"you could think and act outside the box as long as it was inside the box of the other person."

Excerpt from Paul Leader's post, "Out of the Box" :

......The strange thing is in these moments the crowd goes wild. The event, the conference, the hype all play a part in sweeping everyone along with whatever is taking place. The conference has always been the breeding ground for the exciting stuff to take place and then we go back to being boring when Sunday comes around. The church programme was never invented to being exciting, it was a place of commitment and things we had to do to be a community of believers. Yet people get excited and agree and cheer all sorts of stuff. On both of these occasions the crowd went wild for breaking out of boxes and clay pots. No one wanted to go back to normal or the status quo. Everyone was ready to talk the talk and long for a freedom beyond what they had ever experienced before. There was a no going back mentality. Then reality struck and submission to leaders and local church and doctrine and Christian practice. The religious would challenge and shout rebellion and challenge the trouble makers and thinkers. Many may have gave up one box only to trade it for another. Others sat down with the bits of the clay pot and some super-glue of love and started piecing it all back together. They discovered, as I did time and time again, that you could think and act outside the box as long as it was inside the box of the other person. You could smash the container of religion as long as you lived inside the clay pot of another person. I discover everyday that someone always wants to build a wall around you or hedge you in......

....Remember the toy Stretch Armstrong, stretch him as much as you like and then he will return to his normal size and position? That is the walk of so many. But I long to be a shape shifter constantly. I long to stretch beyond recognition. When people say I am not the same anymore I take that as a compliment. I want to wander the land with others that have broken moulds. Others that will challenge thinking and ideas. Not that I want to join their cast or box, but to constantly break my own. I thank God for people around me today that do such things, like Martin Scott, Mark Pixley, John Matthews, Andre Van de Merwe, Michael Creel, Shannon Byous Ruddy, Peter Rollins, Wayne Jacobsen, Dave Vaughan, Justin Abraham, Mark Neale, Dyfed Wyn Roberts and even Bono! There are many others too that challenge, provoke, ruffle, annoy, stir, comfort, love, break mindsets, smash moulds, kick boxes, break clay pots, walk and not just talk in the wild wanderings of life. I thank God for such people. I may not agree with all they stand in or walk through, but I certainly appreciate the spirit and adventure and inclusion they give as they themselves pursue nothing more or less than the wild goose trail. Daily I will take a boot to the box. Daily I will get my hammer to that pot to smash it beyond recognition. There is no going back. There is only today to live in, a day to walk beyond expectations and pressures and philosophies and traditions and religion and mindsets and doctrine. A day to walk with Him in the wilds and and discover a place that only He knew existed. That box you have for me is forever broken.  -full post  link