Sticky and Stuck
These words at first make me think of glue and tape and things that are you want to keep together, to adhere to or attach to with the intent of some type of permanency.
But toss them around in your head a bit more and more things fall out like:
Sticky might refer to a situation that is difficult to manage, or cheese puffs or Doritos that are great to eat but leave their stickiness behind everywhere.
Stuck might refer to your car in the sand, or an inability to move on from one position to another.
As Christians, we want God’s word and His ways to stick to us like glue. We want to hide His word in our heart. We want it to be “stuck” to our hearts. When I think about that kind of sticking and “stuckness” (made up word?) It provides me with ideas of how to fuse God’s word and ways to my heart and into my life. We worship, service, study, fellowship and pray to increase our “stuckness” to God. It helps us to know Him better and to love Him more fully.
But there is a sticky point to this as well. When we find ways to serve and worship and learn about God, they can become sticking points., Because sometimes they become as important as the lessons, as the love, as the God we are desiring to know and stick with. We can get stuck in the methods the ways we learned about God. They served as conduits of His work and words, and we love how they have impacted us. This is a good and wonderful thing. But we are all so different and God desires for us to reach others for His kingdom any way we can.
Let’s look at Jesus example of letting others learn about Him. He demonstrates His love and His mission in so many different ways. He heals. He teaches. He prays. He listens, He shares, and oh so much more. In the short three years of His ministry, he gives us numerous examples of methods that He used to love and care for others.
When we come to worship, or to small groups, or to serve, we have certain expectations of how things were done before, and how we can lean in and help. And God desires for us to worship and learn and serve so it is good and right that we engage. We can learn about Him and share what we have learned with others.
But let us not become “stuck” with how things have been done before. We can get stuck on the ways, the methods that have in the past, reached us, that inspired us, that taught us. These were good things. But the methods were just that, methods. God love is the message, and it needs to be sent out to others in ways that help them to receive it. There are so many wonderful ways we can do that.
In I Corinthians 9:22b-23 the Apostle Paul reminds us to not get stuck in the way we share the Gospel; in the ways we share God’s love with others.
“I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some. I do this for the sake of the Gospel that I might share in its blessing.”
Let’s get stuck on sharing the love of God with others and unstuck in how we do it. Our methods are not holy, but the love of God is.
Share it anyway you can, with whom ever you can, as often as you can.
Stick that on your Refrigerator!
Blessings,
Lori Ferguson