Life in a Bucket

I read a great analogy by Erwin McManus just the other day. He was asked to discuss what "postmodernism" means in the context of the message and the delivery of that message. Are both constant, or possibly one or both changing depending on the environment? His response really openend my eyes. I will try to recap it to the best of my memory (which is not very good!!)

Erwin states that postmodernism is like a river. Many churches find one spot in the river and take a bucket to try and capture the essence of the river. They try to capture the rapids of the river (culture) by "scooping" them into the bucket. What they find however is that once they confine the "rapid," it turns out to simply be water. The bucket confines, stagnates, and eventually kills all life inside of it. Many churches think that in order to capture postmodernism, they can quickly dip into the river and they will discover it. They don't realize that the church HAS BECOME THE BUCKET!!

The other option (and what an amazing discovery, if you will let it soak in) is to emerse yourself headlong into the water itself, discovering the ever-flowing rapids, twists and turns, ebb and flow. Postmodernism cannot be defined by the culture, but only experienced. The danger is that we want to LIVE LIFE IN THE BUCKET - it is safe, it is comfortable, but ultimately leads to nothing; a shallow pool of stagnant water that once held abundant life.

As it says in Numbers 24:7 - He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters..

Rev. 22:17 (NIV) The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

How many of us are tempted to live life in a bucket? How much time will we spend analyzing the contents of our bucket only to lose out on the mysteries of the river? If we choose the river it will be dangerous; it will be full of rocks and trees, traps and snares. But it is also full of abundant life. As we have just studied the past four weeks, Jesus said it best:

John 10:10 (KJV) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Join me in the river...

(Goldie's thoughts reprinted with permission from the MH Emerging Leaders Blog)