Who Am I?
I am Connected
Eph 2:11-18
May 2, 2010
INTRODUCTION
Brain rewiring
A study of the "miraculous" recovery of a man who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state has revealed the likely cause of his regained consciousness.
In 1984, 19-year-old Terry Wallis was thrown from his pick-up truck during an accident near his home in Massachusetts, US. He was found 24 hours later in a coma with massive brain injuries.
Within a few weeks he had stabilized in a minimally conscious state, which his doctors thought would last indefinitely. It did indeed persist for 19 years. Then, in 2003, he started to speak.
Over a three day period, Wallis regained the ability to move and communicate, and started getting to know his now 20 year old daughter - a difficult process considering he believed himself to be 19, and that Ronald Reagan was still president.
To try and find out what was going on inside Wallis’s brain, Nicholas Schiff and colleagues from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, used a new brain imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The system tracks water molecules and so reveals the brain’s white matter tracts - akin to a wiring diagram. They combined this with more traditional PET scanning, to show which brain areas were active.
The team’s findings suggest that Wallis’s brain had, very gradually, developed new pathways and completely novel anatomical structures to re-establish functional connections, compensating for the brain pathways lost in the accident.
They found that new axons - the branches that connect neurons together - seemed to have grown, establishing novel working brain circuits.
Surprisingly, the circuits look nothing like normal brain anatomy. A lot of the damage had been to axons that passed from one side of the brain to the other, torn by the force of the accident. But Schiff says that new connections seem to have grown across around the back of the brain, forming structures that do not exist in normal brains.
This man was uniquely rewired and it changed how he related to the world
T.S. The Apostle Paul contuse his revelation of who were in Christ with a similar declaration
PS. WHO AM I--AM I A PERSON CONNECTED TO GOD IN A TOTALLY NEW WAY.
T.S. Our new wirng involves three connections.
I am Connected to a New World View.
11-13But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ--dying that death, shedding that blood--you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
We are connected in a New World View.
World View -- refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it.
Everyone adopts a worldview.
Darrel Johnson, crediting the work of James Sire and N.T. Wright states that every worldview is asking and trying to answer the same questions:
1. What is prime reality? What is the "really real"?
2. Who or what are we? What does it mean to be a human being?
3. Is there such a thing as "morality," right and wrong? If so, what is its basis; how does one know the good and the bad?
4. What is the meaning of history? Or, is there any meaning?
5. What is wrong with us? Something is off--what is it?
6. Is there a solution; can things be fixed? By whom? How? How quickly?
7. Is there a God? If so, can this God be known? And is this God involved in the world, especially relative to human suffering?
8. What happens to a human being at death?
9. What time is it? Where are we in the flow of history?
It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ--dying that death, shedding that blood--you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
So. . .
Discovering more of who I am is always connected to how God defines life, the world, purpose and meaning. Growing in Christ, implies that I am engaged in that new world view discovery.
Warning: Don’t take it for granted.
Tech nightmare story from Desktop humor.
Customer: "My keyboard is not working anymore."
Helpdesk: "Are you sure it’s plugged into the computer?"
Customer: "No. I can’t get behind the computer."
Helpdesk: "Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back."
Customer: "Okay."
Helpdesk: "Did the keyboard come with you?"
Customer: "Yes."
Helpdesk: "That means the keyboard is not plugged in. Is there another keyboard?"
Customer: "Yes, there’s another one here. Ahh, that one works!"
Warning: Don’t take it for granted that you are discovering more and more about this new world view.
Challenges: Read a book, go to study, engage in spiritual conversations about what all this means.
I am Connected by a New Legality
Paul declares that how God sees, how defines and judges humanity is different that how we perceived it to work in the past.
14-15The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
He tore down the wall of how we used to judge humanity. At one time the entire world was defined by and separated by an old legality.
Before connection with God was based on Ancestry
This is listed as one of the top ten things not to say to a police officer when you get pulled over.
’’Officer, do you have any idea who my father is?’’ It’s an appeal for special treatment based on ancestry.
For years and years, covering every chapter of the Old Testament this is how people believe the world worked. Jews were in right with God because of the promises given to Abraham
Before connection with God was based upon performance
For most people their continued employment at a location is based upon their performance reviews.
I came across a rather humor performance review illustrates this.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Name of personnel evaluated: Dan Heath
Position: Assistant Barrista
Name of Evaluator: John Dinsmore, Store Manager
Evaluation Period: February 1 through April 30, 2004
COMMENTS
Dan, on January 31 we gave you a performance review that served as a written warning of our concerns about your job performance. Since then we have noticed improvement in some areas. For example, you have stopped pretending that you are a dung beetle. Also, you are doing a better job of making change and no longer insisting that customers "round up." However, your performance in other areas remains unsatisfactory.
On March 18, a customer told you that he wanted a large hot coffee, and you told him that "hot costs extra". We both know that there is no such price policy here at Java Jamboree.
On another occasion, we found you wearing a coffee filter over your face and telling customers that you "don’t like the way they smell". After offending several dozen customers, you apparently went back to the storeroom and took a nap.
