S05E064, Stronger Doesn’t Mean Better, B 2 Minute Video
There was a built bridge. It was over a river, but they knew that there were some pretty fierce so it was decided, using the best knowledge available, to make that bridge SUPER strong - it was so solid they knew it would never struggle against the winds.
Until the winds came.
Before it really ever got used it had collapsed into the water below.
When they worked out why it had collapsed, it was simply too strong for it’s own good. It was built so strong, in fact, that it could not cope with the winds.
Today we know that buildings need to be able to move, to breathe, to flex. Take a look after an earthquakes and you’ll see the buildings that were built to be less strong by just being solid, but to be flexible and malleable instead and it is those buildings which survive.
When tough times come it’s only natural to harden ourselves so we can’t be hurt the same way twice. There can be an element of wisdom, but it all too often makes us break under pressure.
It is the same in our Christian faith. Being strong can be helpful. But flexible is always better as a posture for buildings, bridges and people.
When we are flexible we can adapt and adjust. When we are rigid in our thinking, we will eventually break: stronger doesn’t mean better…
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
[00:00:00] So another Andy B Two Minute Video. Now I was thinking about brewing a cup of tea. If you're not sure what a brew is, us English folks, we call about a brew, a cup of tea. So if you make a cup of tea, you brew it. You ,literally put a teabag in some water, boiling hot, and the tea then infuses with the water and you get yourself a cup of tea.
[00:00:27] Now, there's correct ways of doing that dependingly. You can read the instructions as well! But, simply put, you get born in water, chuck a tea bag in and give it a good squish, add some milk, you've got a cup of tea. That's the heart of a brew.
[00:00:41] Now, I was thinking about when you take the tea bag out. Because there's lots of opinions on whether you have milk, or how much milk, does the milk go first? Doesn't really matter.
[00:00:50] The real thing though is if you like for example, like I do an Earl Gray cup of tea, it's quite a light, fragrant, aromatic cup of tea. And it's [00:01:00] very nice. and if you put the teabag in for too short a time, you don't really get full flavor. If you leave it in for too long, well it goes from weak, to a really good flavor to strong, and then it goes to this other place if you leave it in for too long. You get this kind of scum on the top of your tea. It's not very nice. It's not just very strong. Now, it's got a weird taste to it.
[00:01:20] Leaving that teabag in for too long is a problem, and here's what I'm thinking.
[00:01:26] If you think that going to church is a good thing and you think, well, it's so good, I'll spend even more time going to church, that becomes a bad thing.
[00:01:33] Just like my cup of tea. You leave this, that tea bag in for too long, it doesn't get better. It will do for a while, and then it actually starts to degrade. In the same way we can't spend too much time in church.
[00:01:45] Yeah, we need a relationship with Jesus Christ. But church, whilst really important, and valuable, that isn't gonna fix it all.
[00:01:54] God wants people who are willing to serve him. It's good to sit in the presence of God. We [00:02:00] can never do that too much. It doesn't become bad like my cup of tea or spending too much time in church serving. But God doesn't want us to serve the church. God wants us to serve Him, and the church is part of that. And we need to get that in the right priority because we can spend so much time and effort and energy exhausting ourselves by overworking in one area, overserving, actually, it makes us less strong.
[00:02:25] It makes the church less strong because then you've got less people doing more things. If you're doing lots of stuff in church, step back for some, because that can often be the green light for other people to think they might be able to do it.
[00:02:36] God's after a servant heart. not slaves, but a servant heart!
[00:02:41] Just a thought.
Andy B, 03/04/2023