OPINION: Spare Time and Pocket Change

"God can't build a great church with spare time and pocket change!" so writes Curt Hutson.

Nothing great or good is ever built with spare time and pocket change! Great causes and successful lives require much more!

I'M AMAZED AT WHAT GOD CAN DO! God, with a Word, created suns and moons and stars. With His hand, God put each in it's assigned orbit. With a Word, God brought order out of chaos. Then God said, "Let there be light!" And creation was flooded with wondrous, glorious, radiant, brilliant light! The darkness retreated, forever defeated. Through the centuries, the darkness had tried to extinguish the light; the forces of evil and darkness have continually failed. The Light still shines! God, with a Word, established days and nights; He organized the days and months into seasons.

God spoke once more, "Let there be life!" Animals and fish and birds populated the earth. Plants and shrubs and trees of every description blossomed and bloomed, filling the world with beauty and wonder.

Finally, God formed people out of the dust of the earth and blew into each person His holy, living Spirit.

The Creator designed this universe in such a way that all elements are intertwined; each person and every living thing, in order to reach their full potential, is dependent on God and on each other. What affects one part of God's creation, eventually affects every other part. The Creator-of-All took great pride in all that He had created. God still continues to take a personal interest in every person and each thing He has made. God intensely loves all that He has made! He was even willing to sacrifice His only Son in order to redeem and renew a fallen and broken creation.

Man and Woman were created to be a lot like God. They lived in Paradise; they had everything they needed to live the good life; for God had provided for them in abundance. God entrusted them with the full responsibility for all creation; God even came down and worked alongside them. And at the closing of the day, Man and God would sit out on the patio eating Bar-B-Q ribs and drinking iced tea. It was Heaven-on-Earth!

Adam and Eve, however, were not satisfied; they sinned against God. Adam and Eve broke the Rules of Life God had set in place for their safety and security. They defied God's authority; they wanted to run their own lives. Adam and Eve became greedy; they wanted more than they needed. They turned Paradise into a hell on earth!

As God watched his beloved people wasting their lives and corrupting and polluting His creation, God sent His Son to restore order to life, to Banish darkness to the farthest reaches, and to defeat forever the forces of sin and death. Having accomplished His mission, Jesus challenged people to follow His teachings and imitate his example. Love God and one another, to experience and share Divine forgiveness, to become peace-makers in the world, to be good caretakers of God's creation, and to worship and serve God only.

I'M DUMB-FOUNDED AT WHAT GOD CANNOT DO! God refuses to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves. God gives us life; we are responsible for how that life turns out. God entrusts us with the care of His world; we are responsible for keeping the air clean, the water pure and the soil productive. We are responsible for seeing that every person in the world feels loved, is respected for who they are, and has their fair share of the basic necessities (food, shelter and clothing).

WE WERE CREATED WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR A HEAVEN ON EARTH! Let's take our God-given responsibility seriously! Let's make it happen! God deserves much more than just our spare time and our pocket change!

Don Kuehle is a retired United Methodist minister who lives in Jackson. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 08/15/2019