obviously, the following are my own thoughts. if they rattle you, sorry.
over the years, i have had many opportunities to attend conferences, read various books, and be friends with people who ascribe to one common theme...something is wrong and someone, or something is to blame.
words and phrases like God is moving, resurgence, emergent, tradition, worship style, culture, post modern and relevance are just a few of the descriptives that have been used to tell us what the problem may be, how to address it, and how to solve it.
i have heard great men of God speak on these issues. i have been moved, and blessed by wisdom and education that is far beyond me and my dismal attempt at intellect.
there seems to be lots of blame to go around.
the new breed blames the old school for not getting it.
the old school blames the new breed for not respecting it.
leaders at educational institutions admonish their graduates to tackle it, yet they seem so ill equipped to do so. we go to these gatherings to refresh and rekindle what may be sleeping deep within, yet the tide continues to erode away what we cannot quite put our finger on. they continue to encourage us with what is wrong and how to fix it. but classes did not quite cover this issue.
the fact the Jesus is not republican still escapes us, and even though we think he is, all the government help we thought we had did not outlaw abortion, so we blame the new guy. and we seem surprised when a culture turns against us because we are judgemental and display a lack of understanding and grace towards them.
so. i had just about had enough. really. left wing, right wing, i mean wtf?
then yesterday i was in a meeting, a long meeting mind you, and it all became clear.
15 years of asking how, and what had become so heavy, so sad, so tiring, so weak, so typical.
and in 3 min time, i was reminded. not what the problem was, or even how to address the issues of philosophy that could deal with such a daunting task. but why.
i watched a guy weep over why. why she is here. why we do what we do.
in that moment, i was cleansed and all that is wrong gave way to why he came. i was warmed by the mercy and grace that was in his eyes. glory rested on him. almost like Moses when he saw God.
all the books about how to deal with an emerging culture (i have read more than i would like to admit), all the conferences on what the problem is, and what kind of leaders we need to address it (i have wasted many a church dollar on that as an excuse to get away...sorry), never flashed before my eyes or entered my mind.
what came to mind was this..."it is his kindness that leads us to repentance."
