Language tools in reference to the process of redemption
Preaching
Clips And Quips For Midnight Oil Sermons And Last-Minute Sunday School Lessons
366 Language Tools For Preachers And Teachers
A. Our human predicament
1. bills for pills: When I reach the age when I've got bills, bills, bills, for pills, pills, pills, is there a God who will reach out to me where I am?
2. bittersweet contradiction: Nobody ever said life is easy, and it's not easy to live with the perplexing puzzle why life is such a bittersweet contradiction of joy and sorrow, light and darkness, love and hate, war and peace, victory and defeat.
3. "blue heaven" heights or gloomy cellar hole depths: For some people, "Molly and me and baby makes three happy people in my blue heaven."23 Yet there are those whose life space exploration has led them not to the heights of a blue heaven filled with joy but instead to the depths of a gloomy, dark cellar hole filled with misery, fear, and despair.
4. blind spots: Blind spots are our personal faults that we can't see, but everyone else can, especially our children.
5. cancer of sin: Sin is like a cancer which, if unchecked, will bring about a terminal illness leading to the certain death of the soul.
6. devil made me do it: Like a drug addict driven by out-of-control compulsions, we perhaps could plead "the devil made me do it" when we fall into what Paul describes as the predicament of being captive to the law of sin, and we end up "doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). There are times when our enslavement to sin compels us to reject God's hand outstretched to help us, but sooner or later we are held responsible for our decision to grab or reject whatever lifeline God extends to pull us out of the depths of despair.
7. dumping ground: Unless we truly care what happens to the elderly, a nursing home can become a dumping ground where pathetic cries and groans are heard up and down the lonely corridors.
8. frantic merry-go-round: Many are trapped on the frantic merry-go-round of a life that is going no place with no chance to jump off and start in a new direction.
9. gambling: To be naive and unaware about sin's addictive power is like being unaware that the gambling odds are always in the casino's favor and the gambling fever is a compulsive, addictive drive.
10. hockey goalie's mask: Similar to a hockey goalie's protective gear, we wear a mask to keep our critics from seeing whether our nerves have had it and whether our feelings have been hurt, whenever the game of life has gotten the best of us and the crowd is jeering at us after the puck has gotten past us into the net.
11. human ostrich: I can tell myself and others that I am being patient in finding answers for controversial problems in our society, when actually I am a human ostrich with my head buried in the sand of my own personal safety.
12. impossible vs. difficult: We know the frustration of life that leads us to complain to others or even to God -- "Why be difficult, when with a little more effort you can be impossible!"
13. "is that all there is?": When each morning we stare glumly in the mirror, wondering how we can psych ourselves up to face once again the same old deadly daily routine, the perplexing question of a popular song keeps pounding away again and again at us, like huge ocean waves crashing repeatedly on the rocky shore -- "Is that all there is? Is that all there is?"24
14. joy vs. loneliness: To know yourself as a unique individual can produce the joy of "doing your thing," but "doing your thing" sometimes can produce the loneliness of being so different from others that very few people can identify with you.
15. lightswitch: Worry and anxiety are not something most of us can turn off quickly like a lightswitch. It doesn't take much of a power surge for these two gremlins to make us blow a fuse.
16. matter of inches: Only a matter of inches can mean the difference between victory and defeat, or even the difference between life and death. This may be why God asks us to "go the second mile" in our outreach to others.
17. middle age trap: The trap of the middle age "sandwich" generation is being caught in the middle between your teenage children and your elderly parents. Your teenagers complain you're always "too close for comfort," allowing them no independent breathing space, while your elderly parents may grumble that you're never close at hand fast enough and often enough when they need you at any hour of the day.
18. obstacle course: For many people life is an impossible up and down obstacle course with high hurdles and deep potholes too overwhelming for any amount of human energy to surmount.
19. our real selves vs. our religious selves: We may feel like our "real selves" six days a week, but perhaps on Sunday morning at church we feel instead like our "religious Sunday selves." When on Sunday we honestly don't feel like our real selves, is it any wonder that God doesn't seem for real either?
20. out of gas: When I have just plumb run out of gas and my drive shaft is broken down and my shock absorbers are completely shot, then, please God, let me trade in this old clunker self of mine that has outlived its usefulness for a new or rebuilt model with increased spiritual horsepower and greater potential to live and serve in the way you want me to.
