Beyond Limits (part 3)

Please read Beyond Limits part 1 & part 2 before this or it probably won't make much sense.

In part 1 we talked about the difference between a limitless God and the limitations of humans. Part 2 talked about the comparison we often make between ourselves and others, when the only one that matters is the comparison between us and God. For part three, we're going to talk briefly about capacity.

Let's forgo the numbers for a moment and use water as an analogy. We'll call God all the oceans in the world since it is a fairly large concept (even though God in infinitely larger). Let's say that we, as creatures with limits, have containers that vary in size from cups to swimming pools. Still with me? Ok, I'm holding a cup of water. In that cup are all my issues, all my strengths, all my abilities and problems. If I were to take that cup to the beach and pour it into the ocean, how much bigger would the ocean get? Even if every molecule of H2O spread out, would the ocean even rise one molecule? For all real purposes, the ocean would be totally unaffected. Imagine the same scenario with a swimming pool. Would all the molecules spread all over the globe and raise the oceans? Most likely not.

So then why do we hesitate sometimes to bring our issues to God? Other people can only handle us to a certain extent. Enough cups of water and you'll fill a swimming pool. Get two people together with cups and they are very limited in what they can take from us. But if you see God as an infinite ocean that can always take everything we put on Him, maybe we'll be more likely to turn to Him right away instead of hesitating. He'll never fill up. He can always take everything from us and be ready for more.

Now, reverse the scenario. How much smaller does the ocean get if you take out a cup of water? The coolest thing about God having infinite capacity is that He has infinite supply. He can fill my cup, your swimming pool, and everyone else's and still be just as infinitely huge as ever. Moreover, I can only pour so much of myself into other people (look at part 2 for why we need to pour into others) before my cup is empty. God, can pour enough into my cup that it overflows and I can never run out. Through God, I can tap into an infinite supply and pour into others with more to spare. He will never run out, and will never reach a limit. We need to connect to that source and trust in it.

Beyond Limits (part 2)

Sorry for the delay. Bonfires, race cars, church, and everything in between seemed to get in the way.

This is a continuation of Beyond Limits (part 1)

So the cool thing about finite creatures and infinite God is the amount of metaphors that come from this. We already saw briefly how impossibly small we are compared to God. Billy Graham may be 10 trillion, and I may only be 50, but when compared to an infinite God, we are both impossibly small.

So why then do some of us spend our lives trying to grow in knowledge? Well, there are things that knowledge is good for. For starters, as finite creatures with a limited capacity, knowledge helps us to understand God within the capacity of our own selves and possibly our micro-universe. I say possibly because limited knowledge can be misleading if God is acting on an infinite scale in the world around us. (we'll get into this point another time) Secondly and probably most important of all, the knowledge that God blesses us with is a wonderful tool for helping those around us. If an infinite God pours bits of himself into us, we are then able to touch those around us with a piece of infinite resources. We'll go deeper with this topic in part 3.

Unfortunately, some of us pursue knowledge for wrong reasons. If we seek to learn more about God just to be smarter, what is the point? If I spend my whole life growing from a 50, to 10 trillion, how far away am I still from true knowledge? You guessed it, still infinity. I can spend my whole life learning, seeking, and growing, but at the end of my life, I am still impossibly far away from the truth. My life has been spent chasing an impossible task. I can never know the answers. I might know some of them, but in the end I would be like a little boy trying to scoop up handfuls of sand so that I can carry the whole beach.

Seek knowledge so that you can grow closer to God. I pray that He will reveal the parts of himself that we need most to accomplish our tasks in this life. I pray that he will use us and our capacity to make a difference and that we will spend our lives impacting those around us.

Beyond Limits (part 1)

It's time for a math lesson.
Oh Crap! Did he just say ....... MATH!?
It's ok, you should be able to stick with this one easily enough.

Lesson 1:
What is greater, 50 or infinity?

OK, I hope you said infinity.

Lesson 2:
How much bigger is it?

Infinity times bigger right? Makes sense. If the number "50" cannot go beyond it's fixed limit, and if the number "infinity" keeps going and going and going, it makes sense that it is infinitely times bigger.

Now which is bigger, 1 million or infinity? Again, "infinity" is larger. How much larger? Infinity times larger. What about 100 trillion and infinity? Again, the same result. The fact is simply that nothing with limitations, boundaries, or definition can ever out-pace something that is infinite, without boundaries or limitations. And it doesn't matter how much bigger the number on the left is, the difference is always infinity.

It's important to realize that God is infinity. He is beyond limits, beyond definition, beyond boundaries. We, as finite creatures can never measure up by definition. We will always be impossibly small compared to an infinite God. Stay tuned for the conclusion of this point tomorrow and to see a few other neat points about this lesson.

One concept in management is the importance of setting goals. They need to be challenging yet attainable in order to challenge us to achieve them without discouraging us from giving our best. They also need to be clear and measurable so they are understood and so we can gauge how well they have been met.

The reason we set goals in management is because of an underlying concept. We must be moving towards a goal. There needs to be a direction and it needs to be in line with the overall goals of the organization.

Once goals and directions are in place, you can examine you systems to determine how effective they are in achieving your goals.

This was all driven home for me now that I am helping out with Pulse, our high school ministry. When I came on board, we had no staff members casting vision or giving a direction for the ministry. Now that Phillip McCart our family pastor is here, we are rooting out the direction of Pulse, and we have clear goals that our ministry needs to achieve. Unfortunately, this Sunday it was very evident that our current volunteer system is not accomplishing that goal. It's partly frustrating to me because we've spent 3 months building this model and we're going to have to change it again, but at the same time encouraging because the new system will really allow us to better utilize our amazing group of volunteers.

