echoes of redemption

Many times people are intimidated when it comes to talking with others about their faith. It seems too easy to get something wrong. Mess up. Or lead them away.

In mathematics there is right and wrong. Correct and incorrect. In relationships there is perspective. Interpretation. Growing understanding.

A good spiritual conversation is the beginning of something – not the end.

It opens up opportunities.

Options.

Places to grow.

Like a good sermon, it is the first word, not the last.

Missions is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there… You see God where others don’t. And then you point Him out.

- Rob Bell

It is asking questions that lead people to learn more about themselves and their beliefs through the answers.

It is direction that leads to more possibility than they knew about.

It is pointing out the unlimited potential people have through what God is already doing in this world and in their lives.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

- Galatians 6:2

There are a lot of logical reasons not to carry someone’s burden.

Cost.

Time.

Stress.

And a lot of unknowns.

But when I’m honest with myself, this is the area I look the least like Christ. And sometimes it makes me wonder if I’m even a Christian.

It’s easy to talk about serving others. Easy to throw money at a problem. Easy to create a program that people should participate in.

But it’s hard to walk into someone’s life, pick up their burden and carry it for them. Owning their problems as if they are my own. Pouring the same time, energy, passion and prayer into their life as I do when my world starts to fall apart.

There are huge problems in our world, but sometimes the answer isn’t a global solution, it’s just a person deciding to make a difference.

The Church in action is people carrying one another’s burdens – and it’s beautiful. Because when we all find someone to walk along side – someone to own their problems like our own – we discover life like Christ lived it. And it’s deep, rich and more abundant than we ever knew possible.

We are under enormous pressure to produce.

There are bills to pay. Deadlines to meet. Ideas that we needed to have yesterday. And the pressure of living like we do can quick encroach on our spiritual lives.

But spirituality isn’t about doing. Or deadlines. Or continual goals.

It’s about living as God designed us to live. About being.

That’s why God’s name in Hebrew is translated, I Am.

He just is.

And when we take the time just to be, not to succumb to the idols of production and progress, we find ourselves understanding God a little more.

Grow. Move forward. But don’t let those become your goals. Allow God to work through silence. Through pauses. Through the spaces in your life.