Daily Scripture: Matthew 18:1 At that moment the talmidim came to Yeshua and asked, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” 2 He called a child to him, stood him among them, 3 and said, “Yes! I tell you that unless you change and become like little children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
19:13 Then children were brought to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray for them, but the talmidim rebuked the people bringing them. 14 However, Yeshua said, “Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 Then, after laying his hands on them, he went on his way.
Reflection Questions:- Catcher Roy Campanella observed, “To be good [at baseball,] you've gotta have a lot of little boy in you. When you see Willie Mays and Ted Williams jumping and hopping around the bases after hitting a home run…you realize they have to be little boys.” Jesus said his kingdom, perhaps even more than baseball, calls for childlike joy and simplicity.
- Pitcher and manager Bob Lemon once said, “Baseball was made for kids, and grown-ups only screw it up.” In Matthew 19, Jesus' disciples apparently behaved like that with children who came to Jesus. Have you ever known (or been) an adult who wanted to reserve Jesus for grown-ups, to keep childish laughter or fun at arm’s length in church.
- How do you understand Jesus' meaning when he said, “If you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven”? What child-like qualities have helped you most to follow Jesus more faithfully? Since Scripture also called for maturity (e.g. Hebrews 5:13-14), in what ways is it worth growing beyond childishness?
King Jesus, help me to trust you more fully, to follow you more unreservedly and to rest in your arms when the night around me grows dark. I want to be your child, at every age. Amen.Insights from Wendy Connelly
Wendy Connelly, wife to Mark and mom to Lorelei & Gryffin, is Community Outreach Director at the Leawood campus, a graduate student at Saint Paul School of Theology, Faith Walk columnist for the Kansas City Star, and co-leads the “Live and Let Think” dialogues at Resurrection Downtown.
I’ve always been riveted by the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “Chick-sent-me-hi”), the psychologist who famously coined the term “flow” to describe a state of complete absorption that renders one fully engaged in an activity. In this state there is no sense of time, a loss of self-consciousness, and an utter clarity that transcends normal experience. I picture my two kids on a typical Saturday, art supplies and papers littering the kitchen floor as they delightedly create, present only to the page. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has shown that when one achieves this state of blissful absorption, “ego falls away.”
Ego falls away. One literally loses oneself and, in this surrendering, becomes most fully alive.
Children are masters of flow. So are mystics. Artists. Athletes (obligatory mention). “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” says Jesus of those little ones so absent to self and present to him.
Philosopher Charles Taylor writes of two selves, the “buffered” and “porous” self. The “buffered” self lives in the world of ego and ordinary experience (Saint Augustine described this as the soul curved inward on itself—“incurvatus in se”). And the “porous” self remains, like children, open. Present. In flow. Easily absorbed within the transcendent realm.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to the porous self.
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
I’ve always been riveted by the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “Chick-sent-me-hi”), the psychologist who famously coined the term “flow” to describe a state of complete absorption that renders one fully engaged in an activity. In this state there is no sense of time, a loss of self-consciousness, and an utter clarity that transcends normal experience. I picture my two kids on a typical Saturday, art supplies and papers littering the kitchen floor as they delightedly create, present only to the page. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has shown that when one achieves this state of blissful absorption, “ego falls away.”
Ego falls away. One literally loses oneself and, in this surrendering, becomes most fully alive.
Children are masters of flow. So are mystics. Artists. Athletes (obligatory mention). “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” says Jesus of those little ones so absent to self and present to him.
Philosopher Charles Taylor writes of two selves, the “buffered” and “porous” self. The “buffered” self lives in the world of ego and ordinary experience (Saint Augustine described this as the soul curved inward on itself—“incurvatus in se”). And the “porous” self remains, like children, open. Present. In flow. Easily absorbed within the transcendent realm.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to the porous self.
Download the GPS App
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
913.897.0120
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