Our Outward Identity
I’ve worn glasses since I started school at aged four.
From the moment they go on in the morning, I'm almost entirely oblivious to them. I don't think about them. I don't see them.
I see through them.
A worldview is like a pair of glasses. It’s not what we see, it's what we see the world through.
Malvern Community,
I’ve worn glasses since I started school at aged four.
From the moment they go on in the morning, I'm almost entirely oblivious to them. I don't think about them. I don't see them.
I see through them.
A worldview is like a pair of glasses. It’s not what we see, it's what we see the world through.
Our worldview has been shaped by personal experiences, a bit like how my lens prescription has changed with my eyes. But it's also shaped by the culture in which we live. The way of being that we think is ‘normal’. Most of the time we don't think too much about it, we just see the world through the lens of our worldview. Some people see it similar to us. Others don’t.
Then, a couple of times per day, something stops my concentration. An obstruction is suddenly floating in front of my eye line, and I take off my glasses to wipe the lenses. On other occasions, I slowly realise I’m finding it hard to see something properly, and after squinting and leaning forward, I finally remember that it might be on my glasses. They’re dirty, dusty, or smudged.
Sometimes we can forget we have a worldview. We’re astonished that someone could see the same thing as us, and perceive it differently. What we’re seeing in the world today is a series of clashing worldviews. People talking ‘past’ each other, because they’re seeing things not only from different angles, but also wearing different glasses.
There’s so much in the Bible about worldviews.
Proverbs teaches us to seek out varying perspectives, "Without counsel, plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed."
In 1 Samuel 16:7, we’re taught that our default view might be erroneous, "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The prophet Isaiah taught that our default way of seeing things is not always correct, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord”
And in Romans 12:2, Paul reminds us that the influence of our culture on our worldview is strong, but encourages us, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
On Sunday I shared about how because of what Christ has done, we should no longer consider others from merely a human point of view. Every person is someone for whom Christ had died.
Perhaps in your interactions with others today, at work or at home, think about your glasses. What is my default way of seeing things? Where might there be a smudge?
I encourage us to pray, and ask God to help clean our lenses. To help us see people as they are, as God sees them. It’s wonderful how this can shift our response and the disposition of our heart, and allow us the room to enable understanding and grace to flow.
Have a meaningful week,
Tim
A New Creation
We live in a culture that pressures us to be simultaneously authentic and yet constantly trendy. We are told to find our "true self," but we are expected to package and market that self for social media, jobs, or social circles, forced to chase ever changing milestones.
It’s incredibly exhausting to navigate.
Malvern Community,
"It’s the new Jan Brady!"
If you know that reference, it dates you. Made in the early 70’s, The Brady Bunch seems to be eternally repeated through my childhood in the 80’s.
Who can forget the episode when Jan, tired of living in the shadows of her two sisters, decides to start wearing a curly black wig. Thinking her new self would be a hit, her friends instead assume she’s wearing a Halloween costume.
Jan Brady fears being ordinary and so tries to rebrand. However, her sudden shift exposes her as a try-hard and she ends up being mocked for her inauthenticity.
We live in a culture that pressures us to be simultaneously authentic and yet constantly trendy. We are told to find our "true self," but we are expected to package and market that self for social media, jobs, or social circles, forced to chase ever changing milestones.
It’s incredibly exhausting to navigate.
The culture-wide phenomena is an expansion of the tension inside each one of us. Something inside of us wants to be accepted just as we are. But also knows that we’re not as we should be.
This Sunday I’m speaking into this tension, how in Christ there is a new Creation.
It’s Communion Sunday, so my words will be brief, but the whole service is a genuine, analogue space to commune with God.
Come as you are.
Recommended Books from last Sunday
On Sunday I spoke about finding our identity in Christ as being like a work of art.
If you resonated with the creative aspect in the sermon, you may like to read Erwin McManus' book The Artisan Soul: Crafting your Life into a Work of Art.
If you resonated with the general ethical approach to good work, you may prefer Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavour: Connecting Your Work to God's Plan For the World (also in the church library)
The book I mentioned in the sermon was The Craftsman, by Prof Richard Sennett.
Have a meaningful week,
Tim
A Work of Art
Last week Apple launched the latest in their innovative products - a foldable phone.
They’re not the first, but they’ve become the biggest company in the world designing some of the most innovative technology products.
It’s an interesting word: design.
Malvern Community,
Last week Apple launched the latest in their innovative products - a foldable phone.
They’re not the first, but they’ve become the biggest company in the world designing some of the most innovative technology products.
It’s an interesting word: design.
It’s a staggering thought, that the thousands of objects we interact with everyday were all once simply a drawing. Toothbrushes, chairs, carpet, pencils, butter containers, fridges, cars, clothes, toys, toothpicks, books - they were all carefully designed by someone.
German designer Dieter Rams says there are ten essential rules of good design:
1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic design
4. Good design will make a product understandable
5. Good design is honest
6. Good design is unobstrusive
7. Good design is long-lived
8. Good design is consistent in every detail
9. Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible
Note how Dieter's ten rules all speak to design which suits the contours and principles of nature itself.
God is good designer. Not only did he create humankind in his image, but he’s not finished with us yet. In Ephesians 2:10 we are told that,
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The Greek word for workmanship is poiema, meaning a work of art, handiwork, or poem.
On Sunday I look forward to sharing how it is that God grows, matures, develops and crafts our lives and identities like a work of art.
Have a meaningful, creative week,
Tim