A Labyrinthine Journey

Last week for Ash Wednesday, I wanted to try to help my Confirmation students understand Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. Last year I started working with my own version of Confirmation that links up with the Enneagram and some of the process perspectives that offers me. So it didn’t take much for me to see a link between the three temptations of Jesus and the 3 energy centers of the Enneagram (also the three energy centers of Thomas Keating).

But even that didn’t lead me to connect well with the students because the needs of the three centers are basic needs for life. What makes them traps for us is when we go to the extremes with the importance of or the means to achieve our needs. The common thread with all the temptations of Jesus was the temptation to do “Whatever it takes.”

Temptation 1: Turning Stones to Bread

We all have the basic desire for survival, to not be hungry. We like to feel safe and secure with all of our needs met and our fears taken care of.One of the things we really don’t like is that feeling of emptiness and it doesn’t matter if the emptiness is in our stomachs, the noise level around us, our bank accounts, our schedules, our understanding of life, or our inner spirit. We just don’t like it. In US society we loath emptiness so much we overindulge and hoard just about everything. We have fallen into the trap of confusing what we want with what we truly need all in the service of preventing us experiencing even the hint of being less. On the Enneagram this would correlate with the Head corner of the 6-5-7.

So Jesus in the wilderness after 40 days of no food sits in a place that we actively avoid. My confirmation students thought the idea of going 4 hours without food was ghastly enough let alone 40 days. So Jesus is set up for the first Whatever it Takes temptation. He was famished, and I can imagine that emptiness raising weakness and fear that he might not survive this time and the wilderness would be the end of his journey even before it really got started. So the temptation is to not believe that God will really take care of him, that the Spirit left him out here to die in the wilderness, so if Jesus wanted to survive, he would have to take care of it himself.

Both Jesus and Satan knew that Jesus had the power to make it happen and besides who would know. Jesus would know. And the truth he would know was that in the end he wasn’t able to trust God to care for him with even his basic needs, so he had to step in and fill the void of God’s activity in his life.

Whoa. That raises a lot of questions for me about all the things we do to “insure” that we will succeed in surviving our life. I will leave any personal reflections up to your living conversation with God’s Spirit.

But I find this temptation causing me to wonder how many survival programs for struggling churches are all based on the idea that God hasn’t stepped up to save you yet, so you need to do Whatever it Takes to make sure you have your needs as a church met. I’m all for hoping the Church of God continues (my income is a vested interest in that endeavor). However, I think we have lost sight of the idea that the Church is the Body of Christ and that the God who creates us and forms us together as a people is also desiring for us to live abundantly.

Where is the Trust that God holds the future and is faithful to us?

In many books and programs that come through my email and inbox the trust seems to lie instead on how we are processing the metrics of “successful” churches to “insure” our survival as a congregation or as a denomination.

Are we as the church being seduced by the Surviving by Whatever It Takes temptation? I’m afraid we are more than we would like to admit.

OK, this ended up being longer than I expected, so I will break it up into 3 parts and take each of the other two temptations.

Feel free to comment below.

For quite a few years I’ve been refocusing the lens of my preaching and teaching the gospel. I am seeing it more and more as God’s great invitation to life that is full of light and wonder. One of the implications of that reshift of focus is an internal set of translating the language of church and faith. Some I am sure would cry foul, but I find the new language liberating. So, here is a beginning (and very brief) guide to this Gospel of Invitation.

Command => Invitation

This is the basic translation. To me the whole command language sets up our relationship with God as one of servant/master, which Jesus changes when he talks in John 15:12-15 about we are no longer servants, but friends.

This also clears up for me the mixed messages of all the commands to love one another. Being invited to a life of loving one another makes a lot more coherant sense then the implied idea of “love one another, or else…”

What happens if I don’t => What happens as I do

This follows from the previous conversion. If the focus is primarily on what are the results of not doing something then we are concerned with reward and punishment. Here we come boldly in to the realm of works righteousness. Yet, if we offer the invitation to what happens in life as we follow the path of life then we are no longer thinking about linear causality of fear, but we are instead focused on the ways were a participants in God’s life as we respond to grace.

If => As

Did you catch that little translation? This is one of the first ones I noticed on my journey into this Gospel of Invitation. The word “if” has that idea of “don’t.” “If I do this” carries with the real possibility and assumption that I won’t do it. Whereas “as I do this” begins and carries with it the idea of being involved. As we forgive one another, we participate in God’s forgiveness.

