She Actually Honestly Tries

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website.

Forgive the writer if this is a bit more personal and an anecdotal than usual, but I think it serves the point well. When my 2 year old daughter sees something of interest high in the sky, be it a cluster of balloons or a helicopter or a passing jet, she actually tries to reach it – and I find that endlessly remarkable. Clearly she has no sense of space and distance. It puts her in a state where she’s completely unhindered by fact, and as a result, she really believes she might be able to reach them. And she doesn’t just believe it a little, extending her arms as part of some long shot gesture that was never really expected to work. Instead, with great enthusiasm and a glint in her eye, she’ll stretch with her fingers and toes extended – at times straining with effort. Sometimes she’ll ask me to help her get the last inch or two she thinks she needs to close the distance. I was with her once when she actually tried to touch the moon.

What a thing it must be to be able to believe on such a scale – and believe deeply enough that it makes you try with great enthusiasm. You may think it a fanciful waste of time, and in some ways it is (at least when it comes to reaching the moon with your finger tips). But on the other hand it can have great value to be caught up in simple enthusiasm for something you see just beyond your reach. After all, who knows?

We have to remember that childhood is a special state – and it’s a condition endorsed by God. “These kids get a lot of things right,” He says in my own translation of Mark 10.14. After all, let’s consider our own lives over the last 10 or 15 years. When you were 5, you could sing, and dance, and draw and play any kind of sport along with just about anything else your teachers and parents would let you try. Now have you added to that list or taken away from it?

So when I see Gracie reaching for something which is clearly hundreds if not thousands of feet away, I quietly cheer her on. Sure it’s preposterous. But in it’s own way, it’s also a powerful thing. Oh to believe on that scale because that belief pushes her to try. At this stage of her life, her default posture is to try things first and be proven wrong later – and she has so little baggage to get in the way that she’s game for almost anything. She can believe. Have you added to that state or lost it completely? Growing up can often feel like a process of giving up. Is that what it’s become?

This Sunday, I’m going to start a new series on the power of a dream and a transforming vision. I’d love to see you there – and it would be great if you could bring someone with you.

CSW

LAST SUNDAY
The last in our series on 8 sentences to begin your next step. You can listen to the whole series on our podcast or visit our website.

THIS SUNDAY
The power of a dream.

NEXT SUNDAY
The problem with a dream.

DON'T FORGET
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