One of our newer leaders made a casual remark on my last week at work about the emphasis in my ministry especially the last several years. He kind of smirked and spoke as if I had lost my marbles a bit.
He is right. There are so many dismally negative gospels floating around the evangelical world and I have walked near or through them all. When, as the result of a long and deep reconsideration of the nature of God and the Gospel, especially with the presence of the Allah violence, I began to see things in the depths of the word that made easy answers seem less than honoring to the truth.
But after a lifetime of hearing the same tune, most people are confused by the openness and beauty of the Gospel of Grace. The fact that my own life changing study changed the way I think, I react, and my perceptions of those outside the visible church, I found myself realizing that no matter how slowly I introduced change, these sweet moral saints still thought I was loosing my marbles. At least most of them. Some began to see what I was getting at, and how important this was to the world at this point in our struggle.
If I am to continue teaching, I have to process this and find an interest level that does not require fracturing well built world views. I could, on the other hand, just enjoy life and let the reformation continue with me on the sidelines.
2 comments:
You've earned being on the sidelines but now you'll have to decide if that's where you want to be.
Like you, unpacking boxes and settling in with neighbors we see just in the summer and trying to catch up on all the news in our condo building. Several new residents also settling in.
Don't give up on old Christians! :)
Eden
Don, I love how Richard Rohr describes the second half of life in his Falling Upwards book. Many really do not get what we are trying to communicate because they are stilling living by the first half of life rules. The book was helpful to me because it helped me to better understand my journey and how normal my transition is. Not that all geezers get it. Many geezers are still living by the constructs of their earlier years and are just as confused as the young folks are. ツ
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