Sorrow can cause despair.

Sorrow can cause us to lose hope.

Sorrow can cause us to say, "Who cares?"

Sorrow can cause us to try to forget about the sorrow -- and say that sorrow itself is a thing to be avoided.

But none of that is godly sorrow.

Tonight we live in good, godly sorrow.

A "Fixer" is someone who makes a situation right. Who takes something bad and makes it good. In our day and age, there's usually a violent, shady, or negative connotation involved with using or being a fixer. And we usually think of judgment with a violent, shady, or negative connotation.

But today, judgment itself is the fixer--it takes the bad and makes it good!

While you probably think of a courtroom and a black robe when you think of judgment, if you can transport your thinking to a county fair or the cooking channel, you might start thinking of someone sitting down to test and rate a dish - a judge of whether or not something is good, tasteful, and of a certain quality. God encourages this - not with food, but as you experience the world, different messages, and even God himself. God urges you to honestly "taste-test" things and determine whether they are good or bad.

The good news? This word is used just as powerfully to remind us that we are unconditionally loved by that judge as it is to show us we're condemned.

Are we using judgment the same way?

One of the most common words in the Hebrew Old Testament for judgment has to do with the law, judge-pronouncing-judgment, and courtroom - which is probably the most common way we talk about judgment today in English, too. The image of a "justice system" working to uphold the laws is powerful, and the idea of God as that kind of neutral, objective, cold/stern/righteous judge is a common idea.

The good news? This word is used just as powerfully to remind us that we are unconditionally loved by that judge as it is to show us we're condemned.

Are we using judgment the same way?

That is the question, isn't it? And an answer is: ";Don't judge." or "Don't judge me." or"Don't be judge-y." But if that's our answer, it is incomplete. Because the Bible says more. Today, we find out what comes after, "Don't judge."

"I got this." ...is a phrase that may be true, but may not be best. In our world, and especially in our American culture, we value individualism.

We may think we should be able to stand all on our own. We may think that just doing things ourselves is the easiest, most efficient way to do things. We may be anxious about opening ourselves up to dependence on others. We may be anxious that if we do open ourselves up, no one will be there to catch us when we fall.

All that being said, God designed us as humans to depend on other humans. Today we'll explore the blessings that come from human-to-human interdependent existence.

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array."

God created everything, including humanity and nature, in a way that was perfect. Today we see how humans depend on the nature God created, how nature depends on us, and the attitude we ought to have towards all of God's creation.

Because God is God, and we are not, it’s somewhat simple to understand that God designed us to depend on him (though we frankly quite often don’t think and act that way in our everyday lives). But what’s harder to grasp is how God designed us in such a way that he depends on us. And yet all at the same time, we depend on him. Back and forth. Interdependence.

Interdependence is the proper posture in which to live, and has inherent value, for 2 reasons: it’s the way God is, and it’s the way he designed us.