Too many buckets. A bucket for work. A bucket for God things and prayer and bible reading. A bucket for my marriage. A bucket for parenting. A bucket for my friends. A bucket for my leisure time. A bucket for the stuff I don't want anyone to see. Lots of buckets. A regular bucket bonanza.
Each bucket its own stuff. Don't let them mix. Line them up and hope that when I play bucket bonanza, I can keep landing the ball in each bucket. I just line up the buckets in a row (just like Bozo--hmmm, just like Bozo. A hint that there may be a problem) in order of priority (important buckets close, not so important buckets to the back) and throw the ball. Every now and then I hit the bucket at the end--woohoo! Bonus!
I'm not sure this bucket bonanza approach to life is healthy. Okay I am sure. Its not healthy. Lots of compartments for everything, no mixture, lots of stress to keep all the buckets working. I think that bucketization is fracturing and fracturing is the hallmark of idolatry.
Think about idolatry for a minute. In idolatry, if I need help in this area, I go to this god and please it and it helps me a little. I need help in this other area, I go to this other god and please it and it helps me a little. God after god, a god for every bucket, make all the gods happy, don't mix the gods around, life is good as I run around pleasing all these gods that in turn please me.
Deuteronomy 6: Hear O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall (then) teach them diligently to your children...[everywhere you go and in everything you do].
God says to Israel, "I am one. Now bring me into everything and everything into me." In other words, fewer buckets with more God in them. Condense and combine. Integrate. Be whole. God is one.
This is roughly a recap of a talk I gave last night at our Refuel meeting (or at least a little part of it.) But I think its something for us to wrestle with as a community. Kill the fracturing. Get into fewer buckets. Serve a God who is One in a way that reflects His Wholeness by your wholeness.
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