painful, yet it proves true as the years go by. And the older we get, the more we realize how we are unwittingly conformed to traits that we have seen in your parents, and how our children are dynamically shaped by the behaviors they see in us. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)Īll of us are either a parent or a child, or both. If we are honest, how many times in the last month have we had substantial time set apart for prayerfully pondering the majestic identity of God with no other agenda or outcome than simple adoration? This act of gazing upon His splendor is the preoccupation of His heavenly retinue and it would seem that it is intended to be ours as well (Revelation 4:8, Psalm 27:4). The towering, mysterious truths about the being of God cannot fit into a podcast that we listen to on our drive into work for our fifth meeting of the week while stopping off at our favorite niche coffee shop along the way. Efficiency and pragmatism can be helpful values, but not when they become so axiomatic that they leave no room for what is transcendent and eternal. In the midst of such a dizzying pace, that which is accessible and actionable often becomes most prized.
People must be cared for, services must be planned for, songs must be practiced for, and there is nothing that the grind of normal life stops for. Every day confronts us with a litany of many good things that must be attended to, so much so that most of us end the day with at least a mild sense of anxiety over what was not accomplished. As strange as it might sound at first, it is not at all uncommon for God to be neglected in the frenetic shuffle of ministry in the 21st century.
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