"... I want to be a 747."

As I drove into my office this morning I was following a bus. There was an advert for a bank on the back of the bus. The bank is "building futures". The advert line written across the back of the bus, went like this...

"Today I am a bus. Some day I want to be a 747!"

I got to thinking, "That's cute but ridiculous!" And of course it is ridiculous! Buses can't change to be a 747! They are inanimate objects, they cannot grow and change. (Though they can be changed.) Ultimately things like cars and buses start going downhill toward a rusting heap of metal the moment they are used. Really only humans can change, grow, develop and evolve into more complete human beings.

As I drove into the work of "ministry" ( i.e. encouraging personal growth) for another week, I got to thinking how many times we humans choose to be like buses. We have the ability to evolve and change and become more like the people we are meant to be. We have the ability to become more compassionate, live life more meaningfully and participate in that which is "eternal". But often we choose to avoid the discipline, the "out of our comfort zone" experiences and the thought that brings growth.

In this way we waste life. Maybe this is why Jesus used the word "Gehenna"? ( which is translated "Hell") ... "Gehenna" was the rubbish dump for Jerusalem. When we choose not to grow we dump our life on the rubbish dump of life.

In my ministry, in all the places I minister and share, I encounter people refusing to grow. It is frustrating and deeply sad.