Compulsion => Desire

You might notice, that a lot of these translations move away from a culture of control into a culture of participation. Compulsion and control are all external source words. The force for the action come from somewhere out there. Desire and participation are internal source words. The springs of life are planted inside us and the Holy Spirit inspires desire within us and that is what leads us to act within the imagination of God’s Grace.

Surrender => Consent

Here is another one that doesn’t seem like it needs to happen at first, but I have found myself doing this one a lot more lately. Surrender is a fear-based word. It is an act of giving in and giving up. The battle of life has been joined and we have lost. However, consent is a love-based word. We have been invited to join our hearts with God’s heart and we choose to freely give our lives to God as an expression and response to that great Love.

Prove => Witness

This is reflected in my previous blog entry about the parable of two doorkeepers. A basic assumption of the prove it perspective is that God and God’s ways are somehow understandable by our great and massive intelligences. Yet, I don’t believe that. All we are able to do is to witness to the mysteries of Life and Love. All we are called to do is to keep pointing to what God is doing in our lives. So we can stop adding notches to our belts of those we have “converted” by our eloquence as we keep proving how great God is (or have we really just proven how smart and charismatic we are). Instead a Gospel of Invitation is all about celebrating what God is doing in life. As God transforms lives we rejoice with the company of saints and keep on inviting people to “come and see.”

That’s it for now. Let me know what you think. Can you see how this moves us a God’s people from being messengers of shadow into being bearers of light? As I find myself shifting my thinking in this way my life system moves from one which is closed and feels empty into one that is wide open and spacious, fillable and filled with the fulness of God’s Spirit and Light.

Psalm 84 is up for the lectionary this week. Verse 10b stimulated a little parable.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God…

Doorkeeper #1: Let’s call him Frank.

Frank tends the door at the most exclusively club in town. Inside the door one can find the most exquisite decor, the most delicious food, and the DJ spins the best music in the country. It is a wondrous and magical place to be. And only the best people are allowed to enjoy this place.

That is Frank’s job. He tends the locked door behind the red velvet rope.

If you come to the club you have to show Frank that you are worthy. Your name has to be on the list and only those A class girls and boys can gain entrance. So you have to prove to Frank that you are who you are and that you allowed inside. If you can do that, then the wonders inside are for you to enjoy. If not, then you can only stand outside and wonder. But most people after a little while just give up and think no longer about even trying to enter this place. They go along with their lives outside the door.

Doorkeeper #2:  We meet Francis.

Francis is the Doorman at the finest hotel in town. It too is a place of wonder. The lobby is spacious and filled with marvelous visions and images of beauty. The restaurant off the lobby is known to sell the simplest yet most filling foods and most refreshing drinks. It also is a wondrous place to be. And anyone who enters finds themselves most blessed.

Francis’ job is to tend the front door.

Yet, for Francis his joy and delight is to do all he can to open the door and welcome everyone who walks past. As people walk by, he smiles at each one and gestures toward the door to invite them in. If they keep walking, he waves and invites them to return anytime, the door will be opened for them. If anyone stops and turns to enter, he rushes to the door to open it wide for them to enter. If they have coats, hats and umbrellas he makes sure they are relieved of their burdens at the check room. He loves to make the way clear for everyone to come in and enjoy the wonders of this beautiful place.

Which doorkeeper are we?

As I think about the church, I think we have found it too easy to be more like Frank. We see ourselves as the gatekeepers to the kingdom. What we have is the most wonderful thing in the world, but we somehow think it is fragile and easily spoiled. We see ourselves as the protectors of the faith and believe that it can become lost or damaged if those unworthy are allowed to enter in. So we set up all kinds of rules of righteousness and ritual to make people prove themselves worthy. Trouble is, those we allow in usually end up being, dressing, acting, and talking just like us-those already in.

Yet, I think the Psalmist and Christ invites us to be more like Francis. The Gospel message is the most wondrous thing in the world and we do believe that anyone who finds the presence of the Loving God has found all the blessings they desire. However, we believe it is so marvelous that we want to do all that we can to bring everyone into that Presence of Life. So we radiate that open invitation to all we meet. And when anyone decides to respond, we joyfully do whatever we can to welcome them into the Grace of Christ. We look for and seek to remove all burdens and obstacles that keeps them away from enjoying the abundance of God.

