echoes of redemption

For most of my life I have seen things as right and wrong.

Which is fine for things like math problems, but causes problems when it comes to spirituality.

I used to view spiritual things as right and wrong, but I’m learning to view them differently. Because if all spiritual things are right and wrong, when I learn something new, I have to look at what I used to know as wrong. And all the people who still think that way as wrong. And all the churches who operate around those principles as wrong.

And there is no room for journey in that. No room for grace. No room for growth.

It’s also built on pride. Because when I declare everyone else wrong and myself correct, I become the judge.

So now I see things more as a journey.

And where I used to believe certain things about God, or about how his followers operate on earth – now my journey with his Son may have taken me somewhere different. And the implications of that may change how I view the way things work, or how I live, or the kinds of things I feel like I should do in response.

So it’s a new way of living. And in this way of living I find myself judging less. Beating myself up for the past less. Growing more. Getting along with more people. And enjoying the experiences of grace and growth.

The empire is driven by results – primarily because it is the only way to track good.

But sometimes the best things can’t be recorded on paper. They aren’t lines moving upward on graphs. They don’t involve more people than the last time.

Jesus seemed to relate with people, not for the sake of results, but for the sake of the person.

The two tax collectors Jesus met with didn’t see results that equaled more money (because now they knew how to tithe, so God could bless them more). In fact, after meeting Jesus, both men felt they needed less. That they could live less for themselves and more for others.

The woman who poured expensive perfume on Jesus, anointing him before his death, didn’t net results from a long talk on stewardship, wisdom and rewards of knowing God. Even though that’s exactly what his disciples wanted. Jesus just celebrated her sacrifice.

The empire says, “results = success.” The Kingdom doesn’t work that way.

The Kingdom views all things differently.

Things like sacrifices that draw deeply from us when we give – not because the amount is important, but because the beauty is in the act.

Like relationships we give ourselves to – not to see someone change, but because giving ourselves in love is the point.

Or the cry of our heart in prayer – not because we pray X minutes a day, which is X minutes more than last year, but because we genuinely connect with God when we pray.

Sometimes we will grow, sometimes we will lose, sometimes we will just be. The point is that we are with God. And being with God is more valuable than anythings else in the Kingdom.

How can we shift from results driven spirituality to just being?

Jesus lived in a revolutionary subversive way.

He stood for nothing that the empire stood for.

He undermined it all with humility, peace, justice and hope.

Jesus didn’t waste time judging the empire.

There were no cheap shots fired at the leaders.

No goals of a political party that would influence it.

No protests against the empire or its leaders.

There was just a new way of living.

It spread one relationship at a time – overcoming the tides of pride, force and dominance that defined the empire.

It’s much slower than the ways of the empire. Much less sensational. Harder to cover on the news.

It’s the Kingdom – the relational, hope-filled, love-driven movement of God. It changes everything thought, every heart-cry, every decision and every interaction.

And anything less – any desire for the political dominance of morality, any public judgement of political leaders for the sake of their destruction, any rally of anti- anything – is just another expression of the empire.

So now we have to ask, how do we live in this kind of revolutionary subversive way?