It IS about YOU.
Posted on | October 10, 2010 | 1 Comment
It IS about YOU.
On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you. John 14:20
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
A recent bestselling Christian book does some wonderful work getting Christians to start reading and considering their faith. It also does some deep damage. This book starts with the phrase “It’s not about you.” I disagree. I think the ancients disagreed. I think Paul disagreed as shown in Colossians 1:27. Finally, I think, as evidenced in John 14:20 above, Christ disagreed.
It’s all about you. Life is all about the spark of divinity in each human. It’s your purpose in life to recognize, and fuel that spark of divinity and produce “fruit.” You are a co-creator of our world with God and God can only work through you and I.
This is something you can’t phone in. You are the only one who can fuel that spark. YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE for your own spark. You are ACCOUNTABLE for the fruit you produce.
Matthew 7:16 says “You will know them by their fruits.” Then, verse 19 goes on to say, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
To many times in history the leaders of Christianity has asked Christians to turn off their brains and not question. They’ve told Christians “it’s not about you” and then proceeded to tell them it’s about that LEADER’S interpretation and understanding of God – which very often has not squared with the individual’s conscience or best interest. I fear that’s happening again, and I fear that when Christians turn of the brains that God gave them and take “fundamentalist” or “literalist” views of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible, and take a position of faith that conflicts with the tenants of reason and love – then Christianity suffers. When Christianity suffers and loses credibility, then it’s only logical that our world suffers and we fall short of the Glory of God.
God love us and wants us to be happy. I’m not saying that a self-centered obsession with the luxuries of life is what you should be after. But we can only bring happiness and fulfillment to others when we are happy and fulfilled ourselves. If your spark of light and divinity are dead, how could you possibly share the flame and light with others? So, in order to fulfill the purpose God has in mind for you, you can’t just sit there and wait for it to come from above.
- You’re a co-creator.
- You’re accountable.
- It’s ALL ABOUT YOU.
- Otherwise why would God need any of us?
There’s an old story of a man who took a trash heap and turned it into a beautiful garden. A priest walked by and said “What a beautiful garden, God’s work is truly beautiful.” The Gardener responded, “Yes, God’s work is very, very, beautiful, but you should have seen this place when he had it all to himself.”
God needs us.
I believe in a God of creation. I believe God is STILL creating. How BORING would it be for God to have set everything up and just sat back and watched. God is still involved! God gave us free will. I believe the biggest “sin” in the world (I hate that word, but that’s another conversation) – the one that leads to all the other “sins” is a person’s failure to be accountable for his or her own personal spark of divinity.
My goal in this blog/life is to help you recognize your spark of divinity, then fuel that spark of divinity through a combination of scriptural language and personal thought to figure out how you can bring that spark to a roaring flame. If your spiritual flame is roaring, you can’t help but share it with others. You can’t help but produce the fruit Christ charged us to produce.
I’m going to ask you to engage your brain. Christianity should take work. Your Spirituality (of whatever form) should take work.
Everything worth-while takes work. This work includes asking questions and searching for answers. I’ll ask you to accept accountability for your personal divinity. I’ll ask you to engage with your doubts and encourage you to work through them. I’ll help you decide what you feel comfortable truly asking God to bring you in this lifetime. I’ll show you how to be creative and produce good fruit. We’ll figure out how to receive the bounties of God’s creation without guilt in order share those bounties with our fellow co-creators.
That other author I talked about earlier has lead literally millions of people down a futile path, a path looking outside themselves for divinity. He’s asked them to give all responsibility and accountability to God, rather than taking accountability for their own lives. There are not five purposes for our lives – there is only one: to produce good fruit. Christ in you.
You can only produce good fruit by becoming accountable for your own spark of divinity, and manifesting that spark in the world around you. How you do it should be inspired by God, but it ultimately is yours to succeed or fail.
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About Kevin
Kevin E. Houchin is an attorney, artist, teacher, author, and principal of
Houchin Consulting, PLLC, a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment,
business development, and branding firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
To schedule Kevin for keynote speeches, workshops, or seminars, call 970.231.2426
or email
kevin@kevinhouchin.com.
so true. So few people take accountability. They engage in blame shifting or relying on Jesus’ ‘get out of hell” free card. It is damaging to society.