Different parts of a journey are approached differently. Different phases of a process require different actions. The map that is used to cross the plains won’t be the same map that is used to cross the mountains. Different terrains, different maps. At harvest, a farmer doesn’t use the planting routine to gather the crops. Farmers plant one way and reap another.
Marshall Goldsmith’s book What Got You Here Won't Get You There applied this idea to career advancement. The processes people employ for making it as a worker don’t apply to getting management positions. The worker and the manager have different jobs, different uses of time and tools, and different objectives.
The book was aimed at people who aspire to management positions. It lays out a map, if you will, of milestones that must be achieved. It explains that some of the old must give way to the new. If not, the person will not succeed on the new—and quite different—journey.
This week’s scripture from the book of Hebrews has a similar message for those who want a relationship with God. In the first ten verses of Chapter 10, the Hebrew writer succinctly sums up much of what Jesus tried to communicate to Israel's leaders—the priests, scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the Law. The old way, the way they clung to, was no longer viable. They would have to change if they wanted a true relationship with God. What had brought them to that point—the Law of Moses—could not get them any further. They needed a new redemption song.
Read those ten verses. I found The Message useful in making their meaning plain. Jesus came in the fullness of time to fulfill the Law. It was done. It's as if Jesus were saying: What got you here won't get you there.
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Link to the scripture passage in The Message from Bible Gateway:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2010%3A1-10&version=MS
Listen to New Redemption Song by Over the Rhine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK6-s6qUJeo
PHOTO: Art by Steve Orr, “Cruising Japan” guide by Emile Baladi
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This Friday is DaySpring’s last Lectionary Breakfast during Advent. We would love it if you joined us this Friday morning. We start at 8:00 on **Zoom and in-person at Our Breakfast Place. We'll do all the usual stuff: eat, read, discuss, laugh. But we'll also be celebrating, expectantly, the birth of our Lord.
Come for the food, stay for the blessings.
Blessings,
Steve
**Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY & THE COMING WEEK
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10 (Read 10:1-10)
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)
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