Up or Down?

In the Old Testament, there's a famous story about the Tower of Babel.

In fancy seminary words, the tower of Babel was a ziggurat. In ordinary English, it was a religious structure.

The point? The people built it to have a "stairway" from the heavens to earth. The gods were powerful, but they liked to have the red carpet rolled out for them. With this fancy tower, they'd know where to go if they wanted to come down and share some goodies.

The truth? No gods walked down that staircase. It was a colossal waste of time and money. A perfect representation of the human attempt to independently know God.

When I read that story, I think about much of our religious activity. Everyone putting forth efforts in hopes of getting a blessing: status, recognition, feeling good about ourselves.

It's an endless search for fulfillment, pleasure, and inspiration. But honestly? It usually leaves us feeling even more exhausted and alone.

But just because the Tower of Babel was a useless building doesn't mean we should give up on buildings. And just because a lot of religious activity is fruitless doesn't mean we can't approach God differently.

Here's the roadmap. Most religion is about me. What I want. But the gospel starts with God.

The uncommon pursuit isn't our amazing religious devotion, but God's amazing love.

In John 1, we see that the ziggurats said: we have to work hard to get to God. But Jesus said: I'll come to you.

Do we have to go up to God? Or has God come down to us?

Before we met, God was already pursuing you. He has a plan for your life. He has a mission for you to participate in. He wants to equip you and encourage you to take risks to follow Jesus.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.