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| photo used with permission http://illuminatephotography.com |
These days you seem more like a beautiful bride trapped in a luxurious castle made of self-imposed religious paradigms wondering why no one wants to visit you anymore instead of the luminous shield maiden who ventures into the wild to bring healing and freedom to a dying world.
You are gorgeous when you are at your best and hideous when you are at your worst.
Sadly, over the past week I've been reminded of the immense responsibility and stewardship that the bride of Christ has to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope. But why this week specifically? Because I've witness numerous occasions that she has been much less than that. In fact, it's been quite the opposite.
Faith mandates risk-- relational, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, financial. But what I see in headlines and around this country is anything but this type of faith. Scriptural faith beckons trust and risk and is not characterized by picketing, protesting, and boycotting. Rather, it is a courageous call to put aside our assumptions and judgments to humbly serve our fellow human with compassion and curiosity. I'm pretty sure that this is the point that Jesus was trying to drive home after 3 years of teaching and serving when He knelt down to wash the filth off the Disciples feet right before His last meal on Earth.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:12-15, NIV)Love requires sacrifice-- relational, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, financial. But what I see in the actions of many Christians is much less than the extravagant love that they have claimed to embrace. Scriptural love embraces the brokenness in humanity with a selflessness that can make the hardest of hearts soften when it chooses to move in Holy defiance to the circumstances of social norms and behaviors. It's much easier to yell into the darkness of night cursing it for it's shadowy shroud rather than venture into the gloomiest hour with the smallest glimmer of Light.
Fear renders the Light useless and motionless but fear has no place in love. Yet, perfect fear casts out love; the fear of different policies, different lifestyles, different world views, different economic status, different ethnicity, different...
Love is not afraid of different. To truly embrace Love, we must be willing to thrive in the different imitating the Author and Perfecter of our message and motivation.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:1-4, NIV)Scripture goes on to point out how Jesus embraced difference with an extravagant love...
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7, NIV)Hope necessitates transparency-- relational, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, financial. What would happen if everyone claiming to follow Jesus actually owned their shit? That's right. What would happen if everyone claiming to follow Jesus got real about their joys and struggles, their victories and defeats? What would happen if everyone claiming to follow Jesus learned how to tell better stories? Better yet, lived better stories? What would happen? Hope MUST include the brilliant, brutal honesty about ourselves and the faith we hold so dear. There is no room for arrogance and pretense because those who are dying a slow death-- relationally, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, physically, financially-- need us to show up fully in all our glory and all our shadow.
So, Church, you must go. You must go into this world that desperately needs the faith, love, and hope that you represent because you are God's plan for this world. That's right. There is no "Plan B". There is no fall back position. You are messenger and your life is the message.
I'm curious: what message does your life story tell? Is it of a wonderful King who risked everything to rescue a rebellious heir from the destruction of their own making? What must you risk, sacrifice, and reveal?
Go-- be unleashed-- because you are beautiful, free... and this world needs you.
Love,
Warrior poet of the King and one of the courageous, renegade, free-- FireWolf
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| photo used with permission http://illuminatephotography.com |
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composed by
dave
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