21. paperwork and TV: Is your life boring to the extent that you are in a spellbound trance staring glassy-eyed most of the time -- either at the mind-boggling paperwork in your office during the day or at the hypnotic television "boob tube" in your family room at night?
22. point of no return when answers are needed: When we pass the half-way point of no return between youth and old age, we should realize that we now need urgent answers for the soul's survival instead of frivolous questions for the mind's amusement.
23. rigged wheel of fortune: We wonder at times if life is like a rigged gambler's wheel of fortune with a definite outcome we cannot change, no matter how much we shuffle and re-shuffle the deck life deals to us, or seek out someone we think is the coolest cat or the smartest card shark to be our game partner, or try to persuade the clever wheeler-dealers and the power brokers to put the odds in our favor for a change as we play the game.
24. rose-colored, stained-glass windows: Many people have never entered the door of any church, because they see very little light of relevant meaning shining through what they perceive as the naively sentimental, rose-colored tint of the church's stained-glass windows.
25. runaway planet: At times we wonder if God or anybody else is really in charge of this runaway planet Earth that seems like a space launch headed out of control on a self-destruct mission.
26. runaway truck: Is there any remaining escape ramp for a life that seems headed for self-destruction like a runaway truck with no brakes thundering at top speed downhill on a steep and winding mountain road?
27. saddest life story: It is important to build trust with someone so that his/her saddest life story can come out in the open, because this is the only way that healing can come for the deepest hurt.
28. seniority complex entanglement: If we get all entangled in a seniority complex -- vainly proud of past accomplishments and compulsively possessive of whatever privileges and advantages we have attained -- then life becomes an extremely complex maze winding in all directions but leading to a dead end with no new adventure to bring out the best in us.
29. sixteen tons of responsibility: There are those who feel they have no life they can call their own when they are stuck with sixteen tons of responsibility and "what do they get, a little bit older and deeper in debt."25
30. smart vs. stupid: As a frazzled, frustrated parent, I hope I'm at least half as smart as my starry-eyed six-year-old brags that I am, but only half as stupid as my cynical sixteen-year-old complains that I am!26
31. so near and yet so far: In many ways life can leave us feeling that we are so near and yet so far -- almost but not quite succeeding in things that truly matter, such as:
* one more near-miss in trying to smooth carefully and delicately with fine sandpaper the rough edges for two people who always rub each other the wrong way;
* one more close defeat from someone who always outdoes us in playing bridge or golf, especially if this person never minds telling us with a condescending smile "the error of our ways";
* one more carefully planned strategy that comes close but doesn't quite succeed for pushing the heavy boulder of a long-existing problem to the top of the steepest hill before once again it slips away and tumbles back to the bottom.27
32. spinning our wheels in the mud: The more we frantically try to escape from our desperate predicament of being stuck in the mire and mud of evil's many traps by revving the engine and spinning our wheels even harder, while refusing to ask for assistance from God or anyone else, the more the devil delights in our foolish futility.
33. square peg in round hole: When your situation at home or at work seems more than you can handle, you wonder how long your nervous system can hold up, like a square peg that just can't fit into the round hole of other people's unrealistic expectations forced upon you.
34. stale bottle of pop with no fizz: Life can seem like a stale bottle of pop with no fizz when you're stuck in the same old job or the same old kitchen with no relief from your monotonous mess.
35. stuck on ourselves: Being "stuck on ourselves," entrapped by our own self-centeredness, is the worst type of cross to be nailed to. All sinfulness is a version of being "stuck on ourselves," desperately in need of God's grace to set us free from the cross of our self-centeredness where we are helplessly stuck in place and nailed down.
36. treadmill of routine and responsibility: Our endless treadmill of continuous, unending routine and responsibility can leave us feeling like a helpless hamster running in a cage utterly god-forsaken with no escape hatch for getting free from our vicious circle.
37. trinity of "me, myself, and I": Instead of the triune, self-giving God at the center of our lives, the self-seeking god we idolize and adore as the real focal point of our personal worship is often the all-too-familiar, self-centered trinity known as "me, myself, and I."
