You’ve been working hard. You’ve chosen how you will spend your time and your life and you are working to remain faithful.
But you may be getting tired.
Your steam may be running low.
In this case, it may be important to note the regular rhythms of work and passion and vision.
There are always times of cloud-shrouded uncertainty of task and days. This is really, really normal.
Sure, figure out what to put on your body, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Spend your money on those great shoes, just remember, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Make your face what you want it to be, but don’t forget, it doesn’t really matter.
You are so much more than your clothes, your shoes, or your face.
It was a rousing discussion. I’d presented the following material and out of these simple comparisons conversation after conversation followed. We didn’t have time for all the thoughts and questions and dialogue.
I’ve been thinking a lot about identity for as I work alongside and as I observe and experience churches in both rural indigenous settings and in North America I’ve come to see that religion is in many ways about identity.
Each faith expression, each tradition woven through the fabric of our experience of God builds into us an identity. In the purest form I suppose that this is neither here nor there, right or wrong, and yet I am concerned for it appears to me that in many ways our churches teach us identity with forms of religion and not necessarily with Christ.
Each one of us has a journey. Each one of us has parts of our journey’s that we would rather leave behind, with pain and shame and regret woven through. How do we overcome these things? Can we move forward and on what basis?
There is an ongoing conversation about something in which I’m not even interested. It’s making for interesting thought.
Without implicating anyone or giving away too many details let me try to set the stage.
As you know I work alongside overseas rural indigenous pastors. It is a privilege and an honour and most of the time things go amazingly well.
Within the amazing, the biggest area of disconnect comes in the conversations around church buildings.
Continue reading Are We Really Listening to God? Are We Hearing?
Is God angry or is God compassionate?
Does God come towards us or does God recoil away from us?
Who is the condemner, God or Satan?
Does God punish us for our sins or is sin the punishment?
Is Hell a place of justice that God sends people to, or is it a place of lostness that he saves us from?
Is God watching people and tattling on them to the authorities or is God journeying alongside us?
Does God bring focus to our mistakes and folly or does he cover them over?
Is God smug about our failure or is he broken over it?
Is God looking down upon your life or is he looking at life through your eyes?
Is God understanding or impatient?
Does the general human experience disgust or delight God?
Is God big enough for everything of your life or not?
Does God expect truth or pretence?
What is God calling you to today?
What we believe about God colours everything about how we do life, how we love people, how we go about ministry, the manner in which we live our days, the conversations we have, the expectations we carry, the disillusionments we end up with, and our general state of happiness.
What do you believe about God?