Over the last couple days it has been my turn to celebrate communion at two of our local care centers. There was a time early in my ministry, I am ashamed to admit, when I would have seen those times as impositions on my time. Yet by grace and through the Holy Spirit’s changing my heart, that attitude has been changed.

I see the time as a simple gift with surprising and mostly unseen fruit.

The time is short, it is not much more than reading scripture, sharing the prayer of institution and the Lord’s prayer and personally sharing the elements with each person who comes. Even when we celebrate communion in larger church worship, I seek to look each person in the eyes as they come up. A look that I fill with all of God’s grace that I can allow to flow through me.

Here my celebrating communion in care centers happens 20 times.

For some reason, today was different.

I was feeling tired and empty today, so the old resentment tried to raise its objection to going, but no-one listened. And when I got there, the elements were prepared, but only 3 residents had gathered. This is about a third to a fourth of the number who usually attends. Besides, the activity director could not be found. But that wasn’t a problem. We just waited for a few more to come. When we had 7 of us, I started the reading from Psalm 130.

“My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.”

Then the prayer of thanksgiving:

“Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts, that in the breaking of this bread and the drinking of this wine we man know the presence of the living Christ.”

Followed by the Lord’s Prayer. While we are praying a couple more residents come to join our small circle, I smile at them to welcome them to the group.

Then sharing the gifts. I have to pay attention now. Will she take the wafer or will she want me to place it in her mouth? Will he be able to hold the small cup of juice or will I need to help him drink?

I partake last, mindful today of my own sense of void and emptiness. I am grateful.

As soon as I prnounce the benediciton, the last woman to arrive jumps up as fast as she could jump with her walker and comes over to me apologizing for being late.

“I’m just glad you made it”

By now she has made it to where I am standing and she grabs hold of my arm and leans up against me and begins to cry. “I am so glad I made it, too. Thank you. Thank you.”

I give her a hug and she moves down the hallway to her room. I then go to each remaining person and shake each hand and smile with each grateful face. Each one echoes the thought, “Thank you so much for coming.”

As I finish gathering my Bible and prayer book, I am thinking how different today feels. One woman hasn’t moved yet. As I stop to talk with her, she says that they have lost quite a few residents in that facility in the last couple weeks. So we talk for a few moments about grief and the seasons and cycles of life and death. She thanks me and begins moving down the hall back to her room.

As I leave, I find myself thinking that in my prayers, I rarely pray for a whole care center. I might pray for individuals and for larger communities, but not for those smaller communities.

And I realize that I am leaving a feast of the body of Christ. It may not have been 5 loaves and 2 fish, but the 8 of us were gathered and Christ’s presence was felt by my heart today.

I had a dream last night. It was a dream that raised the very important question of what questions we ask God that guide us in mission and ministry.

In the dream, a group of young people were sent out into the community for a day. They come back to report.

One young woman comes all sad, and frustrated. She tells of all the tales of woe she witnessed and heard throughout the day.

“God, what is up with all this disease and bad in the world? It is just too much. How can you stand it?”

Another young woman followed and shared how she all those things, too. yet, she also saw people holding on to hope and still getting up to face another day. She saw babies being born and children playing and being taught. She also saw people laughing and loving.

“God, if we are all dying, this life-threatening stuff makes sense, why don’t you just throw in the towel?” So, what is up with all this life I saw?”

And there ends the dream. I woke up enough to jot down that dialog, but I’ve been mulling this snippet over ever since.

We cannot deny the presence of evil and all that threatens life in our world. Utter despair is what makes sense when we consider the evidence of the world around us and our own mortality. And we could approach the world lost in that despair. I am humbled by how often I find myself seeing and therefore believing only the worst.

Yet, God, what is up with all this life you infect our lives with? You keep bringing us moments of renewed energy and clarity. You turn winter into spring and summer. You come to the darkest shadows and where you show up there is light. People die in our lives. New relationships are born and reborn more often. And even as the time leads us toward mortality, you keep on living in and around us.

As I witness the tears of sorrow, God, help me see your light. As I wrestle along with someone who is seeking freedom, God, show how the chains are being taken away. As I think all this is just too much, surprise me.

