LIVING ON THE EDGE

When one steps back from perpetual activity propelled by religiosity, we may find a gap in our approach to kingdom engagement.  Especially those of us who would be regarded as fundamentalists may want to consider a lifestyle which has evolved to live out faith in the security of the center.

By center I speak of that region where we risk little, nothing is too far to the left or the right.  We conservatives find this appealing because in places we have relabeled fear to be the biblical narrow.  How we parade ourselves down that narrow road with great but mistaken pride.

Discipleship is not a topic within much of the Christian tradition for it requires much. The matter of rigidity of discipleship groups is blamed in certain corners; yet rigidity isn't what keeps the most of us at bay.  No.  Rather, it is the risk involved.  I would even propose that many of the hard-core discipleship groups among us today are more into emphatic rules than authentic threat due to what/who we believe.

If we follow the tone, temperament, and talk of the church, we will follow the circular route in the desert of ritual debating, monitoring, and deciphering just what it is we believe.  However, the trek of shadowing Jesus would take us to the brink of bravery. Jesus isn't a pale Sunday School teacher who thought up a good Scripture lesson on Saturday night to get us through Sunday's devotional themes.

Jesus was so on the edge of Kingdom living that his family, his town, and the religious power-brokers rejected him.  His own trainees were bewildered, confused, and aggravated.  Jesus lived on the edge of meaning and productivity while we focus upon the middle road of getting by while looking like we are about His business.

What I'm about to say has no factual backing; it is merely my own observation.  It seems that two things are taking place in the general church setting.  (1) In pockets there does seem to be either a numerical increase or at least as stabilizing force, while (2) there is a significant reluctance to live on the edge.  Have we developed a numbers/safety driven church?

The life-taking executionary cross of which we are to take up has, in reality, become more of a sermon and song topic.

Jesus will take us to the edge; the edge in outreach, the edge in prayer, the edge in giving, and the edge in dying to self.  I don't consider that I have done anything more than weakly dabble in any of these.  Regardless of my failure, my concern is that such a call is no longer sensed in the church.

A result is that we have become an organization which scrambles for the latest and greatest.  Our confidence is stronger in man-marketing than in the Holy Spirit of God.  The reason is that we can control one of them.  Thus, we bid on that one.

Living on the edge, I believe, is the thing the younger generation in its restlessness wants.  It is what all generations want; but we've been talked down off of that bridge. Jesus is neither a handy name for a Bible banner nor a prayer endorsement.  He is the real deal who calls fishermen and tax collectors and accountants and elementary school teachers to take a deep breath, believe in Him with all of our hearts, and jump!

If ever there was a cure for what ails us it would be preachers, elders, mommas, daddies, and neighbors who live on the edge for the sake of God's glorious kingdom. Every time our courage links with our compassion, we will move closer to doing just that.