Unboxing God: Reclaiming Faith in a Post-Church Culture
Chapter 2: The Struggle: Church Is in My Pores
Have you ever encountered a situation where God did something that totally surprised you and didn’t make sense at the time? How did you respond? What took place as a result?
Unboxing God: Reclaiming Faith in a Post-Church Culture is my story of God knocking my socks off when he told me to leave the church building.
Read Chapter 2: (or listen down below)
Can you imagine what the month of December held after God gave me the boot? I felt like Abraham must have felt when he told Sarah that God wanted them to move. When I told my husband and our children, their confusion was tangible. It went pretty much like this:
“Well, where are we going?”
“Uh, I am not sure. He just said I can’t come back to the service this month.”
“What are we going to do on Christmas Eve?”
“Um…I am not sure. What would you like to do?”
Sunday mornings, which used to be my favorite time of the week, became something I dreaded with everything within me. It was agony to wake up and wonder what to do. Read the Sunday paper? I hadn’t done that in years, as I was usually running out of the door while still putting on my shoes. Watch the football game? Talk with my neighbors? Go to the grocery store?
Audiobook Chapter 2:
I can relate to the disciples’ disequilibrium when they went fishing after Jesus’ resurrection. After a long night of empty nets, a mysterious man stood on the beach and called out to them asking, “Friends, have you caught any fish?” They shook their heads no in defeat, but he told them “Cast your nets on the right side of the boat!”
The challenge for Jesus’ disciples is that they had been fishermen their whole life, as had their fathers and grandfathers before them. They knew all about how to fish and they’d ALWAYS fished from the left side of the boat.
They had a choice: Would they listen to the new voice or would they insist they knew better and ignore him?
We know how the story ends. The mysterious man on the beach was Jesus and his instruction went beyond catching fish. His word has application to all of us during this important time of history: the movement from the church season to the kingdom age!
I’m still living my instruction to “fish from the right side of the boat” but what I’ve learned and experienced so far has resulted in a far more adventurous, fun and fruitful life of faith!
Help me get the word out about Unboxing God!
