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Careful ...

Tuesday, Mar 4, 2014. Are you careful doing the things you do? How careful are you? Where do you take enough care? Where are you a little sloppy and do not take care properly?

Careful and Detail? …

I am someone who takes things quite serious. But that does not mean that I like details. That is an important point. Sometimes I am working together with people who are very much into detail. They are careful about tiny little things - and I often think that I first want to get the broad line set up properly.

First things first. Details later. I had to learn to appreciate the people who want to carry out proper details from the very beginning. And sometimes, that is very important. In general details are important. But also the fundaments are important. The main lines are important. The new ideas, not yet with all details, are important!

You can be careful without going into all details. That is something some people have to learn. Care does not mean, that you would go into all details. Care means that things are important. When you go into too much detail, you might loose the sense for the complete story. You might not finish. You might not get anywhere, just because you are stuck in detail. When you want to take care, that can also mean to leave detail unfinished and get the main points working.

Be careful! …

God calls the people of Israel to take care. He wants them to carefully obey his commands. He wants them to be pure, to be holy, to be good. He wants them to fully live according to his character, to his love, to his truth. He even threatens them: be careful, since if you fail, you will suffer a lot!

I ask myself: why is it so important to him. Why is he even announcing strong suffering, when his people fail to follow? It is because he wants justice. He wants people to be pure. He himself is pure and holy and full of faithfulness and love. How can he allow people who are supposed to be part of his kingdom not to be holy and pure and full of faithfulness and truth and love. In Christ Jesus he has fully reached this, as an open source for all of us - justice which is given through faith in Christ!

In faith, we also need to be careful. We need the big lines to be right. And we need to take care of detail. The balance between detail and the broad and deep ideas which Jesus is giving us is important! Some of us try to focus on the details of laws and rules, but loose the basic and big lines: forgiveness and repentance, love and truth. Others just follow broad ideas, but loose the content which has been given to us as well: you shall be holy, care for one another, do not stick to money, be friendly, love your enemy, one man and one woman, do not commit adultery, it is about your heart and your mind! We need to take care, both on the level of the broad lines as well as on the detail level. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts