Color Outside the Lines

Below is the first every "guest post" on my blog.  My friend, Nate Collins, wrote this as a short devotional that he included with the weekly prayer requests for one of the Adult Bible Fellowships at New Covenant.  I hope it encourages you as much as it encouraged me.

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If I was to hand you a box of crayons and a coloring book would you second-guess yourself on your choice of colors? Would you decide to stay within “the lines”?

Now think back as a kid when you did have the crayons in your hand and you didn’t care what anyone thought. You simply experimented, and whatever you wanted that picture to look like, that’s what it would look like. You also did not care whether you were inside the lines or not.

 How about if I were to hand you a blank sheet of paper? How long would you have to think before your crayon hits the paper? Put the same crayons in the hands of a little kid and almost immediately the crayon makes contact with the paper.

 As we got older, all of a sudden, staying “within the lines” was the rule. Grass is supposed to be green, the sky is supposed to be blue. Yes, there is nothing wrong to perceive the world as it really is, and staying within the lines can make a “good looking” picture.

 But how many times have we seen masterpieces of art from the greats and kids who let their imagination free?

 God gave us a mind that is capable of extraordinary things.

 Hebrews 11:1 says,  “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see”

 Dictionary: the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.

 Faith and imagination. Think about it. And don’t be afraid to color outside the lines.

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