I'll admit that my title is a little complex, but truly I'm sure I have never been as widely or wildly networked as it now seems. Thankfully, I'm grounded in a message of grace, in an era when it seems evangelicals have gone full bore political.
Our hope is in the Lord, yet as I read through the Old Testament prophets I hear such familiar anger, that I wonder if this is some human cycle that go through every 500 years or so! Perhaps for the hundredth or more time I have read the words found in the Book of Nahum. Yet, I don't ever recall such struggle in my spirit.
At times I wonder at their inclusion in a Canon, given the evident contrast with the Christ who was God. More and more, I wonder about this convenient union of Old and New, though the mystery of the Messiah holds me to the read.
Some of my constituents are now totally disgusted with the face of Christianity, one created of late primarily by fundamentalists. Some of those perplexed now in pursuit of a New Era, yes a New Age, though the language they use to communicate their enlightenment is as far-fetched to me as Yoga used to be viewed by church folk in my teens. Somewhat tongue in cheek, I do find it interesting, as Yoga is now sometimes offered after the Women's Bible study. Just say'n!
I am now fascinated as I pour over data collected regarding Big Bang-like approaches to Creation, all coming by way of Christians who are credentialed astronomers. My mental exercises and shifting of thought regarding Creation as told in the Genesis story may now put me right out there with those folk doing Yoga. Ha, may you forgive my humor!
Ya'll know I'm struggling with a dogma that is less and less defensible as knowledge increases. Some of our long held beliefs will pose challenges for my grands, unless we are able to better demonstrate a difference in how we go about life. Worship on Sunday was the least of what set Jesus apart, nor was he constantly asking to be worshipped. "This is the way, walk ye in it" seemed his reason for becoming flesh.
He was deep in the trenches of culture, disallowing the religious and political haranguers to determine his approach to mercy and grace when he knew people were hurting.
Lets face it, society got where it is on our watch, if indeed, we as the "people of God" carry as much sway as professed!
I know the end times narrative well, but less and less sure that we even have that fully understood. I am troubled by growing distain for Christianity, and yes, I know the warning of "waxing worse and worse from II Tim 3:13.
Our use of fear moreso than remedy is seen as a struggle for sustaining our institutions, compounding the distain. More and more the word "abuse" is being taunted in an attempt to build a course of action against religious liberty.
Fear has never been what kept me in the fray, but rather an unexpected epiphany that was so radically life changing, offering a new sense of access to wisdom, followed by strategies that worked in both the sanctuary and the secular! Thus my passion, moreso than proving that my opinion is the only truth.
I am not deterred by resistance to the Good News, though I do struggle with the reluctance of professing Christians to fully hear and address the anguish of families struggling. My heart is toward those youngsters daily delivered to public school classrooms unprepared to learn, medicated sufficiently to allow some normalacy, given a growing mental anguish. Yet, we continue to only tweak systems that no longer seem to work, and in many cases that includes our religious institutions.
Now I am sounding too much like Nahum for my own comfort. I am trusting that all this upheaval over the next few months will providentially push us toward transformation, though the journey may be treacherous, even compounded by a growing sense of hate and helplessness.