I'm sure that we're now moving in the right direction and I'm grateful for the leadership of Phillip and the outstanding group of volunteers that are dedicated to serving Jesus and forming relationships with our students.

Importance

I'm slowly learning things that I should already know, but am slow to pick up on. This week at Elevation was informative to me because I realized how unimportant we all really are. We were missing a few key people Sunday morning, but things went on as they always do. I started to reflect on that fact. How important am I really?

I like to think the job I do matters, and that I do it in a way that no one else could, but in the end, how important am I really? I realized that deep down, the church doesn't need me. Sure, if I disappeared tomorrow I would be missed (I hope so anyways), but the world would keep on spinning.

But even more important is that no one person at this church is vital to it. Even Pastor himself can take a week off, and things would continue. Does that mean he isn't important? Absolutely not. Every person volunteering and serving at church is important and is living out God's calling in their lives, but they aren't more important than the Church. That's the key. Jesus Christ is the one and only person that needs to show up every Sunday for this thing to work.

Evolution

When I first became a Christian and started exploring God, it was like He slowly painted a picture for me. Every thing I learned was a new line of the image. Every relationship I formed, every thing he taught me, added another color. And finally, when it was all over, when I understood "Christianity", the picture was complete and I had something to look at, visualize, and wrap my mind around.

The problem, was that I felt like I was looking at a 4x6 picture of a mountain, all the while my soul cried out, trying to tell me what a mountain really was. I couldn't shake the feeling that my picture was horribly simple and didn't even begin to do justice to what the reality really was. Much like looking at a picture of Mt Everest, and actually standing on top of it, I had to know what was really behind the image.

So my search for truth didn't stop at the image. I spent more time exploring God, and a crazy thing started to happen!

I think I expected the picture to get more complex; 3 dimensional maybe, or become larger, or have more detail. I expected God to continue to reveal himself in the same way, only better. What started to happen though, was that my image of God, Christianity, and Truth all started to dissolve. They began to fade away because no image could ever seek to explain the real thing. No picture could ever replace the experience, the emotion of standing on a mountain peak. The hard thing for me now, is explaining just what that looks like. As a finite being, any definition, any image, any word that I can use to describe an infinite God, puts limits and boundaries on what He really is. The image dissolved because in order for me to discover more, the boundaries had to dissolve.

My image of God has been replaced with emotions, feelings, and certainty. Things without boundaries or limits. Only these things can express something beyond limits and boundaries. When you seek God beyond the limits, be prepared for Him to shatter your ability to understand and express what He really is.

Quick Snippets

Walk with me through the land of ADD....

• "Either you stay desperate for God or He will make you desperate for Him." I really like this quote and try to remember it so I don't forget to stay desperate and connected

• This past Sunday at Elevation was crazy. 3500 attendees, 135 salvations, 1001 more guests than our previous service....

• I was able to confirm two new volunteer leaders for our High School ministry. We now have a mingle team leader who is amped to connect with students and help others do the same as well as a High School greeters leader who has so much potential and is such an amazing Christian. I can't wait for God to bring in some more. This ministry is on the fast track to amazing!

• I just found out I get to be the series director for the NASA Endurance Series this year. 6 races on Fridays that last 3 hours or more. The car is coming along nicely and my co-driver is an ex-ALMS, ex-Koni Challenge racer with tons of experience. I expect to learn a lot from driving with him.

• Finally, this is a neat bit of imagery that Craig Groeschel posted on prayer. I really liked it.

Parents explain the world by simplifying things down into ways children can understand. No one would expect a parent to use the history of society or the behavioral traits of nomadic tribes to explain to a child that friends are important. Instead, adults simplify the message so that the key points make it through to the child. Now, every child has a different propensity for understanding messages. Some kids are just brighter than others; some naturally understand certain concepts and struggle to grasp other ones. As such, a parent will tailor a message to each child in a way that will maximize the impact based on that child's ability to comprehend and utilize the information. The important thing to see is that, although the child cannot possible understand the total scope of the idea, they can behave as if they do when taught properly.

In other words, a child may not understand the importance of shared society, social benefits of groups, or job specialization, but they can be taught to share and be kind to others. They can behave as if they understand the importance of social interactions and get the key parts correct, even without an understanding of the whole scope.

I believe that God acts in a very similar way with us, only on a much more intense scale. Eventually, a child will grow up into an adult, and their propensity to understand will be equal. Humans on the other hand, are finite beings with a limit ability to understand. When compared to an infinite God we cannot even begin to comprehend the separation between the scope of things and what we are exposed to.

God cannot show us the whole of everything. God can't even show us the whole of something. Instead, He has to simplify things down in ways we can understand, and just as the children above everyone has a different propensity for understanding. I think God shows different people different parts of Himself and in different ways. The end result of this is that two different people can sit next to each other, with totally different views of God, and both be 100% right. Interestingly, they are both probably very ignorant. I think that you can lock yourself up for 70 years, and spend so much time learning about God that you make Billy Graham and Joel Osteen look like pre-schoolers, and you'll still only have scratched the surface.

The point, is that we can never understand God or even really know Him. (in the knowledge sense, not the personal relationship sense) What we can do is trust Him to teach us the things that we need in order to behave in the manner He wants us to. We won't get the same things that everyone else does, because we have a different capacity than those around us; however, we will get what is best for us. I look at those around me and rejoice for what God is showing them, even if it doesn't make sense to me. I look within myself and I am blown away that an infinite God would invest into a finite being. I pray that I am faithful in what I am given and I pray that I never forget that all the knowledge in the world is nothing in comparison to the God of the Universe.