The Living Word

If you asked my wife “who is Matt?” she would likely tell you that I am a bit of a renaissance man.  I would tell you that I simply know a few things about a few things.  As someone who makes his living by being creative, I obviously have a love for the arts.  I’m pretty good in the kitchen with an ability to dissect a meal’s components, simply through its flavor, and recreate it later with reasonable accuracy.  I have an almost intuitive understanding of mechanical things. . . they just make sense to me.  In addition to all of this, God has wired my brain to store seemingly random information away, until it connects with a new idea or another bit of random information and becomes useful.

So with all this going on in my head during the days of my youth, it escaped me to put it all to use and become an artist, a chef, a mechanic, or an architect.  My father made a living in business, and so I decided to give it a go as well.  It’s not that I was bad with sales or managing people, it was simply never fulfilling.  And so comes my one true regret in life, that I was into my 20’s before it ever occurred to me that life as an artist might have fulfilled me, and well into my 30’s before I grew in frustration with my profession and regretted not recognizing culinary school would have provided an amazing education.  And finally stepping through the door into my 40’s before I made a decision to do anything about it and leave the world of business.  Which brings me to today when I’m able to make use of what God has given me, how He has wired me, and I am now able to pursue the most fulfilling work of my life.

As a creative, I often look back to the story of creation in Genesis to learn about the first Creator.  And it was early in my faith that I would look at how Adam was given the privilege of walking through the garden with God, and only one simple rule to follow: “don’t eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge”.   In those early years of following Christ, I questioned how we could mess up something so simple, so easy and inherit the mess we have today.  A life apart from God, and what on the surface appeared, to a new believer (or non believer), as a massive rule book called The Bible.  I regretted not being able to be Adam or experience what he had before the fall.
Then comes the book of John 1:14 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us…

Here in front of my face is the answer to half of my early Christian regret.  Because of Jesus, I get to walk with God.  But there is still the second part, trading in one simple rule for a massive book full of new ones.  Not that many of them are particularly hard to follow.  I’m reasonably certain I’ll make it through life with out murdering anyone, or holding up a bank.  But, then in Matthew chapter 4 things take a down turn.  Starting with verse 21 I find that the rules are much more complex than I thought.  That in God’s eyes, when I am angry with someone I’ve committed murder.  And when I want something my neighbor has, I am a thief.  And, when I have allowed my thoughts to dwell on the girl who passes me by, I have committed adultery.  God’s bar is higher than I could ever reach.  Adam couldn’t keep even one simple rule, and neither can I.  I am a thief, a murderer, a liar, and an adulterer.  But, just as pursuing the wrong career would never make me happy, holding onto a list of rules will never make me pure.  It is only through God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice, that I can find fulfillment and become the man worthy of walking in the garden with Him.

Matt

P.S. Parents, follow along with your kids here

The unique elements that you see on the screens during a service and the graphics that you find in print and electronic media

Pare put together by Matt and the teams that he leads. We affectionately call him the “Director of Awesome.”

P.P.S. Pastor Rob’s “Sunday Evening Mind Dump” will be the “Monday Evening Mind Dump” this week due to the 100 days posts. Look for it later today!