The resurrection means trouble for us who are comforatble with being only half alive. That thought from Alan Jones has stopped me short for years. (Thanks to Weavings journal for providing the red light this time! http://www.upperroom.org/weavings/ )
It hits me right in my complacency.
Here's another one, I love the recklessness of faith, first you leap, and then you grow wings. (Wiliam Sloane Coffin). Couldn't the wings grow first? I mean, what kind of faith asks me to risk leaping before I can either see the ground or know I'll fly?
It seems like restless faith that asks me to trust other people to toss their gifts in the ring without knowing whether they'll follow through. If any one part of " fails to follow through.......what a mess.
Maybe we should all hold hands, count to three and jump together, ready......? The think system isn't going to work here. We have to really "do it."
Do what? Stop living half alive. Get troubled, resurrection faith style. Sprout wings.
If you've patient enough to let it load, this movie, "The Butterfly Circus" shows better than I can tell!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
What Year is it (again?)
I'm dong pretty well. I haven't written "2009" once yet this year. But last night Jeff brought me some papers I'd signed for our upcoming March UMVIM trip (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission). He said I'd written, "2007." I said, oh, it must be a 9. Nope, clearly wrote a european 7 (with the dash through the middle).
Hmmm, wonder what I was thinking.....
Then I got thinking about how lots of folks think that churches live in the past. Its an understandable notion. We read a book of material edited into its present collection alomst two thousand years ago. Around here, we usually worship in buildings built 100-200 years ago.
(Pop quiz-Do you know how old the Torsey Church will be by the fall of 2010?)
Then again, some folks think of Christian lives as oriented to a distant future, an end time, or life after death.
In the church, we find ourselves living in the "not quite there" time. We find inspiration and guidance from what God has done in the past. We find hope for what God has promised for the future.
But if I think of it as just a time line, I feel "all strung out," neither here nor there. But, if I remember its not so much that God is pushing and pulling us through human time, but enfolding us in God's own eternal time, then I find the place where I can both rest in God's mercy and be challenged by God's justice.
Hmmm, wonder what I was thinking.....
Then I got thinking about how lots of folks think that churches live in the past. Its an understandable notion. We read a book of material edited into its present collection alomst two thousand years ago. Around here, we usually worship in buildings built 100-200 years ago.
(Pop quiz-Do you know how old the Torsey Church will be by the fall of 2010?)
Then again, some folks think of Christian lives as oriented to a distant future, an end time, or life after death.
In the church, we find ourselves living in the "not quite there" time. We find inspiration and guidance from what God has done in the past. We find hope for what God has promised for the future.
But if I think of it as just a time line, I feel "all strung out," neither here nor there. But, if I remember its not so much that God is pushing and pulling us through human time, but enfolding us in God's own eternal time, then I find the place where I can both rest in God's mercy and be challenged by God's justice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)