Reclaim Your World

The Bible starts with a poem,  where line after line, God rhythmically creates a good world, and sets human beings, both male and female, at the pinnacle of his efforts.

We were made to enjoy the good word and participate with God, and the rest of creation, as co-creators.

This concept of the world being an inherently good place, blurs the arbitrary line between the secular and the sacred. The spark of God is everywhere in creation, and at no time more potently in human form, than in Christ, who spent his life reclaiming creation; restoring people to full participation in the world; empowering people to be most who they were to be.

In this way beauty and truth are everywhere. This is why we are  awestruck by music we hear, or art we see, or incredible physical feats we witness. We are seeing the spark of God that indwells all creation:

Unfortunately, some Christians historically have swung the pendulum in the opposite direction, shunning the things of "this world" and have adopted more ascetic values. 

But such practices do not come from a balanced perspective on life. Paul ran into this in 1 Tim 4.4, and combats such thinking when he writes, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected." 

This isn't to say we embrace everything. The world is full of truth and beauty, but it has also been marred by our inability to follow the plot. We have been unfaithful co-creators and have brought things into creation that do not bring life and completeness.

So we take very seriously the task to discern what is good and wholesome. We reclaim the things of our world that are beautiful and awe inspiring, as testimony to what the harmonious relationship between God and humanity is supposed to look like.