Eugene Peterson gives a great definition of religion that not all agree with but I like the image it portrays. It comes from the Latin word Religere – which means “to bind up” or “tie up” again.
The picture Eugene gives us is “keeping it all together or getting it all together". Strolling through the forest, enjoying the country, whistling in self-satisfaction, carrying our well-bundled lives in a nice, neat package – memories and morals, goals and diversions, prayers and devotion, all sorted and tied together. And then the storm comes, fierce and sudden - a gust tears our packaged life from our arms and scatters the items every which way, all over the forest floor.
What do we do then?
Do we run helter-skelter through the trees, crawl through the bush, frantically trying to recover all the pieces of our life, searching for and retrieving and putting back together again (rebinding!) whatever we can salvage, and then hiding out in the warm and secure cabin until the storm blows over?
Do we respond this way? Or does Jesus offer us a better way? If so, what would that be?
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NO STUDY NOTES THIS WEEK
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