Trust

I'm moving to Lexington this week. I'll continue working at the school for the rest of this month, and then begin a job at a bookstore in town. I must say, I get trendier as time goes on. Ahem.

waiting waiting waiting

Talked about authority with some of the guys last night. Just what does it look like? I've taken seriously Richard Foster's word that the discipline of submission frees of from "the tyranny of self-will." It's how Jesus seeks to free us from a life in which we as individuals must always, on our own, determine the right decisions, for us, and then accept the rewards or face the consequences on our own. To use a cliche, it takes us out of that "Lone Ranger Christianity" bit.

I don't have to worry about knowing "God's will for my life," because I know a bunch of people who pray and talk about that with me. We find direction in our life together. My friends will protect me from doing anything too crazy that way. I don't have to worry about fooling myself as whether I'm obedient to Jesus in my everyday life.

Holy obedience isn't a slavish response to the will of others, but a openness to listen and be corrected. I've known so many people who have much difficulty pressing into life with Jesus in the Christian community, not because they keep making bad decisions, but because they don't make one basic faithful decision - to sit still, to trust and to listen, even when that means hearing uncomfortable things.

You really want to be a Christian? You really want to be refined by the Creator and Redeemer of humanity? Go make some friends. Be friends with them for a few years without giving up because they don't do and say what you want them to, or because you're pissed at them, or becaue you can't seem to figure out how to love them well.

Fights will come. Conflicts will ensue. Learning to live in those with openness, honesty and forgiveness is the primary work we're called to do. This is our specific task. That is how we learn to love. That is how we learn to be loved. And it is in that - and that only - that we bear witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the entire world.

I don't know about the other believers out there, but I am too hurt, too tired, and too hopeful to do anything else.