“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”

“Knickers” the cow was the weekend internet sensation.  If you didn’t see him when you look him up online you will see that he stands far taller than other cows (actually he is steer) who are a lot smaller by breed and also a lot younger.  As the story goes, Knickers had grown fast when he was young and when it was time for him to be processed for meat, he was too large to go through the processing parts so he got to live and so he got to continue to grow while his peer steers went on to another fate.  But, through it all, we make Knickers an internet sensation for being what we want the fantastic and magical story to be, not what he truly is.  And we do this with companies who grew fast and established themselves to be big enough, powerful enough and valuable enough to not be gobbled up by someone else, but over time they hold onto this bigger-than-life status until it is that they stop growing and pass their prime.  This was on my mind this past week as I read more about the dismantling of General Electric, the layoffs at GM and the growth slowdown from content and customer issues at Facebook.

This happens to us too when we begin to think we have outgrown our need to rely and depend on God to direct our ways.  We can get so full of our earthly successes and strengths that we forget that we can be exposed at any time for being far less capable and self-sufficient that it appears from the outside looking in.  As we begin to think about closing out 2018, we will find ourselves looking forward to 2019 and starting to plan what the year might bring.  Let’s consider that in the coming year it will be less about us and more about Him.  That way, we stay sized by what God expects, not by what those around us want to perceive.

Reference:  1 Corinthians 4:20 (New Living Translation)