Series RECAP

• Three Pennies and a Rock story in brief
• Want to be like children
• Jesus tells us to be like children
  • Matthew 18:1-4 – “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
• Wonder, Curiosity, Imagination

Imagination

• Long before I was blessed to be a dad, I was blessed to be an uncle.
• Taylor came in one day grinning
  • I figured it all out – You actually CAN be friends with a shark, he declared.
  • Well, I thought this an interesting line of discussion so I asked the big question – “Taylor, how can you be a friend with a shark, wouldn’t it want to eat you?”
  • Here’s what I realize - You just need to find a friendly shark.
  • How would you do that?
  • That’s what I gotta figure out next, he told me.
• Kids have big imaginations
  • There was a show, “Kids Say the Darndest Things”
  • Sometimes, they’d ask kids how things worked. Their answers were funny and imaginative. 
• Kids naturally live in an imaginative space where all sorts of wonderful things can and do happen.
  • We do not.
    • We have to deal with the sharp edges of reality.
      • Supply chain problems
      • Rising Inflation
      • COVID 19
    • It’s hard to be imaginative.
      • Anxiety

The United States and Anxiety

• In God We Trust might be on our currency presently, but a more accurate description of the United States right now would better be, “In Anxiety We Live”
  • Rates of anxiety disorders have risen precipitously over the last 25 years.
    • The rates far exceed where they were during the Coldest Days of the Cold War when the threat of global thermonuclear war was at a peak.
    • More and more people are struggling
      • Feeling restless, wound-up, or on-edge
      • Being easily fatigued
      • Having difficulty concentrating; mind going blank
      • Being irritable
      • Difficulty controlling feelings of worry
        • Any of that sound familiar?
          • Both individually and societally.
          • We’re blowing up at each other on airplanes, tearing down entire cities with violent “protests”, we’re an anxious bunch
        • And, pardon me for saying so, I can’t help think that the diminishment of our trust in God leads inexorably to our nationwide anxiety issue.
      • The brunt of these issues is felt in younger generations.
        • Younger generations are statistically more removed from faith than any other generation in America before them.