Man, I drove all over! I had no idea where I was going. I drove by Mall St. Vincent, through neighborhoods, passed restaurants, drove through parts of town that were rather scary. It wasn't long before my car had ventured into the casino district. Hey...I just followed the lights. Where I am from lights are very deceptive. They look like a skyline but then it turns out to be a refinery. It's all very discouraging so this was a nice aesthetic change.
And so I'm driving...enjoying the exploration...when I notice the song playing in my car. "Gravity" .
While I was driving I had pulled up the John Mayer "Continuum" album on my iPod. I know...as a pastor and speaking at a conference full of pastors I should have been listening to Hillsong or Chris Tomlin. But read this lyric...
Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down
And gravity wants to bring me down
I'm listening to that and my mind goes to this in the Bible..."The very things I hate I end up doing. The things I want to do I just don't do." (A peril of being a pastor...everything has a scripture reference.) One of the most righteous men in the Bible wrote that. It's in the book of Romans. This man wrote about two thirds of the New Testament. He also said this..."when I want to do good, evil is right there with me...the evil I do not want to do is what I keep on doing.
Gravity...working against one of the most Godly men that ever lived. I need to know this because there are times that I feel like I'm the only one who is clawing my way out of junk to get to a higher level. Okay...I know I'm NOT the only one...but there are Christians that literally hide the fact that they are affected by Gravity...the pull and tug of sin or simply the stuff of life.
Even Paul said..."I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me?
And in his next breath he says..."Thank God for Jesus...because of Him I can beat Gravity...I can live Higher"
Okay...I paraphrased that. But that's the idea.
God designed you with "higher" in mind. Transcendent living. And I have to connect with Him if my life is going to function right.
We live in a world trying to function apart from
God and it is not working. The commerce, education, political, relational,
religious systems are broken. Only God's ideas can work on God's planet.
The primary way we relate to God is through His Word...The Bible. All through it there is a message of transcendence. God came down...to bring us up.
You can find examples in Exodus 3:8 So I have
come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into
a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey...
...and in Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms...
God’s interest in people
is that they live at a different level. Taken care of. Provided for. And most of all...that He is the one that
supplies for them.
There are lot's of attractive lights that get our attention. But what looks attractive can turn on you...things disappoint. There is a lot that competes for our affections on a horizontal level. But unless you live vertically you can never beat the Gravity. God has higher for us. Jesus said..."I am the Light of the World...
So I'm driving singing this song...me and John Mayer...driving back to the hotel...
And gravity has taken better men than me (now how can that be?)
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where keep me where the light is
Beat Gravity...Live Transcendent,
Brent
