Resilience

This was a talk McManus gave about building resilience in context of the parable of the prodigal son. Really good stuff here.

(Conversational English, so not grammatically correct.)

“There’s something really sick inside of us -- that the more we have the less we seem to be able to enjoy it. The more we have the less grateful we are. Now here we have a child of privilege, of entitlement, and he couldn’t see what a good life he had. So he walks away from his father and steals, essentially, everything that would have been his in the most beautiful of ways. I think we’re like that with God. I think a lot of times, we don’t really want a relationship with God, we just want whatever stuff might be available from Him to us. I mean, how else can you explain so much of our ‘religious’ conversation? Our prayers are all about what God needs to do for us, and if He doesn’t do it, we become embittered against God. And yet so little of our energy is spent on trying to know God for who He is. And, ironically, if God isn’t just some kind of cosmic energy, but He really is a God who can be described as ‘Father’, as Someone who cares about us and longs for a relationship with us, then maybe there’s more to who God is than simply what He can do for us. And a part of developing resilience is being able to see beauty even in the ugliest moments of life. And a part of spiritual health and vitality is to be able to live life where you see things that bring awe and wonder and astonishment and pleasure and enjoyment.”


McManus has a great way of unwrapping the Word with quirky and amazing points of view. Digging me some God through Erwin!

Dale