Friday, December 18, 2015

Before "Outside-The-Box Thinking" Was Around

There are all kinds of things which were once thought to be impossible but now they exist. For example, almost everyone reading this post has a device in their pocket that can perform functions which would have been considered outside the realm of possibility even 75 years ago.

Think about telling a person in 1940, “Seventy five years from now I will have a small device in my pocket—which will be unconnected to any wires—and I will be able to speak the name of a destination into that device. The device will then give me precise verbal directions to the destination.”

The person would have been likely to tell you, “I doubt it.” Ironically, a smarter and better educated person would have been more capable of providing legitimate reasons why such a thing would not be possible.

But here we are in 2015 and we practically take such a miracle for granted. In fact we are irritated if our phone’s GPS service is a little slower than it ought to be.

Think about this: Much of what exists in terms of technological achievement, if we go back in history far enough, would have been considered impossible.

Long ago—way before cell phones—God was challenging us to think in terms of possibilities. With His help; His guidance; His insight; His encouragement; His power and an understanding that He is not limited in the ways we are; utilizing the intellect and the skills He has given us; God wants us to consider impossibilities to be mountains which are capable of being moved.

God was encouraging outside-the-box thinking, based on faith in Him, long before the phrase “outside-the-box” had been coined.

“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Jesus, Matthew 17:20

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