I really like being a part of the church. It still fascinates me. I eat, drink, and sleep enthusiasm for the life of God in us, with us, among us. I'm among the ones who would be noted as least or lacking or even ignorant of His incredible scheme. Yet, hunger continues to seek what He's thinking, what He's doing, what He's all about. Kindergarten in church is all the farther I have advanced with no hope of getting to first grade. And still, even this level is just so breath-taking.
Admitting my personal lack, I dare ask a question of us and among us in general. Have we traded the mystery of God for the plain and the practical? Have we opted for the "no surprises" guardianship that demands constant explanation which satisfies the human side of us?
Could this be why some of our people are faithful in attendance while non-functional in prayer? Did mystery mysteriously disappear? Did something along the way develop us to be a people long on proof texts and yet quite short on faith?
I surely think it has. I believe that we have opted for a visible sort of faith where we can track, measure and even systemize our religious practices. These have evolved into laws....and these laws kill....and then enthusiasm for the God-stuff is at extreme risk. Bent on doing the practical and the explainable and the acceptable is costing us our children while we spend mega-dollars on how to engage (and keep) our children in the church.
So what I wish to do is to continue the cheering for all of us to never give up the hope within us to believe that God can do things which man has never considered; let alone examined. May we rebuild a faith that dares to challenge the status quo of restrictive human assumption. God is not a practical God who hangs around to see that we succeed. He is the Creator God who makes something from nothing and calls into being things which have not yet existed....for us, with us, and through us.
Do I have all of the answers? Oh, I don't even know all of the questions. But I do know that God is a most challenging Father because He can do well beyond what we can imagine or think. I simply remind us of that which we already know. So may we step out the best we can by a faith that cannot be charted in a God that will not be limited for a world that just must be reached.
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