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.
No comments:
Post a Comment