Working on this Sunday’s sermon on Ephesians 2:11-22. I used to read those words about the dividing wall and the strangers to the promise language as thought that God was the one who had set up the rules and boundaries. With that idea, then Jesus came to remove God’s barriers to salvation and grace.

Today, I saw a whole new perspective.

To Paul, the boundaries, the walls, and the hostilities are the creation of us humans. We call each other the circumcised and the uncircumcised. We set up the ordinances that determine who we see is In and who is Out. The divisions are ours and since people think what we say is the right way, then our ideas of who has hope and who are hopeless are received and accepted by those we tell.

The walls are ours. The Iron Curtains, the Border Patrols, Us, and Them are things we create.

Christ came to break through our own ideas of who are strangers. And our kind are never strangers.

In Ephesians 2:16, God’s strategy is to reconcile us all to God then challenge us to respond. “Deal with it,” God says.

Reminded me of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. The Holy Spirit did the same setup. God already had Peter’s attention. God made an independent connection with Cornelius (one of the Stranger Gentiles). Then needed to show Peter what Grace had done.

The dream of the unclean food and then the outbreak of the Holy Spirit amongst the Gentiles, God says, “I’ve chosen them, they are mine. Deal with it.”

So, who do we as the gatekeepers of the gospel see as outside the circle of God’s love? And does God really have that limited of a circle of Grace?

Not according to my reading of Scripture. How is God asking us to have our walls and boundaries ripped down by Christ?

The answer is not easy to accept. God doesn’t force us to accept each other. But where is God breaking out in power and then stands there looking at us saying, “I love them, too. Deal with it”

I want to say at the forefront that I like the United Methodist’s Rethink Church media campaign. I find it a refreshing reminder and call to the Church that it is important for us to keep reviewing and reexamining our calling to be the people of God, the followers of Jesus.

However, one of the frequent  and even valid criticisms of the campaign is that it is simply that, a marketing campaign that simply repackages the same old organization. For many churches it will be just that. They will take no time or effort to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it, so they will remain the same old people doing the same old things. And my fear is that if anyone responds favorably to the ads they see by attending a church near them, they will experience that same old church that might have kept them away from church in the first place.

While I can’t guarantee change (even in my own life), I at least want to give God the chance to transform me so there is a possibility of something different. In May I preached a series of sermons on Rethinking Church. Over the next few weeks I will try to put them into words (I don’t write sermons, so I have to either have the taped ones transcribed and edited or I will have to go back and try to recreate them) to share.

This one isn’t one of those, but it offers an important background context.

Our danger in the church is that we tend to confuse the Creation with the Creator. This is more than simply worshiping the natural world around us, this is a danger that exists anytime we look to anything that God has created for life and hope instead of trusting the God who created all things. Do we find ourselves trusting in the things that God does and getting so wrapped up in those things that we end up ignoring the God who blesses us.

I see this in my own spiritual life whenever I try hard to develop a spiritual discipline like prayer or scripture reading. I might even have a certain mount of success at it so I feel really good about what I have done. We want to be people of the Book or people of prayer. So when we look to the things that define our character or that we are proud of, we look to those things. Or maybe we have a profound spiritual experience (like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12) and so we want to hold onto that experience and we get a lot of mileage from how that makes us feel. So we go from conference to conference, or read book after book, or listen to song after song that helps us maintain that great experience of God’s presence.

And when the experience fades, what then? We try to recreate it, because that experience of God is what blesses us and defines us. Or maybe some other idea comes to us about who we are as God’s people, but it might dilute our self-understanding of being people of the book, or a praying people, or even a church beyond the walls.

The experience or the thing God has given us becomes our central focus.

We have slipped into idolatry. The created thing has supplanted the Creator.

The experience of God at the beginning is a great gift. Then we focus on the gift and instead of remaining open to God’s own self, we want that experience we had before. We choose the lesser because it is known and familiar and has become part of our image (of self or of God) so we close our hearts and lives.

The idea of Rethink Church as simply an marketing campaign to get people to come to church can set us up for that same trap. Are we simply trying to get more people to come to our church and join our organization (thus offering the created thing as the answer to people’s needs and wants) or are we using the living work of God’s people as Christ’s representatives, the body of Christ in the world, to bring people to experience God’s gracious presence in their own way.

