Recently, I have been challenged by this idea: the idea of “Living in Expectancy with an Ability to Respond, as opposed to Expectations and Responsibility”. The first phrase speaks of verbs… the second speaks of nouns. A verb is living and active, A noun is dead. There is Gospel and Law in every aspect of the scriptures, there is Gospel and Law in every aspect of our lives and relationships… The Gospel is all about verbs… The Law tends to be a bit “noun-ish”. Yet, Jesus came to fulfill the Law, not to abolish it… He came to give Verbishness to our Nounishness. So where does that leave us?? In the middle of a grammar lesson??? Or with a challenge to Live in Expectancy with the Ability to Respond. Even if you hate Grammar… come on out on Sunday and be challenged with me to see the difference between: confessing and confession; loving and love; singing and song; dancing and dance; building and A building… Expectancy and Expectation; Ability to Respond and Responsibility…. Thoroughly confused???
So was I, until this all began to sink in. See you Sunday!!
July 25th, 2008 at 9:53 am
this sounds like a similar message to my favorite passage from “The Shack”! for me there is nothing more shoulder-heavy than living under someone’s expectations - always sensing their eyes on me and the nearness of their judgment if i don’t measure up. and to be bound by that mentality toward others makes me perpetually critical and unhappy, because no one (including me!) ever WILL measure up to my expectations (and probably shouldn’t!). but in my experience, anyway, there is nothing more freeing than living within the realm of eyes-open expectancy … always on the lookout for what God can do and might do in a life or a situation, knowing He is Master of the unexpected and the impossible, both in me and in my world. the focus changes entirely, from us to Him. right where it should be, huh?