Scripture: Ephesians 4:14-15
Then we will no longer be infants, here tossed back and forth by the waves, seek and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.Instead, see speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Thought for the Day: I think we often get to a place in our faith journeys where we simply refuse to think about any new concepts or ideas. We find a comfortable spot, and we sit there, stagnant, like a fracked river. There is no spiritual growth in keeping our minds, hearts, and souls closed to new revelations and ideas.

The author of the letter to the Ephesians (possibly Paul, but more likely one of his disciples), in trying to assure other followers of Paul that the teaching is valid, encourages them to ignore the other teachings about Jesus going on at the time. Honestly, this is terrible advice. Even by the time this letter was written, followers of Jesus were arguing about everything—whether or not Jesus was God, human, both, a heretic, a prophet, a political radical, etc. Kind of the same things we argue about today.

Here’s my take away from the whole thing: Go with your heart, and be open to the possibility that someone else’s ideas may be just as valid as yours. None of us will ever know what Jesus was really like or what he really said. There’s simply no record (the Bible is not a record of Jesus’ actions and words, it’s an interpretation and commentary). The best we can do as modern followers of The Way, is open our hearts to God and our minds to the idea that there is always something new to learn, and that even the stuff we learn and eventually discard has taught us something. But a closed mind? That gets us nowhere, and worse, creates a disharmonic world, destined to be completely and totally fracked.

Prayer: Give me the courage to speak the truth to a world that would rather be lied to, Holy God of eternal knowledge. Amen.