Welcome to the conversation.
I was going to place this quite from Brian McLaren at the end of this post, but then thought how it's great to begin with .
As you read today's post have in mind what James writes in his letter: 1:2-7.
Here's the McLaren quote: You can't take an epidural shot to ease the pain of giving birth to character, (Finding Our Way Again).
The journey we are in is about character being formed in us. Not just any character but what my life would look like if Jesus were in my shoes, looking through my eyes; it is question which comes to each of us.
I've previously mentioned how this journey of life is meant to be lived with purpose, calling it a slow journey in the same direction - at least, that's how it feels to me as I hope to stay on-course.
Erwin McManus underlines this sense of purpose when he writes: The path to wisdom is less journey and more quest, (Uprising). In other words, this is not something we wander into by accident.
And it is not by accident that we have the capability to be reactive and proactive, to be responsive and prosponsive. It means we are future-shaping creatures, people who are actively involved in shaping history - in no way can this be seen as a passive life.
This is not about usurping God's place, rather it is truly about having an honest and humble appreciation of ourselves. It is so important that we understand how we are being invited by God into a life of creativity, with him, in order that we might make a difference in his world. This is nothing less than the way Jesus lived, and the way Jesus opened up for us to live.
When I respond to Jesus by saying "I will walk in your way" we are entering into the unknown with humility. This is a bigger response then the one I often find myself asking in the question, "What shall I do?" Here we face the truth that following Jesus is a lot more about a compass than it is about a map and this means I must cultivate the ability to hear his voice: To adequately answer the question "What do I have to offer?" we need to learn the art of listening to the voice of God's leading in our lives, (The Relational Way by Scott Boren).
In order to do this I must give myself to this through consistent activities that open me to the influence of the Holy Spirit. I wonder if what we often call spirituality ought to be thought of as humanality: the activity of the Holy Spirit in and through the ordinary things of life to become more human. Brian McLaren comments that spiritual practices are pretty earthy, and they're not strictly about spirituality as it is often defined, they're about humanity, (Finding Our Way Again).
But something truly mystical begins to happen when my spirit opens to the Holy Spirit, and I see things differently as I read a book or process new content, (Scott Boren). When this involves a number of people then a mystical community begins to take shape, a community that is experiencing and sharing something remarkable.
Now back to that opening quote.
What I am seeing more clearly is how this is happening in the least expected places. I have to conclude that James is right to share, in his Newer Testament letter, of how joy can be formed amongst 'trials of many kinds,' (1:2). It doesn't happen when we get to a better place, rather it happens right where we are, with our lives as they are right now. Here something stronger and more powerful is being formed - James identifies perseverance and maturity and completeness - and the test is whether we are 'strong in character and ready for anything,' (1:4).
It is a slow journey in the same direction that has to be lived with intention.
What do you think?
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Friday, 6 June 2008
advanced-living
Welcome to the conversation.
Here's a question for those of you who are drivers: How many of you drive your car whilst continually looking in the rearview mirror, or, by enjoying the view out of the side windows?
You wouldn't do it, would you, because you know you wouldn't last very long?
(Actually, my dad often drove along whilst looking out of the side windows - very scary - the car often moving in the same direction as he was looking.)
This is how so many churches "travel" along though, more on where they've come from or where they are, rather than where they are going.
I confess my love for driving; in 1990 I got the chance to take my advanced driving test. Part of the preparation for this involved giving a running commentary to an assessor who sat in to prepare me for my test. The purpose of the commentary was to let my assessor know just how much I was seeing, including how far into the distance (future) I was looking.
The commentary did include what I could see in my rearview mirror and my instruments too - you are disciplined to cycle through looking into the forward distance, the rearview mirror, and at the instruments - but most of the time was spent looking forward.
Advanced living, like advanced driving, is about looking into the future. It doesn't ignore the "rearview mirror" because it's important to know where we have come from, but it knows that to do this too often or for to long is to invite an accident. Just as the "future" of my car journey informs how I drive now, so the possible future tells me how I must live now.
What do you think?
Here's a question for those of you who are drivers: How many of you drive your car whilst continually looking in the rearview mirror, or, by enjoying the view out of the side windows?
You wouldn't do it, would you, because you know you wouldn't last very long?
(Actually, my dad often drove along whilst looking out of the side windows - very scary - the car often moving in the same direction as he was looking.)
