I find this really interesting. That a non-christian, worldly famous person can get something so spot on and yet miss something so large.Why do I follow Jesus?
Jesus is a God to follow because he illustrated, not just told. He painted a picture, sung a song, danced a dance.
He came to be and live with us. The same hands that created forests sculpted wood. The same breath that spoke man into existence was shortened as he ran from persecution. The same being that breathed the stars into existence sat one night and prayed underneath them.
He not only came to us, He came for us. He came to be a way. Not just to tell us some laws, but demonstrate how to fulfill them. He showed us the Life to live. He was the Life to live.
Dirtied and messed up and in pain He thought of love. With a crown of thorns and nail pierced hands He thought of love. With no friends at his side and God forsaking Him He thought of love. And the dirt and the blood and the pain all flees in the face of the hope. That mighty hope that we are able to sit with Him. That his bride the church can become spotless and mighty simultaneously and dance with Him like He once did on earth. That we can partake in fierce love. That we can endlessly dance with a being who loved absolutely unto death.
I will follow this Jesus. This torn man. This present Creator. This broken body. This sacrificed Power. This Life. This Love.
This is Jesus to me.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
I was speaking to a man I consider a good friend today. A man of reckless abandon and a fiery heart for God and people. We spoke of life and its struggles and got to a point where he announced to me his struggles with fueling passion amidst a sea of apathy and trying to find someone who could see and understand his fire. And I remembered my times where passion and energy to keep on Do-ing waned. Times where I had ideas and dreams but no real desire to do them and felt like there was no way I could. Those were the times I doubted what God had said to me, and when I fell into old temptations and laziness and eventually succumbed to the apathy I saw around me.
I hate that.
I like to think I'm past it, but I know I'm probably not. I have a feeling laziness and apathy will be something I will struggle with for a while. But in my somewhat limited experience there is something I have observed that helps combat this. I may have mentioned it before, but its growing in me as to just how important this is in our christian, and even just human lives.
Its community.
And not just as we sometimes see in the worldly sense, as a group of people gathered to have fun. But true community, where communal unity is evident and real. A place where people are family, loved unconditionally and radically and where people are free to be more than themselves.
A place where people are free to step out and be different and challenge things, and in fact are encouraged to do this. A place where forgiveness is natural and openness is a lifestyle. A place where people care about things, and as a group this care and love overflows into action.
Most of all though, it is a place where people feel free to step out, grow, challenge and know they have support at their backs. And they don't need a degree or 10 years of bible college, but are encouraged to take risks on the word of the Lord. It goes with a knowledge that they could fail, but also with the fact that if they do, there are people behind them to comfort them and lift them up and say, lets try again.
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" Acts 2:1
In one accord. To get to this point they needed unity, and to be open with each other with their fears and faults and problems. And they needed to understand that together they would be doing these things, together with each other and together with God. And if one faltered, the others would lift him up, not say, "oh you had your chance, we'll get a new guy" but to accept fault, find forgiveness and seek a new path. And look at where it got them.
I crave this. I think in many senses I have found it. But I desire to see more. I desire for it to be found more easily, for people who want to do more, who have passions burning in their hearts to change the world but feel like they have no one or where to do it. Churches, YWAM bases, Youth groups and others often do a fantastic job of accepting, but not enough pushing. Acceptance but not growth. And there's not enough places where this happens. Its such wasted potential to hear someone with amazing zeal for God and people to complain of feeling lazy and fearing they will lose it. And often it then happening.
I don't really know the point of this note, it's an encouragement and a rant all in one. All I know is I don't want myself or any others to lose anything, only to gain. Maybe I want to encourage people to seek out a community like this, or create one?
Just don't sit, please.