38. twisted, awkward position: Life is always putting a multiple number of extreme expectations upon us, such as -- keep your eye on the ball, and your nose to the grindstone, and your foot on the accelerator, and your shoulder to the plow, and your brain working in overdrive, and your blood pressure bursting at the seams, and somehow in that twisted, awkward, and ridiculously impossible position, now try somehow to get something done.28
39. two pounds: Two pounds of effort and two pounds of opportunity don't necessarily produce four pounds of satisfaction.
40. unseaworthy, sinking ship: People wonder at times if our American society is floundering like an unseaworthy, sinking ship with no reliable captain on board, as they lose confidence in the ability of government, business, education, the church, or any other institution to provide vital leadership and vital answers for navigating the roughest seas we are up against.
41. upset the apple cart: As we grow older and become much more vulnerable, it doesn't take very much to upset the flimsy, old apple cart -- a broken hip from a fall, or a new arthritis flare-up, or a minor stroke that can prevent even the recall of the name of a friend whom we have known so well for many years.
42. valley vs. mountaintop: It's one thing to be way up on the mountain and hear the words of the Sermon on the Mount telling us that we shall be satisfied when we hunger and thirst for righteousness (i.e., Matthew 5:6), but way down in the valley of life's failures, frustration, and futility, we may wonder at times if hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness produces only extreme hunger pangs and an unquenchable thirst, plus no nourishment that truly satisfies.
43. vicious circle: Unless the church's outreach of service can relate to the triple-layered needs of the individual, the individual's family, and the family's neighborhood or community all at the same time, the family gets trapped in the triple whammy of a vicious circle in which the individual, the family, and the community only bring out the worst in each other.
44. whirlpool of despair: Our grief, without our drawing upon God's help, can only draw us downward into the whirlpool of destructive despair. Our grief, with God invited to be ever beside us, will become the growing pains that push us upward toward new hope and new life.
45. yo-yo: Life's ups and downs can make us wonder if life is just a yo-yo on a string, moving up and down, up and down, and going absolutely nowhere at all.
46. you and me against the world: For many households, life is simply a survival game of what the popular song describes as "it's you and me against the world,"29 with no thought whatsoever of how the family needs to be part of something greater or bigger than itself.
47. zapped zombie: Life can become a hypnotic rut in which you slowly become a zapped zombie with no zip or zest.
48. Zodiac: In today's space age, there are plenty of stargazers frantically searching for something, studying their daily horoscopes' Zodiac predictions of what to expect if you're born under the sign of Scorpio or Aquarius, and frankly indifferent to the Bethlehem star or whatever dim light filters through the church's stained glass windows.
B. The process by which our human predicament can be redeemed and transformed
1. blood clots of self-centeredness: It takes the dissolving power of repentence to break up the blood clots of our ornery self-centeredness that are blocking the main artery of the lifeline between us and God. Christ stands at the door of the human heart, knocking, knocking, knocking in a continued effort to arouse our repentence and obtain our "medical consent" to allow his healing touch to clean out whatever has clogged this most vital artery.
2. escape hatch religion: In view of all of the painless escape hatch religion that is so popular today, we need to take great pains to spell out what the peace of God really means and how we come to experience this peace, even when there is no escape from our trials and troubles.
3. fickle favorites: Unlike the capricious ruler who reserves special "privileged character" status for a few fickle favorites, God extends the privileges of mercy and forgiveness equally and generously to all who sincerely ask.
4. history not meant to be a meaningless treadmill: Without God, history could only remain totally under the devil's heavy-handed administration as a meaningless, tortuous treadmill, a cruel and hazardous sweatshop for barely minimal survival, and an endless birth-to-death grind from cradle to casket. But regardless of the devil's plans for our destruction and downfall, God is continually at work to transform or replace the world's dehumanizing treadmills, sweatshops, and daily grinds. Instead of the devil's many vicious circles leading nowhere, God's potter's wheel goes round and round, shaping and reshaping the raw material of human lives into finished and beautiful works of art.
