A Room with a View

Jan and I are attending the Worldcast Ministries Conference in Yakima, Washington. Later today I am scheduled to speak.  As I sit in our beautiful hotel room going over the notes for my message, I am looking through a window at the Yakima River. The window is framing a visible metaphor for life and wisdom.  Looking out the window I only see the image before me – a window, a balcony, a walking path and the river. Had Jan and I not left our room for an early morning walk along the river we would have never seen the geese flying overhead or how the river forks and surrounds an island the boy in me wanted to swim out to and explore.  In order to see more we had to get out of our room and leave behind the narrow representation of reality our window provided.

At age 66, I am being overhauled. No, I am not getting a tummy-tuck, a hair transplant or a new wardrobe. I am having my understanding of God’s Kingdom overhauled. It’s time. I am in need of a spiritual tune up and oil change. I used to think at this time in my life I would have it all figured out, but now I realize how dangerous that way of thinking can be if left unchecked. The Kingdom isn’t static. It is always expanding. God’s Kingdom is continually tearing itself from the grip of people who think they have God defined and contained within the grasp of their limited understanding.

To understand this thing called the Kingdom of God requires that we become explorers who are willing to leave our room and its limited view of reality and walk outside to see the bigger picture. Staying in the room of our theological status quo creates small people with small views of God and His Kingdom. God is doing something large and ever increasing on the face of the earth. We can never see that expansive work of God if we stay holed up in the room of our assumptions. Get out and explore what is beyond your current line of sight. Outside, somewhere along the path, is where the next season of your life is waiting to be discovered.