Flying Upside Down

-
Often I have the wrong perspective on life. I wonder why Kristina hasn't done some specific chore, when I ought to be realizing how little I have done. I feel how good I am doing, but only because I have forgotten all that I have forgotten and left undone. I search for something thinking I know where it is only to find that if I had instead searched with eyes open I would have found it much sooner (usually plainly visible right next to where I thought it should be, and yet I miss it).

Sometimes, though, I think that I don't just have the wrong perspective on life. I am not just looking at things a little bit off center. I am actually flying upside-down through life, and so I am looking at everything wrong. Down is up and up is down and I wonder why things don't work quite the way they are supposed to. 

Christopher Wright in The Mission of God, same book as yesterday, points out ways in which reading the bible with the mission of God in mind turns our perspective ride-side up again. I wanted to share some of them:

"We ask, 'where does God fit into the story of my life?' when the real question is where does my life fit into this great story of God's mission.
...
We talk about the problems of 'applying the bible to our lives'... what would it mean to apply our lives to the bible instead...?
...
We wonder whether and how the care of creation, for example, might fit into our concept and practice of mission, when this Story challenges us to ask whether our lives, lived on God's earth and under God's gaze, are aligned with, or horrendously misaligned with, God's mission that stretches from creation to cosmic transformation and the arrival of a new heaven and new earth. 

We argue about what can legitimately be included in the mission God expects from the church, when we should ask what kidn of church God expects for his mission in all its comprehensive fullness.

I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission." (Christopher Wright, Mission of God. 533-534)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

-
"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
Read more

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....

-
Image
"Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18 "One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That's because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn't measure what it's supposed to measure, if it doesn't reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can't possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce." - Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems. 
Read more

A Gracious Reading of Rob Bell

-
The Journey So Far The controversy rages on over Rob Bell's upcoming new book. No matter what happens now, this controversy has effectively guaranteed that 'everyone who is anyone' will need to read this book. Either to find out what is wrong and bash it, or because someone we generally disagree with also disagrees with the book so it has to be good stuff! Then, because 'everyone' is reading it, people like me will 'have to' read it to. After all, I am a pastor, and if many of my people are reading and being influenced by a book, don't I need to know what is going on as well?  Or so the reasoning will go... and perhaps I will read it, who knows. In the meantime, none of this will stop me from continuing to join this fray which I probably ought to have stayed out of in the first place. Onwards, Christian... :) The Latest Salvo The latest salvo has been fired by DeYoung  claiming that not only do we not need to talk with Bell but, more importantly, it...
Read more