5. hold them up while we hit them: Neither tender sympathy nor tough confrontation all alone in isolation from each other are enough to help people grow and change. Instead, in humorous irony, it can be said that our job as a catalyst of change in working with people is to "hold them up while we hit them" -- i.e., issuing a tough challenge within a context of affirming a person's self-esteem and self-worth (insight based on statement made by Willis Elliott at church education conference).
6. hot air balloon: Whenever we are about to be carried aloft by a balloon filled with the helium or hot air of pride and pretense, it often takes the playful needle of God's grace to puncture enough holes in the balloon to keep our feet on the ground, our heart in the right place, and our head on straight, so that once again we can come to our senses, free to laugh at ourselves and free to live for others.
7. inner sanctuary of the heart: Just as Jesus went inside the temple and threw out the money changers, so today he would enter the inner sanctuary of our hearts and cast out whatever is a sleazy compromise on our part in our relationship with God.
8. jeweled city: Because God has a vital stake in the outcome of human history, we can dare to dream that our world of smog and filth can become a jeweled city in the midst of a verdant woodland, where the air is fresh, and the water is pure, and every person's skin color is beautiful in the untarnished sunshine, and Love and Peace can be seen holding hands at every street corner and along every mountain stream.
9. labor of love: Through God's grace the labor pains of your life will bring forth good things, just as long as your daily efforts are carried out in the spirit of loving-kindness as your lifelong labor of love.
10. lover's quarrel: Because God is completely fed up with our silent resistance toward God's will, God has started a street corner rumble in a lover's quarrel with a world that God loves enough to pick a fight over.
11. painkiller given to football player: God's mercy may actually increase and not decrease our growing pains of realizing why we need his mercy. This is quite unlike the practice of giving a painkiller to a football player so that he can play without the pain of cracked ribs or torn ligaments. God does not want us to risk permanent injury by our being dangerously unaware of where we are really hurting deep inside.
12. power cables vs. die-hard batteries: Instead of any ridiculous effort on our part to get an engine to start up when the battery is dead, we need to let God take over and attach the power cables of his mighty love whenever we feel spiritually dead. Even the strongest die-hard batteries of human determination will become dead batteries, if we stubbornly try to lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps instead of letting God give us the power surge we need to overcome life's troubles and tragedies. It takes God's power hook-up to provide a jumpstart to the dead batteries of our crushed and discouraged spirits.
1. bills for pills: When I reach the age when I've got bills, bills, bills, for pills, pills, pills, is there a God who will reach out to me where I am?
2. bittersweet contradiction: Nobody ever said life is easy, and it's not easy to live with the perplexing puzzle why life is such a bittersweet contradiction of joy and sorrow, light and darkness, love and hate, war and peace, victory and defeat.
3. "blue heaven" heights or gloomy cellar hole depths: For some people, "Molly and me and baby makes three happy people in my blue heaven."23 Yet there are those whose life space exploration has led them not to the heights of a blue heaven filled with joy but instead to the depths of a gloomy, dark cellar hole filled with misery, fear, and despair.
4. blind spots: Blind spots are our personal faults that we can't see, but everyone else can, especially our children.
5. cancer of sin: Sin is like a cancer which, if unchecked, will bring about a terminal illness leading to the certain death of the soul.
6. devil made me do it: Like a drug addict driven by out-of-control compulsions, we perhaps could plead "the devil made me do it" when we fall into what Paul describes as the predicament of being captive to the law of sin, and we end up "doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). There are times when our enslavement to sin compels us to reject God's hand outstretched to help us, but sooner or later we are held responsible for our decision to grab or reject whatever lifeline God extends to pull us out of the depths of despair.
7. dumping ground: Unless we truly care what happens to the elderly, a nursing home can become a dumping ground where pathetic cries and groans are heard up and down the lonely corridors.
8. frantic merry-go-round: Many are trapped on the frantic merry-go-round of a life that is going no place with no chance to jump off and start in a new direction.
9. gambling: To be naive and unaware about sin's addictive power is like being unaware that the gambling odds are always in the casino's favor and the gambling fever is a compulsive, addictive drive.
10. hockey goalie's mask: Similar to a hockey goalie's protective gear, we wear a mask to keep our critics from seeing whether our nerves have had it and whether our feelings have been hurt, whenever the game of life has gotten the best of us and the crowd is jeering at us after the puck has gotten past us into the net.
