Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

"Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God.'" - Luke 18:27

I see Christ imagery everywhere. Many people in my life call this an over-active imagination, or that I stretch something to mean or look like something that it doesn't, but I'm okay with that. :-) I like seeing Jesus everywhere.

A while ago my sister wanted to go see the new "Alice in Wonderland" film by Tim Burton. Now, I'm always up for a movie, so we called a few more people and went to the show. If you're not familiar with the new film, it's kinda like a sequel to the original story. In this film Alice is going back to Wonderland to fulfill their ancient "Frabjous Day" prophecy.. only she doesn't realize it's not a dream. She thinks wonderland is this dream she's been having since she was little.

The film continues on, and she finds herself encountering the same characters she did once before when she journeyed there as a child. And the funny thing is, only the white rabbit and the Mad Hatter are certain that she's the same Alice as before - the rest of the characters don't believe it's the same girl. They don't recognize her. She seems somehow "less" than before. In fact, the Hatter looks right at her and says, "You've lost your muchness. You aren't as much as you were before."

So, the whole plot is Alice denying that she's the girl prophesied about on the scroll and her running away from her "calling" if you will. Finally, on the night before the big battle between she and the Jabberwocky, she realizes that this world IS real and that she is a crucial part of it. Then there's this great shot of her riding into frame on the back of the Bandersnatch, wearing brilliant armor and carrying the Vorpal Sword (armor of God, anyone??).

Now, as a child, she and her father would sit and talk about impossible things. In fact, it was their custom to try and think of six impossible things before breakfast - and then set out to accomplish them. So, as she takes the battlefield and is staring the Jabberwocky in the face, she speaks to herself, "Come on, Alice. Think of six impossible things." And as she begins to do battle, she comes up with five impossible things, the sixth being a very powerful and defiant, "I can slay the Jabberwocky." The music swells, the battle rages, and sure enough, she slays the Jabberwocky in true dramatic style. Well done, Tim Burton.

Brothers and sisters, we have a God who makes the impossible, possible. He causes a virgin to be with child. He causes the deaf to hear and the blind to see. He calms the wind and the waves with His words. He changes water into wine. He feeds thousands of people with barely any food! He raises the dead, dies and rises on the third day, and even makes it possible for sinners to live with Yahweh eternally. Nothing is impossible with God.

Beloved, this is not just a poetic device - this is true. Whatever your Jabberwocky may be, He will slay it for you. He may slay it now, or He may slay it in the life to come, but make no mistake, it's going to happen. I know that can almost be scary to hear. I think we tend to spiritualize Yahweh's promises to us because it helps us cope with our current reality. When we're in pain, confusion, angst, feeling lost - it's difficult to put our hope in anything that might disappoint us because we feel like we can't take anymore discouragement. Jesus knows this. He understands. 

At one point in His ministry, Christ came upon a widow in a town called Nain. She had just lost her son - her only son - and was broken hearted about it. The text in Luke 7 says "When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."' In the Greek, "his heart went out to her" could be more literally translated as "he was hit in the gut with emotion." He looked at this woman's pain and it socked Him in the stomach with sadness. So, how does He respond? He walks up to the coffin carrying the dead son and tells him to get up. He raises the dead son and gives him back to his mother. 

Whoa.


Take that, Death!
When you are in pain, our Lord is socked in the stomach with emotion for you, but it doesn't end there! He not only feels for you, He does something about it. He heals you. He frees you. He saves you. He brings you back from the dead. He slays your Jabberwocky.

The world would tell us that faith is impossible; hope is impossible; healing is impossible. But NOTHING is impossible with Yahweh. You can hope in that, believe in that, remain in that, find rest in that. Our hope in Christ does not disappoint us. So you get to thinking about six impossible things before breakfast everyday - and then sit back and watch what Yahweh does with them. Christ told His disciples they would do even greater things than Him - and that includes you and me.

The impossible has been made possible through the very blood of Christ. 


Take heart. 


He's slaying your Jabberwocky, both now and forevermore. 

Keeping Pushing Your Lawn Mower

"Pushing a lawn mower."

Yup, that's my URL thingamajig for this blog.

I had a great theology professor in grad school who used to live in Austin, Texas. One fine, 104 degree, 1000% humidity summer day he arrived at home and pulled his car into his driveway. Upon exiting, he turned and noticed his neighbor mowing his lawn in the very heat of the day. He began to think to himself about how hot and uncomfortable his neighbor must be, doing such a chore in the extreme heat, when his neighbor mowed all the way to the bottom of his property and turned, revealing his little son following right behind him pushing his own tricked-out toy lawn mower right behind and just like his daddy. My professor stopped and thought to himself, "That's it, right there."

That little boy was happy to be out in the monstrous heat "mowing" the lawn simply because his daddy was doing it first - and he wants to be just like his daddy.

Faith in Jesus is incredibly foolish. It's stupid, really. It causes you to do things like make friends with crazy, homeless people (I'll post pictures soon) and have them stay with you at your house as a member of the family. It causes you to believe that impossible things are possible (like rebuilding a church that runs out of money in a year). It causes you to love people who have hurt you, slandered you, and picked on you just for sport. It causes you to look at your ever dwindling bank account and have no fear. Faith in Jesus causes you to look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come in such a way as to say to the world that you expect it to happen - and you don't flinch in surprise when it does. Faith in Jesus causes you to meet Death and yet declare victory.

So, why do we act that way? Why do we make fools of ourselves and believe unbelievable things? Why do we give ten percent of our income to a church that looks like it's dying? Why do we let that homeless guy smell up the bed in our house and eat our food and cost us money? Why don't we tell that  whore to please go to someone else's church? Why in the world do we continue to listen to that pathetic liar time and time again? Why the heck do we mow the lawn in 104 degree weather when we could be inside the air-conditioned house sipping homemade lemonade???

We do it because our Daddy did it first - and we can't help but want to be just like Him. We love because He first loved us.

So here's to our Daddy. May we continue to be more and more like Him everyday, even when it makes us look stupid.