GodReflection: Power Words

I am a product of my culture. I live by a checklist. My checklist habit reached new heights with my first fulltime employment. There is something mystical and magical about making a list. Very little happens under my own steam until I write it down.

Should I ever need the important information of what I was doing on any given day over the past 40 years I can find it in my calendar file. (Sounds like I need to purge my files.)

Checklists work great for fallen folks attempt to navigate a complicated 21^st century. A checklist offers special comfort to us who received a checklist personality at birth.

The checklist thing was natural in the beginning of my Jesus walk. “God asked me to do this, that, and the other, and to refrain from one, two, and three.”  With time and an increase in maturity, checklist rules ran thin.

There is no relationship in rules. In fact, rules suffocate relationship. That is not to say right and wrong is relative. It is to say that a checklist cannot sustain relationship.

I experienced the love of two parents and three siblings. Checklists were common in life. Cut the grass, hang the clothes (not because the dryer broke), wash the dishes (neither was the dishwasher broken), dry the dishes, clean your room, cleanup after the dog, were all items common to my list.

The checklist had nothing to do with my family relationships. At the core of the family was love. The love relationship didn’t emerge from the checklist.

Power comes when I go beyond the checklist in my walk with God.

The beyond is Jesus.  I encounter the beyond as I increase my love for him. It is through Jesus I come to know God.

If I know Jesus—I will get life right. If I know Jesus—I will get church right. If I know Jesus—I will get relationship right. If I know Jesus—I will get holy right.

If I know Jesus, a checklist will be far from my inner thoughts. I will experience the power of living beyond the checklist.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection Beyond the Checklist.

Gary@GodReflection.org