I have built this blog with the idea that God could use absolutely anything to reveal something to somebody.
I have compared worship to making macaroni art.
I have compared salvation to accepting free donuts on the side of the road.
Bad theology to hotdogs.
Faith in God to the angry British lady who lives inside your GPS.
Careers and life goals to a big bowl of grits.
The list can go on and on but I wish I had a dollar for every post that almost made its way onto ItsThatSemple but God intervened half way through writing and gave better advice. The reality is that I normally am not thinking about whatever it is that I am supposed to be thinking about at any given moment but am preoccupied with thinking up clever blog ideas. Some of them sound great until I actually start writing them and find out otherwise. Some comparisons just don’t work, like the time I tried to compare spending time with God to a romantic candle lit evening with Barry White playing in the background. I think I was trying to talk about a false intimacy with God but it made me uncomfortable. Not in the spiritually convicting way but the “this is a little creepy way.” So I ditched it and moved on.
I didn’t want to admit it but those proverbial Apples and Oranges do exist that simply can not be considered in the same category. I can picture a snobby apple telling the press that he is the greatest and that orange guy does not even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as him, like the apple is the O.G. of the fruit salad hood. I feel like Apple and Orange would treat each other the same way Lebron and Michael treat each other.
That whole metaphor has never really made sense to me. I can compare apples and oranges very easily.
They are both roundish fruit.
They both have great tasting juice.
They both hurt really bad when thrown at someone.
The comparisons are endless, but somewhere somebody told us we couldn’t do it so we agree to constantly segregate these poor fruit.
Our lives are full of apples and oranges, things that are obviously there but we refuse to see them in light of each other. We desperately want to believe that these things are completely unrelated to each other but the closer we get to God the more He keeps telling us otherwise.
If my belief in God is my apple, my political view is my orange. If who I am at church is my apple, then who I am at work is my orange. If the way I want to be treated is my apple, then the way I treat others is my orange. If my needs are my apple then my lack of prayer life is my orange. If my desire to move forward is my apple then my refusal to give God the past is my orange. If the standard I have set for my own life is my apple then the standard I set for the people I choose to follow is my orange.
I tend to process every part of my life through the big waffle that is my brain by compartmentalizing everything. The problem is that God cannot fit into a filing cabinet. The very fact that I have included Him into the equation means He has to be at the center of literally everything I do. Asking God to be a part of your life is like multiplying by zero- everything changes.
I cannot separate what I believe about God from what I believe about everything else. Everything matters. Belief is more than just a mental acknowledgment, but it has to actually permeate into everything we do.
Everything we say.
Everything we vote for.
Everything we dream about.
Everything.
What are your apples that you do not want to see in light of your oranges? What are those things you have refused to see the connection between?
How do you like them apples?
I have compared worship to making macaroni art.
I have compared salvation to accepting free donuts on the side of the road.
Bad theology to hotdogs.
Faith in God to the angry British lady who lives inside your GPS.
Careers and life goals to a big bowl of grits.
The list can go on and on but I wish I had a dollar for every post that almost made its way onto ItsThatSemple but God intervened half way through writing and gave better advice. The reality is that I normally am not thinking about whatever it is that I am supposed to be thinking about at any given moment but am preoccupied with thinking up clever blog ideas. Some of them sound great until I actually start writing them and find out otherwise. Some comparisons just don’t work, like the time I tried to compare spending time with God to a romantic candle lit evening with Barry White playing in the background. I think I was trying to talk about a false intimacy with God but it made me uncomfortable. Not in the spiritually convicting way but the “this is a little creepy way.” So I ditched it and moved on.
I didn’t want to admit it but those proverbial Apples and Oranges do exist that simply can not be considered in the same category. I can picture a snobby apple telling the press that he is the greatest and that orange guy does not even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as him, like the apple is the O.G. of the fruit salad hood. I feel like Apple and Orange would treat each other the same way Lebron and Michael treat each other.
That whole metaphor has never really made sense to me. I can compare apples and oranges very easily.
They are both roundish fruit.
They both have great tasting juice.
They both hurt really bad when thrown at someone.
The comparisons are endless, but somewhere somebody told us we couldn’t do it so we agree to constantly segregate these poor fruit.
Our lives are full of apples and oranges, things that are obviously there but we refuse to see them in light of each other. We desperately want to believe that these things are completely unrelated to each other but the closer we get to God the more He keeps telling us otherwise.
If my belief in God is my apple, my political view is my orange. If who I am at church is my apple, then who I am at work is my orange. If the way I want to be treated is my apple, then the way I treat others is my orange. If my needs are my apple then my lack of prayer life is my orange. If my desire to move forward is my apple then my refusal to give God the past is my orange. If the standard I have set for my own life is my apple then the standard I set for the people I choose to follow is my orange.
I tend to process every part of my life through the big waffle that is my brain by compartmentalizing everything. The problem is that God cannot fit into a filing cabinet. The very fact that I have included Him into the equation means He has to be at the center of literally everything I do. Asking God to be a part of your life is like multiplying by zero- everything changes.
I cannot separate what I believe about God from what I believe about everything else. Everything matters. Belief is more than just a mental acknowledgment, but it has to actually permeate into everything we do.
Everything we say.
Everything we vote for.
Everything we dream about.
Everything.
What are your apples that you do not want to see in light of your oranges? What are those things you have refused to see the connection between?
How do you like them apples?
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