Texting God

Let me ask you a question. How’s your prayer life? 

If you’re anything like me you just broke out into a nervous sweat. In the past, my prayer life consisted of a minute or two of actual prayer followed by 28 minutes of spiritual warfare between guilt over my inability to stay focused and wondering if the sun would look better in a summer dress or a tuxedo. Than I discovered the secret to prayer that has set me free.  

Get rid of your prayer life.

The very nature of the phrase “Prayer life” is something that I think breaks the heart of God. The phrase Implies I have my normal life and a separate “prayer life” with a designated time, place and agenda. Once I have completed my prayer time I am free to step back into my normal life. 

Imagine you have a spouse. In the morning you wake up early, sit on the porch and pour your heart out to them connecting like never before. You share your passions, your fears, your needs and lavish them with love. When your 30 minute timer goes off you get up, walk out the door and go about your day eager for your meeting tomorrow morning. 

Now, imagine you wake up next to the the same spouse. You say good morning, thank them for everything they have done and with an “I love you” and a kiss you head for work. As you are sitting in traffic you think of a joke that you quickly text to your spouse. Walking into the office you see something that reminds you of an experience you shared with them so you send them a picture of it with a short message “remember this lol”. As you prepare for a meeting you send a quick email telling them how nervous you are.  All day long this continues. Quick texts, picture messages and notes. Nothing lengthy, simply sharing your life with them. Staying connected. This is what I believe God desires from us. 

The bible tells us to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17) but in the very next verse it tells us to give thanks in everything. This is not about praying continuously but about staying connected to our father in EVERYTHING that happens in our lives! 

Every time you look down at your phone and see those 5 bars, you know that if you ever have problem or want to share a joyful moment with someone all you have to do is dial the number. You are connected. Even in the moments between contact the knowledge that someone is only a text away keeps you connected to them. This is what God wanted from me but instead all I was offering was a designated “phone time” for God to get in touch with me.  When we change our mindset about prayer it frees us up to a greater dialog and truly connects us to Him.   

Question: What have you changed that has led to a greater relationship with God? 

What Would Jesus Drink? Throwback Pepsi!!

Last night I stopped at a gas station after class. As I stood in front of a wall of soda trying to decide between the hundreds of different drinks I noticed one drink that stood out from the crowd. Throwback Pepsi. For those who don't know what a Throwback Pepsi is, it is basically a Pepsi the way they made it back in the 80's. The bottle has the old outdated red, white and blue Pepsi globe and, in a sea of soda drinks, it sticks out like your ugly cousins tooth at the family reunion. Even next to the new modern Pepsi bottles it looks pale in comparison. But the true glory is whats inside. At some point Pepsi decided it would be cheaper to use high frutose corn syrup in their drinks instead of real sugar and so the downward spiral began.

What is great about the Throwback Pepsi is that it is made with real sugar the way nature intended for us to drink soda.  As i looked at the outdated logo and cheezy graphics of the bottle I realised something. While Pepsi had done a great job keeping their image and brand hip and relavent to todays generation they had lost something. The packageing and presentation were great but the product was no longer the same.

As I drank my delicious liquid time machine, I was struck with the realization that many in the church have done the very same thing, myself included. In our desire to present the message of Christ in a hip new relavent way we have changed the content of the product. What was once a powerful message has become, in many cases, an excellently packaged, watered down version of what it was intended to be.

The Church has a duty to continue to update the way we present Christ to the ever changing generation but we must never let the packaging get in the way of the product.

Be blessed - Matt