Chick-fil-a and Colossians

This summer, our staff went to Chick-fil-a on one of our days off. It was crowded and the creepy CFA Cow was running around trying to shake everyone's hand. The place was crazy even before a big group of twenty somethings busted through the doors, looking forward to lunching on some Christian chicken. As we sat down to eat, and all kinds of crazy conversations were going on amongst our group, a friend of mine on staff began to share with me what he had read in Colossians 1 that morning. I hadn't read Colossians 1 in awhile, and being as sleep deprived as I was, I couldn't really remember what it said. So, I pulled my Bible out of my purse, and began to read it, right in the middle of the restaurant. My friend actually laughed at me as he watched my expression change as I read further and further into the passage. It's packed full of goodness! Since camp, I've gone back to that chapter more times than I can count, to try and break down the chapter to really try and grasp the depth of the theology Paul was throwing at the Colossian Church.

Here are a few little Chick fil a nuggets...

v 15- He is the image of the invisible God Jesus isn't some cheap imitation or copy, but "the illumination of God's inner core and essence."

v 16 He is the agent of creation, the sustainer, and the goal of creation. There will be a day when the whole created universe will glorify Christ. The whole universe!

v 24 When believers suffer, Christ also suffers because He dwells in us, and in that, our sufferings should lead us to fellowship with Him.

I guess I take from Colossians 1, that a correct understanding of the fullness of who Christ is, allows me to start to grasp who He is in me. Correct understanding is foundational to correct behavior. If I'm to live as one redeemed, reconciled to God, I have to really begin to understand who He is, and what He has done. Obviously, it's from that understanding that moral living flows. I get challenged every time I read Colossians 1, because it doesn't make me search for how to fix myself or to be a better person, but instead points to the One that makes it possible, from whom everything flows.

When you're transfixed on the glory of Jesus Christ, and the grace that His death and resurrection flows down upon us, suddenly your inadequacies begin to fade. It becomes less about who we are not, and more about who Christ is.

When Paul wrote Colossians, he was fighting against the false teachers who were leading people astray... and today I'm fighting against the false teachings of the world and the lies Satan throws at me. To trade in a self centered life for a more God-centered one is the desire of my heart... to die to myself, to my sin is a constant battle, but thankfully because of the cross, His glory is continually illuminated above all.

Hmm.. now I'm craving some sweet tea and a chick-fil-a sandwich!