11. human ostrich: I can tell myself and others that I am being patient in finding answers for controversial problems in our society, when actually I am a human ostrich with my head buried in the sand of my own personal safety.
12. impossible vs. difficult: We know the frustration of life that leads us to complain to others or even to God -- "Why be difficult, when with a little more effort you can be impossible!"
13. "is that all there is?": When each morning we stare glumly in the mirror, wondering how we can psych ourselves up to face once again the same old deadly daily routine, the perplexing question of a popular song keeps pounding away again and again at us, like huge ocean waves crashing repeatedly on the rocky shore -- "Is that all there is? Is that all there is?"24
14. joy vs. loneliness: To know yourself as a unique individual can produce the joy of "doing your thing," but "doing your thing" sometimes can produce the loneliness of being so different from others that very few people can identify with you.
15. lightswitch: Worry and anxiety are not something most of us can turn off quickly like a lightswitch. It doesn't take much of a power surge for these two gremlins to make us blow a fuse.
16. matter of inches: Only a matter of inches can mean the difference between victory and defeat, or even the difference between life and death. This may be why God asks us to "go the second mile" in our outreach to others.
17. middle age trap: The trap of the middle age "sandwich" generation is being caught in the middle between your teenage children and your elderly parents. Your teenagers complain you're always "too close for comfort," allowing them no independent breathing space, while your elderly parents may grumble that you're never close at hand fast enough and often enough when they need you at any hour of the day.
18. obstacle course: For many people life is an impossible up and down obstacle course with high hurdles and deep potholes too overwhelming for any amount of human energy to surmount.
19. our real selves vs. our religious selves: We may feel like our "real selves" six days a week, but perhaps on Sunday morning at church we feel instead like our "religious Sunday selves." When on Sunday we honestly don't feel like our real selves, is it any wonder that God doesn't seem for real either?
20. out of gas: When I have just plumb run out of gas and my drive shaft is broken down and my shock absorbers are completely shot, then, please God, let me trade in this old clunker self of mine that has outlived its usefulness for a new or rebuilt model with increased spiritual horsepower and greater potential to live and serve in the way you want me to.
21. paperwork and TV: Is your life boring to the extent that you are in a spellbound trance staring glassy-eyed most of the time -- either at the mind-boggling paperwork in your office during the day or at the hypnotic television "boob tube" in your family room at night?
22. point of no return when answers are needed: When we pass the half-way point of no return between youth and old age, we should realize that we now need urgent answers for the soul's survival instead of frivolous questions for the mind's amusement.
23. rigged wheel of fortune: We wonder at times if life is like a rigged gambler's wheel of fortune with a definite outcome we cannot change, no matter how much we shuffle and re-shuffle the deck life deals to us, or seek out someone we think is the coolest cat or the smartest card shark to be our game partner, or try to persuade the clever wheeler-dealers and the power brokers to put the odds in our favor for a change as we play the game.
24. rose-colored, stained-glass windows: Many people have never entered the door of any church, because they see very little light of relevant meaning shining through what they perceive as the naively sentimental, rose-colored tint of the church's stained-glass windows.
25. runaway planet: At times we wonder if God or anybody else is really in charge of this runaway planet Earth that seems like a space launch headed out of control on a self-destruct mission.
26. runaway truck: Is there any remaining escape ramp for a life that seems headed for self-destruction like a runaway truck with no brakes thundering at top speed downhill on a steep and winding mountain road?
27. saddest life story: It is important to build trust with someone so that his/her saddest life story can come out in the open, because this is the only way that healing can come for the deepest hurt.
28. seniority complex entanglement: If we get all entangled in a seniority complex -- vainly proud of past accomplishments and compulsively possessive of whatever privileges and advantages we have attained -- then life becomes an extremely complex maze winding in all directions but leading to a dead end with no new adventure to bring out the best in us.
