Are you able to imagine an alternative reality or can you only see your future as being more of the same?
Jesus not only imagines an alternative reality but creates one by pursuing a path and purpose which is in opposition to the thoughts and expectations of our human nature (v 23 of Matthew 16: 21 – 28). As the songwriter T. Bone Burnett put it, Jesus’ words and actions open up a trapdoor beneath us when we think we have life sussed: “you've got to give up your life to be alive / you've got to suffer to know compassion … you find only pain if you seek after pleasure / you work like a slave if you seek after leisure.”
The alternative reality that Jesus lives out is where salvation, compassion, pleasure, leisure, and abundant life are all to be found but to touch that reality we have to be able to imagine an alternative. So, what might forgetting self, carrying your cross and losing your life look like in your workplace? What might these things mean for the organisation for which you work? If we cannot imagine how life could possibly be different, aren’t we essentially trapped in whatever reality we currently inhabit with no options for change?
Prayer: Turn my thoughts and ideas about life on their head and help me imagine how life could be different, so that I have choices for my future and my life. Amen.
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T Bone Burnett - Power Of Love.
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