This is how so many churches "travel" along though, more on where they've come from or where they are, rather than where they are going.
I confess my love for driving; in 1990 I got the chance to take my advanced driving test. Part of the preparation for this involved giving a running commentary to an assessor who sat in to prepare me for my test. The purpose of the commentary was to let my assessor know just how much I was seeing, including how far into the distance (future) I was looking.
The commentary did include what I could see in my rearview mirror and my instruments too - you are disciplined to cycle through looking into the forward distance, the rearview mirror, and at the instruments - but most of the time was spent looking forward.
Advanced living, like advanced driving, is about looking into the future. It doesn't ignore the "rearview mirror" because it's important to know where we have come from, but it knows that to do this too often or for to long is to invite an accident. Just as the "future" of my car journey informs how I drive now, so the possible future tells me how I must live now.
What do you think?
Thursday, 5 June 2008
extra-potent-ials
Welcome to the conversation.
I concluded my post yesterday with the thought that a group of people living out their potential together is mission.
This is church. It is about a group of people living life beyond themselves, for the sake of others, and this involves movement. This is a community with purpose. Victor Turner calls the spirit of such community, communitas - it is about commitment, integrity, hard work, and courage in a common purpose. A collective name for such a group might be "an adventure of people (who understand God has a purpose for their lives)."
This will mean living with uncertainty because requiring us to leave the familiar and move into vital relationship. Indeed vital relationships are a mark or defining characteristic of these communities, as Victor Turner describes the leading edge people: Prophets and artists tend to be liminal people, "edgemen," who strive with a passionate sincerity to rid themselves of the cliches associated with status incumbency and role-playing and to enter into vital relations with other men in fact or imagination. (quoted in Michael Frost's Exiles)
Liminal people living in vital relationships for the sake of others, is essential if we are to live life towards greater clarity and understanding and expression, because they allow the future to open up before them as they are willing to live with the uncertainty of thought and activity - passionate people freed to live creatively.
There is another important element to all of this. If we do not live missionally - that is, living out our potential - then we "lose it". Jesus told a story in two ways (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27) in which one of the characters/servants has taken back what had been invested in him. Even as this servant tries to give back exactly what he'd been given, he finds the reality is that he is giving back less - it has already reduced through lack of use - because it ought to have had some interest on it.
I have been using the phrase missional community but perhaps N T Wright provides a more accurate phrase in messianic community because we are meant to be nothing less than the community of Jesus, the body of Christ, living out the mandate of Jesus in our communities. Jesus knew that the potential we share together is very great indeed, enough to represent him in living the good news - on one occasion Jesus suggested 'all who have faith in me will do even greater things than these,' (referring to his work, John 14:12).
What do you think?
I concluded my post yesterday with the thought that a group of people living out their potential together is mission.
This is church. It is about a group of people living life beyond themselves, for the sake of others, and this involves movement. This is a community with purpose. Victor Turner calls the spirit of such community, communitas - it is about commitment, integrity, hard work, and courage in a common purpose. A collective name for such a group might be "an adventure of people (who understand God has a purpose for their lives)."
This will mean living with uncertainty because requiring us to leave the familiar and move into vital relationship. Indeed vital relationships are a mark or defining characteristic of these communities, as Victor Turner describes the leading edge people: Prophets and artists tend to be liminal people, "edgemen," who strive with a passionate sincerity to rid themselves of the cliches associated with status incumbency and role-playing and to enter into vital relations with other men in fact or imagination. (quoted in Michael Frost's Exiles)
Liminal people living in vital relationships for the sake of others, is essential if we are to live life towards greater clarity and understanding and expression, because they allow the future to open up before them as they are willing to live with the uncertainty of thought and activity - passionate people freed to live creatively.
There is another important element to all of this. If we do not live missionally - that is, living out our potential - then we "lose it". Jesus told a story in two ways (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27) in which one of the characters/servants has taken back what had been invested in him. Even as this servant tries to give back exactly what he'd been given, he finds the reality is that he is giving back less - it has already reduced through lack of use - because it ought to have had some interest on it.
I have been using the phrase missional community but perhaps N T Wright provides a more accurate phrase in messianic community because we are meant to be nothing less than the community of Jesus, the body of Christ, living out the mandate of Jesus in our communities. Jesus knew that the potential we share together is very great indeed, enough to represent him in living the good news - on one occasion Jesus suggested 'all who have faith in me will do even greater things than these,' (referring to his work, John 14:12).
