The Pattern of This World
Let me preface by saying that I believe in participating in the governmental system. I am Independent/Libertarian in philosophy and will vote that way and support those candidate I believe will best keep the forefathers' ideas alive. I am not a fan of what is currently going down in America. I don't believe in being passive...But sometimes I wonder where my energies really should be spent as someone who claims to believe that Jesus Christ in me is more powerful than anything outside of me...
There is so much imagry of war in the Christian mindset...And I think that's OK...I have a tattoo that says "Mighty Warrior" on my ankle. But I wonder if sometimes I miss the point of what that 'war' really is. I think that this parallel isn't meant to reflect an earthly battle with guns and swords and blood and physical violence. I think that maybe some of us Christians get caught up in that and lose sight of what we're really called to do which sounds way simple, but in practice is WAY harder than picking up physical weapons of war. That, I think, is the easy way out...Though it doesn't seem like it...How many people in Scripture stood right next to the living God and missed Him because their eyes were fixed on the matters of the world?
I sometimes look at the endless back and forth cycle (pattern of this world, if you will) and get to thinking....What if we turned from worrying about politics? What if we didn't walk in fear of bad days, good days or end days and we placed our faith in knowing that Jesus has already taken care of it all? What if we refused to speak ill of even those we disagree with deeply but instead prayed to see them how God does? Knowing that they may need to see US the same way? What if we prayed not that Obama would become what we think he should, but that he would know the love of God in ways he never imagined? What if we stopped seeing the people on capital hill as our enemies, but as fellow humans, created with deposits of Heaven inside them, no more or no less than ourselves? What if we remembered that Jesus died for each of us regardless. And in knowing we have nothing to fear because of Jesus Christ, what if we refused to get distracted by and wrapped up in this pattern of politics and began REALLY loving this world the way Jesus does...Loving it into understanding what radical love really is?
Somewhere in my spirit I think that maybe that's what Jesus was trying to get us to do...
But then again, maybe I'm just a fool.
There is so much imagry of war in the Christian mindset...And I think that's OK...I have a tattoo that says "Mighty Warrior" on my ankle. But I wonder if sometimes I miss the point of what that 'war' really is. I think that this parallel isn't meant to reflect an earthly battle with guns and swords and blood and physical violence. I think that maybe some of us Christians get caught up in that and lose sight of what we're really called to do which sounds way simple, but in practice is WAY harder than picking up physical weapons of war. That, I think, is the easy way out...Though it doesn't seem like it...How many people in Scripture stood right next to the living God and missed Him because their eyes were fixed on the matters of the world?
I sometimes look at the endless back and forth cycle (pattern of this world, if you will) and get to thinking....What if we turned from worrying about politics? What if we didn't walk in fear of bad days, good days or end days and we placed our faith in knowing that Jesus has already taken care of it all? What if we refused to speak ill of even those we disagree with deeply but instead prayed to see them how God does? Knowing that they may need to see US the same way? What if we prayed not that Obama would become what we think he should, but that he would know the love of God in ways he never imagined? What if we stopped seeing the people on capital hill as our enemies, but as fellow humans, created with deposits of Heaven inside them, no more or no less than ourselves? What if we remembered that Jesus died for each of us regardless. And in knowing we have nothing to fear because of Jesus Christ, what if we refused to get distracted by and wrapped up in this pattern of politics and began REALLY loving this world the way Jesus does...Loving it into understanding what radical love really is?
Somewhere in my spirit I think that maybe that's what Jesus was trying to get us to do...
But then again, maybe I'm just a fool.
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