When confronted with these incidents, your defense is invariably that you are "thinking outside the box". Dan, this is not acceptable. We must insist that you get back inside the box. Please remain inside the box until you are notified otherwise.
2. Greeting customers. In your training period, you were taught our program for interacting with customers. Which you have consistently failed to implement during your shifts.
Dan, pretending to talk to customers with your belly button is not part of our greeting program.
In your last review, we insisted that you give each customer a verbal greeting when they enter the store. You have complied, but you have insisted on giving the greeting in the African clicking language. This is not acceptable. We are pleased to have a bilingual employee, but we need you to greet the customers in English. However, if the customer initiates a conversation in the clicking language, you are free to respond in kind.
Finally, please stop telling each customer that her "epidermis is showing". This has not been funny for quite some time.
SUMMARY
This performance evaluation serves as a second written warning that your performance level is unsatisfactory. We expect to see immediate improvements in these areas or we will be forced to consider further disciplinary action, including, but not limited to, termination of your employment and revocation of your employee discount card. If you are unclear about any of these issues, please ask me for clarification, but please stop calling me at 4 am and saying that my epidermis is showing. Dan, it is unacceptable.
Reprinted from 4.26.2004
Jews were right with God because the kept the law.
Being right with God and discovering who were used to be based upon our ancestry and our performance. But now we are connected in a Fresh start.
Warning: Don’t take this for granted:
The two easiest stumbling blocks to trip over that will prevent you from becoming the who God intends you to be are the old legality’s.
1. Assuming your heritage is enough.
I grew up Christian. I’m Christian because my family is Christian. I’m Christian because we’re not anything else. So I’ll discover Who I am because it’s my heritage
2. Believing the new reality will be based upon performance reviews.
Believing that if I just work harder, try harder, do more, go to more that I will be more in Him. So I’ll discover who I am in him because I’ve earned it.
Challenge: Which of these two stumbling blocks do you trip over? Have you reached the place of admitting it’s not about our heritage, our performance? It’s about how He is reconnecting us in new ways.
I am Connected in a New Unity
16-18Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
Now we are all judged, deemed connected to God the same way. It’s no based upon ancestry; it’s not based upon performance. It is simply based upon what Christ has done on the cross.
giver of every breath I breathe
author of all eternity
giver of every perfect thing
to you be the glory
maker of heaven and of earth
no one can comprehend your worth
king over all the universe
to you be the glory
I’m alive because i’m alive in You
it’s all because of Jesus I’m alive
it’s all because the blood of Jesus Christ
that cover’s me and raised this dead man’s life
it’s all because of Jesus I’m alive
every sunrise sings Your praise
the universe cries out your praise
i’m singing freedom all my days
now that I’m alive
Casting Crowns
Who I am is no more different than the greatest saint you can imagine.
Who I am is no different than a Missionary serving overseas.
Who I am is no more different than an elder, a pastor.
In his eyes Who I am is no more or less than any other follower of Christ.
The entire world comes done to this simple distinction. We are either close or far away from him.
Warning: Don’t take this for granted.
All that separates us is now who we believe ourselves to be in Him.
The Last Prisoners of the Cold War.
The Iron Curtain has been down for quite some time, but things haven’t changed for everything impacted by the former fence.
For years the Iron Curtain (actually, a fence) separated two populations of red deer living in the forests encompassing the border between Germany and what is now the Czech Republic. When government officials began to dismantle the fence in 1989 (around the time the Berlin Wall fell), the physical barrier between those populations was removed. But when wildlife biologists began studying the deer in 2002, they quickly realized that the deer living in Germany were not migrating into the Czech Republic, and the deer living in the Czech Republic were not migrating into Germany. In other words, both populations of deer were still behaving as if the fence remained intact.
Biologists have come up with several explanations for the deer’s strange behavior. Most deer travel across traditional trails, for example--ones that are passed down through generations by modeling and repetition. It’s possible that the Red deer and the other members of the herd simply haven’t ventured beyond the beaten path.
But wildlife filmmaker Tom Synnatzschke, who often works in the area, has a different explanation. According to Tom, "The wall in the head is still there."
Challenge: Is there still a wall in your head that keeps you from discovering who you are in Him.
PS. WHO AM I--AM I A PERSON CONNECTED TO GOD IN A TOTALLY NEW WAY.
Reflection and Response
Who Am I?
I am Connected
Even though I am connected in a new reality in Christ I can still be separated from who I am supposed to be by walls that act like barriers in my mind, . . .
Check all that apply.
* I tend to trust that in my Christian heritage defines who I am.
* I’m a follower of Christ, but I would be hard press to explain why.
* I see other followers of Christ as having more potential than I do.
* I see ways in which I judge who I am by how well I perform.
* ¬I think of myself as a background believer while others are called to the front lines.
* For me who I am has always entailed keeping mental list of do’s and don’t
* I’ve never felt able to live down my past.
* I’ve been too content with mediocrity, never really discovering the new reality of who I am in Christ.
* _______________________________________
Forsaking involves confessing, admitting that a wall keeps you from the New Reality. Naming the wall and sharing it with another is liberating. Who will you tell?
