This past Sunday, I shared that I am a visual person and thus try to visualize biblical texts and theological themes. I sometimes come up with ridiculous imagery, but other times it can be quite helpful to me in making God’s Word tangible in my life. Allow God to take form in your life. While our images are imperfect representations, when they are prompted by Scripture they often help us see God more clearly.
Below is what I imagined are my varied responses to the immovable Jesus.
"I am running through life or walking whatever the day. And there is Jesus standing there. Sometimes I run away from him. Sometimes I run right by him, sneaking a peak, and look back to see him standing there. Sometimes I run up to him and try to grab his hand and pull him ahead with me, but he does not budge. Others times, far rarer than I would like, I just watch him. I walk up next to him and when he moves, I move. But when he does not move I stand by his side studying him, watching him, trying to imitate his demeanor, his peace, his joy, his love and his words . . . I don’t run from him, or run past him, but simply try to follow him."
On Monday, Philip Cardella shared with me some similar imagery that he has picked up from a Wii game.
"Your illustration about just going where God is going reminded me of a wii game–the Legend of Zelda. There is a part of the game where you have to cross a swamp. You can see all around it, but not really where you need to go. And the floor of it is covered in a noxious cloud that kills you instantly. So though you can guess the destination, the path is totally obscured. But, along comes a monkey who steals your lantern. He takes the lantern and clears you a very small path–more accurately, a bubble where you are safe from the poison. He takes you (as it is a challenge in the game) in a rather circuitous path that looks at times useless. But so long as you stay near the monkey, within his bubble of safety, following his movements you get where you are meant to go. If you venture from the path at all, you die. The end of the sermon reminded me of that. I hope I wrote this in away that the connection is clear to you, but I thought it was rather vivid. I had never thought of God as a monkey, and I certainly saw the challenge when I played the game as nothing more than a challenge. But I kinda like the analogy. Following God frequently seems crazy and strange (like following a monkey with light fingers), but straying from God means certain death. Too bad it isn’t as clear a danger as it is in the game."