Dave Brisbin 11.29.20
Book of Hebrews tells us that our scriptures are living and active. What does that mean? It means the bible is more than ink on a page. More than the sum of the words. If it’s living, then something happens in the interaction with a reader…when the reader’s heart, author’s heart, God’s heart mix together. If it’s active, it means the words are a catalyst, but that there must be a readiness and willingness in the reader to partner with the words. It means it’s about us as engaged readers as much as God as inspirer. After all, if the message is love, then there must be a beloved.

It’s the same with all our human communication. Any sharing is only as effective as the receiving. I used to think my job as pastor was to make others care as much as I did on any given topic. Now I know all I can do is arrange the meeting. Like a matchmaker, what happens after the meeting is entirely up to others. It’s a hard blow to our egos to admit such powerlessness: that like the gardener who works to bring seed, soil, and water together, the real miracles happen while we sleep. Once we accept that we can’t make miracles happen; we can only create the perfect environment for them to happen, everything changes. We can relax, liberated from things we can’t control. We can work just as hard, but instead of our efforts producing entitlement for an outcome, they produce only gratitude, because the real gift is one we can never give ourselves. In other words, we become living and active—more than the sum of our words and actions: the uncontrollable, untamed fruit of a true human exchange.

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