29. sixteen tons of responsibility: There are those who feel they have no life they can call their own when they are stuck with sixteen tons of responsibility and "what do they get, a little bit older and deeper in debt."25
30. smart vs. stupid: As a frazzled, frustrated parent, I hope I'm at least half as smart as my starry-eyed six-year-old brags that I am, but only half as stupid as my cynical sixteen-year-old complains that I am!26
31. so near and yet so far: In many ways life can leave us feeling that we are so near and yet so far -- almost but not quite succeeding in things that truly matter, such as:
* one more near-miss in trying to smooth carefully and delicately with fine sandpaper the rough edges for two people who always rub each other the wrong way;
* one more close defeat from someone who always outdoes us in playing bridge or golf, especially if this person never minds telling us with a condescending smile "the error of our ways";
* one more carefully planned strategy that comes close but doesn't quite succeed for pushing the heavy boulder of a long-existing problem to the top of the steepest hill before once again it slips away and tumbles back to the bottom.27
32. spinning our wheels in the mud: The more we frantically try to escape from our desperate predicament of being stuck in the mire and mud of evil's many traps by revving the engine and spinning our wheels even harder, while refusing to ask for assistance from God or anyone else, the more the devil delights in our foolish futility.
33. square peg in round hole: When your situation at home or at work seems more than you can handle, you wonder how long your nervous system can hold up, like a square peg that just can't fit into the round hole of other people's unrealistic expectations forced upon you.
34. stale bottle of pop with no fizz: Life can seem like a stale bottle of pop with no fizz when you're stuck in the same old job or the same old kitchen with no relief from your monotonous mess.
35. stuck on ourselves: Being "stuck on ourselves," entrapped by our own self-centeredness, is the worst type of cross to be nailed to. All sinfulness is a version of being "stuck on ourselves," desperately in need of God's grace to set us free from the cross of our self-centeredness where we are helplessly stuck in place and nailed down.
36. treadmill of routine and responsibility: Our endless treadmill of continuous, unending routine and responsibility can leave us feeling like a helpless hamster running in a cage utterly god-forsaken with no escape hatch for getting free from our vicious circle.
37. trinity of "me, myself, and I": Instead of the triune, self-giving God at the center of our lives, the self-seeking god we idolize and adore as the real focal point of our personal worship is often the all-too-familiar, self-centered trinity known as "me, myself, and I."
38. twisted, awkward position: Life is always putting a multiple number of extreme expectations upon us, such as -- keep your eye on the ball, and your nose to the grindstone, and your foot on the accelerator, and your shoulder to the plow, and your brain working in overdrive, and your blood pressure bursting at the seams, and somehow in that twisted, awkward, and ridiculously impossible position, now try somehow to get something done.28
39. two pounds: Two pounds of effort and two pounds of opportunity don't necessarily produce four pounds of satisfaction.
40. unseaworthy, sinking ship: People wonder at times if our American society is floundering like an unseaworthy, sinking ship with no reliable captain on board, as they lose confidence in the ability of government, business, education, the church, or any other institution to provide vital leadership and vital answers for navigating the roughest seas we are up against.
41. upset the apple cart: As we grow older and become much more vulnerable, it doesn't take very much to upset the flimsy, old apple cart -- a broken hip from a fall, or a new arthritis flare-up, or a minor stroke that can prevent even the recall of the name of a friend whom we have known so well for many years.
42. valley vs. mountaintop: It's one thing to be way up on the mountain and hear the words of the Sermon on the Mount telling us that we shall be satisfied when we hunger and thirst for righteousness (i.e., Matthew 5:6), but way down in the valley of life's failures, frustration, and futility, we may wonder at times if hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness produces only extreme hunger pangs and an unquenchable thirst, plus no nourishment that truly satisfies.
43. vicious circle: Unless the church's outreach of service can relate to the triple-layered needs of the individual, the individual's family, and the family's neighborhood or community all at the same time, the family gets trapped in the triple whammy of a vicious circle in which the individual, the family, and the community only bring out the worst in each other.
44. whirlpool of despair: Our grief, without our drawing upon God's help, can only draw us downward into the whirlpool of destructive despair. Our grief, with God invited to be ever beside us, will become the growing pains that push us upward toward new hope and new life.
45. yo-yo: Life's ups and downs can make us wonder if life is just a yo-yo on a string, moving up and down, up and down, and going absolutely nowhere at all.
46. you and me against the world: For many households, life is simply a survival game of what the popular song describes as "it's you and me against the world,"29 with no thought whatsoever of how the family needs to be part of something greater or bigger than itself.
