TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

    Those are the infamous words repeated by Buzz Lightyear in the movie series "Toy Story".   The phrase is a bit of an oxymoron in that there is technically nothing beyond "infinity".   Infinity can never be defined or limited such that you can ever go beyond it.  Make up any large number with any number of zeros after it and all you have to do is add 1 more zero and you have a number 10 times larger than the one before it.

Let me illustrate:

      You say this is large number: 

                   1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

       But add a zero on the end and it becomes: 

                 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

        As soon as you think you have the largest number possible, I can make a larger one.  

     Infinity is a problem mathematicians have had to grapple with over the centuries.  As they study various mathematical functions and theorems the question always arises: 

                    "What happens when X goes to infinity?"   

     The solution to the problem may work for reasonably small values of X but may not work for problems were X is very large. Because of this many of their theorems have "clauses" written into them that limit the use of their purpose to "when X is small" or "X is between 0 and 1". 

      Infinity is difficult for humans to grasp.  We are finite humans.  We live in finite worlds, with finite bodies, with finite life-spans and have finite physical and mental capabilities. So how do you grasp something that has no beginning and also no ending?  Because we can't, we tend to limit the universe in some way to suit our finite limitations. 

     We also do this with God's love and grace. We think God's answer to sin (his grace) only works for small bounded problems like those math theorems.  We think to ourselves, "Well that may work for someone who hasn't committed any major sins or has lived a fairly descent life, but not for someone like me!"  

     But Paul writes:

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

     In Romans 5:20 he also writes:

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

     Only through God's Holy Spirit can we even attempt to know the infinite love of God in Christ. Like the large number you thought was a big number , only to have a bigger number made by adding a zero at the end so also is God's grace towards you.

     Then why should I stop sinning if God's grace expands to infinity?

     The problem is not with God but with us.  Because we may say God's love is infinite our finite selves reject this notion as it applies to us.  Oh it may apply to "others" but we often view ourselves as having a unique place in God's Kingdom that is outside of God's grace.  Because we will ultimately limit the grace God can supply, we will run out of it by constantly sinning or committing a sin which we view as too great for God to forgive.  (this is why we ask God to "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil") 

     This was the case of Judas.  We will never know the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus.  It might have been out of anger or frustration with Jesus not being the "Mighty Messiah" to kick the Romans out.  Who knows!  Often we get too caught up in the "Why did he do it?" and not the "Why did he kill himself?".  Judas spent 3 years with Jesus. He heard all his sermons. He saw all of his miracles.  He even participated in those miracles when he was sent out 2 by 2 to the local towns.  He saw Jesus forgive the sins of countless people, but Judas believed he had done something so egregious that God could not forgive him.  Peter denied Jesus to a little girl within ear shot of Jesus.  His sin was just as bad as Judas.  The difference is in their perception of God's love to them.  I believe 100% that Judas would have been forgiven by Jesus just as Peter was forgiven.  After all, didn't Jesus forgive the men standing below the cross who had lied to put him there?  If he could do that to them, he would surely have done it for Judas as well.

      Maybe you have done something you thought you would never ever do.  Maybe you think you are outside of God's grace in Jesus Christ.   Let me tell you that you are not.  Whenever you feel this way just remember this:

GOD'S LOVE IS "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!"

God runs beside us

Recently while exercising at the gym I was watching ESPN and their coverage of the Paralympic Games.  I was watching the Track-and-Field portion of the program and was fascinated by the Women's Visually Impaired (blind) 100 meter dash. The event put the runners in odd numbered lanes and a seeing-aid in the even number lanes.   In this case, each woman was paired with a man running beside them all the way to the finish line.  Their aid helped with keeping in their lane by giving them instructions, but also to encourage them and let them know what place they were in.  

I couldn't help but see the connection to our "race" as Christians.  Christ is not waiting at the finish line to see if we make it or not.  No!   Like the runner-aid, Christ runs right beside us.  He urges us on to keep going and finish our race.  He also helps guide us with his words to help keep us going in a straight path and staying in our lane that is marked out for us.

Strength is Weakness and Weakness is Strength

 Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

...because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This verse seems to be a contradiction. How can one be strong when they are weak. Why would God give Paul a "thorn in the flesh" that would seem to make his work more difficult.  

    To illustrate why this is so,  I'm going to use two famous quarterbacks in the NFL: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. When Tom Brady first auditioned for the NFL his statistics were not very good. The people at the combine noted that Tom was slow, didn't throw a good tight spiral, didn't look like he had ever been in a weight room, and didn't have a strong arm. By contrast, Aaron Rodgers got very good remarks at his first combine after college. On paper Aaron Rodgers is a much better quarterback than Tom Brady.  He is quick and can use his legs to get out of a jam.  He can really zip the ball and can throw it very far down the field if needed.  Yet it's Tom Brady who has seven Lombardi trophies Aaron he has one. Why is that?   I think the answer is that Tom Brady's weakness is his strength. He knows that he can't do it on his own and needs to rely on others on the team.  He works his hardest to improve those areas he is not good at, but in the end he knows that can carry him only so far.  He works hard to be the best team leader he can be both on the field and off the field.   Aaron Rodgers on the other hand does not do those things. He relies on his own capabilities (his speed, his throwing ability, his agility) to carry his team on the field.  While this has worked for him at times in the past, it has become his downfall as of late.  For example, this last spring he decided to sit training camp out and not spend time working with his teammates.  He clearly thinks he doesn't have to train with them and doesn't appreciate what his team does for him.  He has become puffed up and arrogant, to the detriment of his team (shown in their 38-3 pounding by the New Orleans Saints on 9/12/21).

So you might say Tom Brady's weakness is his strength and Aaron Rodgers' strength is his weakness.

So also it is with us Christians and our relationship to Jesus Christ. When we recognize our weakness and that we are incapable doing it ourselves, we see that we need to rely on him more and less on our own abilities.  Our weakness becomes our strength.  God gives us these thorns for a reason.  As with Paul, to remind us that we are weak and to prevent us, like Paul, from becoming "puffed up".  He doesn't want our "strength" to take our focus off the need for HIS strength.