What does it mean to lay your life aside; to give up your life in yourself in order to find it in God? What does it mean to be in Christ? These are the questions I have running around my head at the moment. I am asking not simply for personal reasons but also because I believe that the message we proclaim is intimately tied up in them. Too often I believe that commitment to Christ has been portrayed as a joyless self abasing life, one where our very personalities are eradicated and incorporated into an overall mindset of obligation and service. Now I know that this sounds gloomy, but I have to admit that it is often the picture that we present to the world, we don't mean to, and we may not even feel that way but the fact is that this is how we are perceived.
So what is going on? I'd like to suggest a few things, and these are in no particular order:
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Church folk have a meeting mindset, we rush from place to place so filled with things to do that too often we forget to stop. When did you last watch the sunset, I mean really watch it, not as you were driving, not as a cursory glance out of the window, but as an intentional act?
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We become fixated upon our own existence (by that I mean corporate existence), we are so focused on maintaining the structures and buildings that grant us "identity" that we forget to be human! Do you have any hobbies, friends, and activities outside the church?
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Even when we have friends within the church our relationships are often relationships of functionality rather than real deep friendships! When did you last invite friends over, cook a meal, open a bottle of wine and spend the evening really talking to one another?
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We attend worship, we sing hymns and we say prayers, we read our Bibles and we serve God, but we forget all too easily that He is the one who adores us. When did you last simply sit in God's presence and allow him to love you? Can you say that you are often simply lost in wonder love and praise?
Jesus did call us to a life of commitment, and his call is not easy, but it is not boring either. We are not on life's treadmill we are on an adventure. The gospels are not tame they are wildly attractive and liberating, and if we truly dare to soak them in we might just become wildly attractive too, we might also find ourselves liberated.
I wrote on my Facebook profile the other day that I was fed up of reading one theologian quote another theologian and wanted to get back to the scriptures, I was not advocating small minded reductionism, rather a deep need to rediscover my roots in God, and to reconnect with the passion that he lit within me.
Is my life set aside for God? Yes it is, and in Jesus he calls me to be in him; but as far as I know nobody has ever called Jesus dull! He was full human, and he knew how to be fully human- and he calls us to BE the same!!!
"Jesus said: Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
(Matthew 11: 28-30)