Note: My lovely wife begins a new adventure this week. As a Supervised Certified Lay Speaker she begins serving a small church nearby as their quarter-time pastor. This means she preaches weekly, not her top choice of ways to serve the church, but she is trusting God to help her. She is also wanting help from me, which I am glad to give. Here are some thoughts on preaching prep I offer to her and to you. Can you offer more encouragement in comments?

In the Seminary I attended, the focus in preaching and preaching preparation was intellectual. We first did the full critical interpretation of the passage (exegesis), then we wrote the best paper in bringing that teaching to the congregation. The mind was foremost. Both the exegesis and the written sermon were examined as scholarly documents.

I had a couple problems with that approach. One I knew at the time, the other I figured out much later. The first thing I noticed when I tried to preach these (or remembered trying to listen to others preach their approach) was how unapproachable the Word became. Sure, the ideas and the interpretations were fascinating at one level, but when it came to actually seeing the Bible as a Word to be lived day by day, the intellectual approach did not connect. The anti-intellectual approach didn’t work either. There was no challenge to how my life was currently stuck, and my intellect was unengaged. If we were to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, then the message needed to be broadly balanced to connect with emotion, will, intention, motivation, intellect, and action.

The other problem I later discovered was that I am a highly intuitive person (Meyers-Briggs INFP, high on I and N). The sensing and thinking approach played to my weakness. So over the 20+ years of practicing preaching, I slipped into a more intuitive approach to both preaching and preparation. The preaching I call Jazz Preaching in contrast to what I call Classical Preaching. I never write a sermon, I come up with the preaching equivalent of chord changes and key melody lines, but then improvise the actual preaching moment.

My preparation is also highly intuitive. In trying to help my dear wife with this new venture in her life, I have had to think about my intuitive process.

Yeah, you get the challenge. Here are some thoughts to lay out my approach which is the best I can do in trying to help encourage her (and you?) in bringing the Living Word of God to the fullness of life. These ideas may not work for you, but people seem to respond favorably to the sermons that result from this process in my ministry.

I offer them as directions, in reality what follows lays out what I see myself doing on a weekly basis.

I won’t repeat it, but this whole process is bathed in prayer and trust that the Holy Spirit will work with and through your preparation and presentation of God’s living Word!

Preliminary Phase: Choosing the Scripture

I primarily use the lectionary. Read through the lessons a couple times, not much yet. Don’t think yet about what you might say about them. Be open to preaching any of them. I usually choose 2 of the 4. And yes, I will at times preach the Psalm. It is a shame to waste all those wonderful prayers and images of worship to simply be read.

Look at the lessons as in a school room. Note any passage jumping up and down with hands raised high, “Oo, oo, preach me, please preach me!” That might be one of the two. Does one of the others link up with that one even in an eclectic kind of connection? Those get to stand in front of the class for this week.

Sometimes, all the passages are being shy. With patience, one or two shyly begin to raise their hands to be called on. Usually, those are passages that will be a personal challenge to preach, but being preached they need to be.

After the passages are chosen, I usually choose a title which gives me a preliminary theme. Usually it is a turn or twist of a phrase or word from the passages themselves (or an odd pop culture reference that only a few will get). After that I make a worksheet with just those passages on paper with a lot of white space for notes and ideas.

Phase One: Soaking It In

For the first day, soak in the passages. Read and reread. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast. The focus in this phase is to Notice.

After choosing a title and initial idea, you need to set that aside. You also need to set aside your previous experience with the passage or the story. You want to hear the words in as fresh a way as possible. Be open to seeing new things.

Enter the story, imagine yourself as part of it. What would you expect to happen? How might you fill in the gaps of the story as you live it?

Look at the words and phrases. Underline, circle, highlight, write comments in the margin.

What is…

• interesting
• strange
• weird
• troubling
• … Wow!

At this point you have probably noticed tons of things and have many possible ways to go with the Word. Occasionally the passage remains wrapped in mystery. This is where that trust and prayer keeps you going.

Phase Two: Dig In

This phase is very much a lectio divina approach to preparation. You will not be digging into all the things you noticed. Look through the words and phrases that came out through your soaking phase. What “lights up” and “pops out” to you as you look at them. Your focus will be on what came out of the soaking phase, but be open to new treasure being unveiled as you seek the meaning of the words and passages.

This is where you can get out dictionaries (Bible and otherwise) and look at commentaries. This is the more mind-engaging part of the preparation, but the intuition is the guide.

