The Chair is beautiful
I just want to retell a story that was told this weekend at the New Attitude conference in Louisville, KY.
John Piper was speaking and he told a story about a speaking engagement he had a conference with RC Sproul in Orlando. He said that Mr. Sproul concluded his sermon with an illustration of faith in Christ being like faith in a chair. It’s a common illustration, and it’s exactly what you’re thinking. We are not exercising faith until we sit in the chair.
Mr. Piper spoke next and (knowing that Sproul was watching from the back) posed a question to Mr. Sproul. He said, “what if the chair’s ugly and I don’t want to sit in it?” The point he was making was that it’s more than simply exercising faith, it’s desiring something and then exercising faith. He concluded the story by saying that Sproul came back around, put his arm around him and said, “the chair…is…beautiful.”
Yes, the chair is beautiful, but Piper went on to say that what if the chair has two dozen marksmen standing around it with arrows pointed at your face so that if you sit in that chair they will fire?
I just thought this was an interesting story, thoughts?
NN
Imagine if you had never been able to sit down before and you were given the opportunity to sit in a recliner with that gave you a massage and it had a cup holder. It is a relief to sit.