47. zapped zombie: Life can become a hypnotic rut in which you slowly become a zapped zombie with no zip or zest.
48. Zodiac: In today's space age, there are plenty of stargazers frantically searching for something, studying their daily horoscopes' Zodiac predictions of what to expect if you're born under the sign of Scorpio or Aquarius, and frankly indifferent to the Bethlehem star or whatever dim light filters through the church's stained glass windows.
B. The process by which our human predicament can be redeemed and transformed
1. blood clots of self-centeredness: It takes the dissolving power of repentence to break up the blood clots of our ornery self-centeredness that are blocking the main artery of the lifeline between us and God. Christ stands at the door of the human heart, knocking, knocking, knocking in a continued effort to arouse our repentence and obtain our "medical consent" to allow his healing touch to clean out whatever has clogged this most vital artery.
2. escape hatch religion: In view of all of the painless escape hatch religion that is so popular today, we need to take great pains to spell out what the peace of God really means and how we come to experience this peace, even when there is no escape from our trials and troubles.
3. fickle favorites: Unlike the capricious ruler who reserves special "privileged character" status for a few fickle favorites, God extends the privileges of mercy and forgiveness equally and generously to all who sincerely ask.
4. history not meant to be a meaningless treadmill: Without God, history could only remain totally under the devil's heavy-handed administration as a meaningless, tortuous treadmill, a cruel and hazardous sweatshop for barely minimal survival, and an endless birth-to-death grind from cradle to casket. But regardless of the devil's plans for our destruction and downfall, God is continually at work to transform or replace the world's dehumanizing treadmills, sweatshops, and daily grinds. Instead of the devil's many vicious circles leading nowhere, God's potter's wheel goes round and round, shaping and reshaping the raw material of human lives into finished and beautiful works of art.
5. hold them up while we hit them: Neither tender sympathy nor tough confrontation all alone in isolation from each other are enough to help people grow and change. Instead, in humorous irony, it can be said that our job as a catalyst of change in working with people is to "hold them up while we hit them" -- i.e., issuing a tough challenge within a context of affirming a person's self-esteem and self-worth (insight based on statement made by Willis Elliott at church education conference).
6. hot air balloon: Whenever we are about to be carried aloft by a balloon filled with the helium or hot air of pride and pretense, it often takes the playful needle of God's grace to puncture enough holes in the balloon to keep our feet on the ground, our heart in the right place, and our head on straight, so that once again we can come to our senses, free to laugh at ourselves and free to live for others.
7. inner sanctuary of the heart: Just as Jesus went inside the temple and threw out the money changers, so today he would enter the inner sanctuary of our hearts and cast out whatever is a sleazy compromise on our part in our relationship with God.
8. jeweled city: Because God has a vital stake in the outcome of human history, we can dare to dream that our world of smog and filth can become a jeweled city in the midst of a verdant woodland, where the air is fresh, and the water is pure, and every person's skin color is beautiful in the untarnished sunshine, and Love and Peace can be seen holding hands at every street corner and along every mountain stream.
9. labor of love: Through God's grace the labor pains of your life will bring forth good things, just as long as your daily efforts are carried out in the spirit of loving-kindness as your lifelong labor of love.
10. lover's quarrel: Because God is completely fed up with our silent resistance toward God's will, God has started a street corner rumble in a lover's quarrel with a world that God loves enough to pick a fight over.
11. painkiller given to football player: God's mercy may actually increase and not decrease our growing pains of realizing why we need his mercy. This is quite unlike the practice of giving a painkiller to a football player so that he can play without the pain of cracked ribs or torn ligaments. God does not want us to risk permanent injury by our being dangerously unaware of where we are really hurting deep inside.
12. power cables vs. die-hard batteries: Instead of any ridiculous effort on our part to get an engine to start up when the battery is dead, we need to let God take over and attach the power cables of his mighty love whenever we feel spiritually dead. Even the strongest die-hard batteries of human determination will become dead batteries, if we stubbornly try to lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps instead of letting God give us the power surge we need to overcome life's troubles and tragedies. It takes God's power hook-up to provide a jumpstart to the dead batteries of our crushed and discouraged spirits.
