Today I chose to venture out to a part of the city that contains a section of the old Berlin wall. I had no agenda, just desiring to experience God in whatever way He wanted to meet with me. I found myself staring at this section of the wall, now just a memorial, and it served the purpose to decide who was free and who was not. Here I am, free, not just physically, but more by grace and love. I am free to know Christ and to walk with Him daily.
I managed to find my way to Starbucks, of course, and wrestled over my coffee and these images. Freedom in Christ, to wonder deeply into His heart and to fearlessly trust Him with a childlike faith, requires sheer abandon and nothing less.
Jesus says in Matthew 16:25, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." In other words, "come, follow me" means an abandonment of my very self. Maybe in our culture today Jesus would say, "whoever abandons their life in, by and of this world will contrarily live life to its fullest." Essentially, defy the laws of gravity, all scientific reason, and step out in what feels like risk to the flesh, pursuing a God that is not safe but that is good. Maybe that should be the definition of "scandalous trust"- to defy the very laws of the world and expectations on how to live. It sounds scary, scandalous, risky, crazy, and irresponsible. But what if this is exactly what Jesus meant?
Is it my responsibility to discard responsible behavior in the name of Jesus? Should I really pursue Jesus with the faith of a child? Who has no fear, only the fear of missing the wonder of something fresh and new and mysterious?
Religion tells us what we can't do, instead of walking with Jesus in the freedom of what we can do. When I look at Christ's life, He was all about breaking the "rules" established by the self-righteous Pharisees. Yep, Jesus broke the rules. But He was perfect in every way. And He said, "come, follow me" not "come, follow my rules."
John 18:36, "My Kingdom is not of this world." So why do we think His reasoning, His purposes, His understanding, His knowledge would be of this world? He said it's not! The Kingdom of Heaven is completely contrary to this world; its reason, its function, its mindset, on all levels. And maybe, until we start stepping out of the "norms" of institutionalized church, we will miss God. We might miss experiencing Him, His Spirit actively living, freeing, pursuing, healing, transforming lives - our own and those around us.
When we don't abandon ourselves fully to Christ, we will choose another version of Jesus to follow, and essentially create our own "Christ."
2 comments:
Preach it, sister!
~Flower
It's great to hear your musings on topics that bring me back to dim lights, our comfy couches, and beer. I'm sure you're getting plenty of the former and kinda lacking on heavy discussion? Maybe this year will be a break from institution for you in every way. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the German church and life post-staff.
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