Suspend for the time being your previous ideas of what this word means or the significance of that phrase. Even still you want to approach the passage with a fresh mind (don’t worry, the Spirit will guard your orthodoxy), because some of our old thoughts and ideas may not be God’s thoughts and ideas (remember humility and grace).

The operative word? “Hmmm….”

What does this word mean in this place? Why this phrase? What is the back story for the passage. What is the context? Why did the author put this here?

Phase Three: Let it Rise

This is where we allow the message to be preached to rise from the dough (or the dead depending on how the ministry week went).

Not everything you noticed or dug into can and should be preached … this week.

Wait and Receive.

This is the hardest part of the process for me to see and describe. Just like we can’t really understand how the lump of dough rises into a loaf of bread, I don’t really understand how the Holy Spirit can take all those ideas from the week’s work and preparation and make a Word for the people. But it happens on a regular basis. (Remember that prayer and trust thing?)

Out of the words and phrases and meanings and little stories what rises to the surface for loving attention this week. Look for that one idea that comes as God’s word for this week.

How does this passage live and work?

…in my life first! This is important. If you are not willing to let the word speak to you first it is harder to bring the word to others with authenticity and integrity. Sometimes the real personal work with a passage comes the week after I preach it. But that openness to hear the word is an important attitude.

Then, what images and connections can help connect this passage to the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lives of the listeners to the Word?

This can’t be forced (successfully). This is the hard part, letting the message unfold as we listen to the Spirit. Wait and be surprised.

Hope this helps. Because it is based on intuition it leaves a lot of space for God to fill in the gaps. Yet, as we enter the process it helps to know and believe that God DOES want to speak through us words of challenge and comfort to God’s people.

My prayers are with you.

With a growing list of frightening things in life lately, anxiety and how to provide spiritual leadership during this time has been very much in my mind. Recently, the Alban Institute web site quoted Peter Steinke from his book Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times:

Anxiety represses human functioning by decreasing our capacity to learn, replacing our curiosity with a demand for certainty, and stiffening our positions over and against one another.

Anxiety is also contagious. It connects people. Let one or two people unleash their anxiety and it won’t be long before it has a ripple effect on the congregation.

Finally, anxiety has a reactive effect. People oversimplify, become indecisive and unable to react. (Alban Institute Source)

I would add another aspect of anxiety. In the midst of anxiety we find it very hard to trust one another.

On one level we can see trust as a casualty of fear and anxiety. We wonder who we can trust and even if we can trust anyone. We over-analyze people’s words and actions seeking some ulterior motive, we withhold information, ideas and reactions because we fear how those things can be used to hurt us.

I see this at work in global politics, within our society, and within the church. I will say it clearly: in our church we have a Crisis of Trust.

As I think more about the idea of trust being a casualty of anxiety, I find myself wondering if it might also be true that distrust is the source for anxiety. As our childlike trust is injured and bruised we find ourselves being more afraid. Do the weeds of anxiety grow more vigorously in the seed-bed of not trusting?

This change of perspective offers a way of response. Fear does not dissipate when you focus on it. Anxiety thrives on the attention we devote to it. That’s why we find ourselves more afraid the more media attention is devoted to something. I do have a choice about trust though. It might be a hard choice, but I can choose the way of forgiveness and trust even when my trust has been betrayed. That is what Jesus came to show us on the cross and through the resurrection. God comes to our sin and chooses to invite us to receive forgiveness and to try again to be faithful and faith-filled.

In the church and in life we need a renewed commitment to trust.

With a renewed commitment to trust one another we become available in new ways to practice compassion and forgiveness to one another, to our neighbors and to ourselves. Living care with grace is a frightening and risky thing. That is part of what Jesus on the cross teaches us, but as we live into being followers of Christ we must walk the same path of love and grace he walked. It might not feel safe, but it is the way of eternal and abundant life.

As we choose the way of trusting one another we also open up the Divine creativity which is part of being created in the Image of God as well as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s fruitfulness at work through us. Expressing life with creativity risks judgment and criticism both from others and from ourselves. In the changing world around us, we the Church need to be seeking new and creative ways to reach out to others with the invitation to come to Jesus.

Dan Dick at United Methodeviations has done it again with words I needed to hear and that many followers of Christ in the church need to hear. All I can say about this great post is click quick and read again and again.

Survival – Revival -Thrival