What do you think?
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
potent-ials
Welcome to the conversation.
Has anyone ever described you as having potential?
I don't want to be rude but how old were you when they said this: 20, 40, 50, more?
It is now four years since I read these words from Erwin McManus: If you are forty-five and someone looks at you and says, "You have so much potential," pause, excuse yourself, step into a closet, and have a good cry. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)
I'll let you guess how old I was when I read this. Now, I don't think it's impossible to begin realising some of that potential when we are older but it is way harder. We know it's not about potential but about turning that potential into productivity. And I have to admit, up front, that is something I long to be a part of making happen for people some how, some way.
(Here's a vexing question for me at the moment, out of the so called Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25:14-30: Would the person who was given the one talent and who buried it, have done something more creative with it if someone else had come alongside to help him?)
There was a group of people, who, unknown to themselves, were full of potential, but we would have known absolutely nothing about them if something hadn't changed the trajectory of their lives. They lived many years ago but have impacted the lives of many of us because they were prepared to allow someone to bring out their potential and turn it into something astonishingly productive. Some of them had been fishermen and tax officers but they became world-changers.
We know them as the disciples of Jesus. Jesus knew that every human has potential that needs to be worked out, and once we've seen what we can be then we'd be foolish not to live it, wouldn't we?
Again, it's Erwin McManus who captures something of the sense of this when he writes: There is a point where you're not supposed to be full of potential; you're supposed to be full of talent, capacity, product. Potential is a glimpse of what could be, yes there must be a shift from where we have potential to where we are potent. (Uprising)
I have a dream and each day I am exploring how to live it out: I want to live my life to the utmost of its potential amongst a people who are exploring how to live their lives fully too - this always towards others - because they know it is the only way to live.
And then it dawned on me - this is what it means to live missionally.
This is what Jesus had in mind when he envisaged a community of faith - what we have called church - a group of people together living out their potential towards others - and that is mission, and that is church. Scott Boren writes of how The missional call invites the church to go where it has not been, to be what it has not been, and to do what it has not done. (The Relational Way)
Potential is the future calling us to live today with potency.
What do you think?
Has anyone ever described you as having potential?
I don't want to be rude but how old were you when they said this: 20, 40, 50, more?
It is now four years since I read these words from Erwin McManus: If you are forty-five and someone looks at you and says, "You have so much potential," pause, excuse yourself, step into a closet, and have a good cry. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)
I'll let you guess how old I was when I read this. Now, I don't think it's impossible to begin realising some of that potential when we are older but it is way harder. We know it's not about potential but about turning that potential into productivity. And I have to admit, up front, that is something I long to be a part of making happen for people some how, some way.
(Here's a vexing question for me at the moment, out of the so called Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25:14-30: Would the person who was given the one talent and who buried it, have done something more creative with it if someone else had come alongside to help him?)
There was a group of people, who, unknown to themselves, were full of potential, but we would have known absolutely nothing about them if something hadn't changed the trajectory of their lives. They lived many years ago but have impacted the lives of many of us because they were prepared to allow someone to bring out their potential and turn it into something astonishingly productive. Some of them had been fishermen and tax officers but they became world-changers.
We know them as the disciples of Jesus. Jesus knew that every human has potential that needs to be worked out, and once we've seen what we can be then we'd be foolish not to live it, wouldn't we?
Again, it's Erwin McManus who captures something of the sense of this when he writes: There is a point where you're not supposed to be full of potential; you're supposed to be full of talent, capacity, product. Potential is a glimpse of what could be, yes there must be a shift from where we have potential to where we are potent. (Uprising)
I have a dream and each day I am exploring how to live it out: I want to live my life to the utmost of its potential amongst a people who are exploring how to live their lives fully too - this always towards others - because they know it is the only way to live.
And then it dawned on me - this is what it means to live missionally.
This is what Jesus had in mind when he envisaged a community of faith - what we have called church - a group of people together living out their potential towards others - and that is mission, and that is church. Scott Boren writes of how The missional call invites the church to go where it has not been, to be what it has not been, and to do what it has not done. (The Relational Way)
Potential is the future calling us to live today with potency.
What do you think?
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