The resounding truth and our dull roars.

I think today I grasped the ultimate realization of something. God is teaching me things all the time, availing my eyes to new perspectives, and setting my sails for many new lands ... maybe not geographically, must most assuredly a venture of the mind into new paradigms and a wider vision for His kingdom. I often wonder "why me? why should I be the one to receive such things that trouble me so?" And, as always I find myself feeling that same ole familiar feeling, that feeling in my heart thats telling me that to possess such knowledge will ultimately grieve me, and should I be willing to grasp this knowledge, this broader vision, I will become responsible for a portion of its outcome. 

And as I parallel all of this with my relationship to people I often wonder "what do I do?" I love my friends very very much. I even acquire these emotional attachments to people who my friends love simply because I see how they affect them, either positively or negatively, and I am vigilant towards these things. I call it the "big brother complex".  I love to see how friends sharpen one another, though my idea of sharpening may be quite different from that of the people I have met. At some point our relationships have to make the mature move from the realm of laughter and "feel goods" into the realm of duty. We owe our friends these things as stewards of there time, emotions, and trust. We cannot expect community to sustain itself in an environment conducive to God and His kingdom where we simply exercise certain aspects and disregard others. I think that if what I am saying is really sinking in then the initial question will be "What about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you?" My response to that is judging by what I have seen in so many different relationships, on so many different levels, I am seeing that that is exactly that is happening. No one is initiating anything new so therefore when things like confrontation come about we turn a deaf ear to it. They simply say "this is comfortable, I like it here, lets keep things at a dull roar". The ultimately disturbing thing that God is revealing to me is that in our lack of wholeness within the community of God, His kingdom, we are ultimately suppressing our abilities to share the gospel with those outside the community. This would also explain a portion of why our attempts to go out and into the world have often come to ruin because of divisions within the body. Think, our mission to proclaim the gospel to everyone is meant to be heard by EVERYONE! This includes you and I and we cannot allow our lack of willingness to participate in that coming Kingdom to go unnoticed, to simply be brushed aside. 

The good bishop says it best ... 

"Don't so stress the doctrine of your own salvation that you fail to see what you are being saved for."-NT Wright