Epicenter Conversations

I came across the poem online today and I really liked the message. I didn't write it, so you can comment all you want without fear. :)

I had to laugh at myself today
For thinking about how I had it made
And day after day just slips away
As if I’ve got it figured out

I’m so used to being comfortable
To life being uninterruptable
But that’s not what I’m about

I’m gonna live outside the box today
And capture everything around me
Thank the Lord for what surrounds me
Maybe I’ll just throw the box away

‘Cause it’s so much better out here anyway
I’m tired of my life being typical
Why should it have to be predictable?
Life can be irresistible
And that’s what I’m finding out

I’m seeing things from a different view
Closing my eyes and trusting You
‘Cause that’s what I’m all about

Thank You for the life You’ve given me
Thank You for the way
You make me free to be
Someone who can look at every day
Seeing all the beauty You have made
(Alli Rogers, “Boxes”)

I just read this post on a site that I frequent called Doable Evangelism. It's an interesting site that Randy Siever and Jim Henderson run. They give seminars on finding simple, practical ways to reach others for Christ, and I'm usually happily surprised by the suggestions they give.

Randy's recent post about re-reading Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest
and coming out with a very different meaning was interesting to me. It made me wonder what kind of "lenses" I use to view the things I read. How has our church affected our reading of other spiritual material? What does God really want us to learn?

Here is the beginning of his post:

Forgive my obsession with Oswald Chambers. I have read My Utmost For His Highest fairly regularly for over 25 years. I’m now seeing things he said that I honestly don’t remember, despite the fact that I’ve likely read this exact passage at least 20 times over that span. Part of this is just where I am right now, but part of it is the filter I saw everything through in my little well defined evangelical lens. If it didn’t appear in that lens, it either didn’t exist or it was not worth considering. I read and taught scripture that way, through that smallish lens, and I apparently read Oswald Chambers that way.

Keep reading the rest, including the Oswald Chambers quote over here.


What do you think?