Thereafter, he became not a planet revolving around the central Sun, but a sun in his own right, around which everything else must revolve — AW Tozer

That was one way Tozer crystallized sin and as I’ve encountered various lives in the last eight months of planting Eternity, I’m beginning to appreciate its simplicity and profound insight into the human condition.

• At the heart of any marriage issue, is one or more of the partners attempting to make the marriage revolve around them (their needs, wants, desires) instead of laboring to revolve the marriage around Jesus
• At the source of any parenting issues, is the inclination of young lives to think that life should and does revolve around them and the continuing struggle of the parent to prove otherwise
• At the essence of any sexuality issue is the belief that circumstances, people, and pleasure exist to fulfill my desires rather than my sexuality existing for the glory of God
• In the middle of any church conflict is a church member who believes that the community should (and somehow has failed) to exist to meet their every need and desire as opposed to a church member understanding that the church is a pointer and image bearer of Jesus
• At the basic level of any financial problem for someone is the belief that I am a God deserving of more stuff to solidify my status as God rather than someone who understands that stuff has been given as an instrument to make another famous, namely Jesus

And we can talk through issues in many ways. We can talk about past hurts. We can talk about past abuses. We can talk about past wounds. The reality of the situation is that man’s central desire is make him/herself the center of the Universe and expect God to conform Himself to our likings and desires.

When we encounter a God in Scripture that doesn’t meet those expectations, we either A) abandon God completely or B) remake God into our own image to conform to our beliefs.

But the Jesus way, when truly understood and truly lived out, is a way that understands that we are planets in orbit around God and that our trajectories are upheld by Him. We understand that it is WE who must conform to Him…not the other way around. When we meet a God who doesn’t meet our expectations, we question OUR EXPECTATTIONS FIRST, and understand that God never changes.

I’m seeing in my own heart that my greatest challenge is to not be a self-sufficient God but a totally-dependent planet orbiting the central Sun.