Culture Making: A Vision for Human Thriving

I just sat with a young couple who will be getting married next month. I always talk with people who are about to get married before I do their weddings, so this was just part of the deal. As I sat there looking at them all full of life, love, and yearnings I calmly told them near the end, “Your marriage will be what you make of it.” It can be a home filled with laughter, joy, grace, and a feeling that a little bit of heaven must have somehow gotten loose and broke into space-time reality. Or it can be a home where people exist, do their thing, don’t really bother each other, and not much really memorable ever happens.I was thinking about that because I am preaching this Sunday on Culture Making. Marriage is the place where two people begin to make a real culture that they will inhabit. Culture is what we make of the world. We all make something, we have to - humans are going to fill our lives with something. If the Bible is to be believed, then I would suggest that for each of us culture making ought to be with a view of human thriving for those who orbit around our sphere of influence.Look around you - your family, your business, the where your community exists; what have you made of it? Do you enjoy it? Is it life giving? Is it memorable? Do people thrive in it? I ask that because it is what you have made it to be. This Sunday we will talk about how one of the most important tasks God gives us is to participate in the making and re-making of the world. You ask if that is actually possible? You bet it is. Join me Sunday and we’ll talk about it.Blessings,Jim