Last week the company I work for announced a major reorganization that will result in plant closures, job cuts and a lot of uncertainty for thousands of people.
At this stage my own job looks ok - although I'm not naive enough to think that I will remain unaffected. As I listened to our CEO address analysts, and then other senior leaders of my organization meet with our department, and gradually smaller and smaller groups, I understood that there had clearly been much work going on in parallel before this announcement was made. Sure there were rumors - and in the absence of the truth people fill the void with all kinds of rumors - but there was a whole team of people working away, constructing a new future, and we got occasional glimpses of it, but didn't fully comprehend what was happening until last Monday.
As I was driving in to work today I was thinking about that, and realized that that's a lot like what I think has been happening with my life. I had glimpses of an alternative way of living as a Christian - I read something on the Internet, or listened to a podcast - but all along there was a parallel way of being that I didn't fully comprehend until recently (and even now, saying I fully comprehend it is crazy...).
I know that at work things will never be the same - this is true for my own spiritual journey too.
I know that there will be much uncertainty and angst at work as people try and assimilate the messages and work though the question of "what does this mean for me, in my situation." This is also true for my spiritual life.
Although this current time is painful at work, I believe that it was the right decision for the company, and will result in a healthier future. I see this mirrored in my life as a Christian too.
There's a line from a Kevin Prosche song that says "the natural things, speak of the invisbible..." and the truth of that line struck me again as I drove in to work.
Peace.
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2 comments:
Hi! I've read your posts and been meaning to respond to them, so enough procrastination, even if it means I'm replying to the most recent post first!
The line that grabbed me was your last one: the quote that "natural things speak of the invisible." I'm from an Anglican background, so it immediately reminded me of the classic definition of a sacrament: the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace. And the traditional sacraments of baptism and communion use natural things - water, bread and wine - as these outward signs, as if to remind us that nature and creation are funamentally good and blessed.
That's one of the things that I want to hold on to in my spiritual journey, and yet in so many churches it's not easy to find intimations of this primal blessedness of creation. I'm living away from the two countries that I've called home for most of my life, and my choice of church is somewhat limited where I am now, so I find myself attending a place which is, I think, fairly typical conservative evangelical protestantism, of the North American variety. Instead of the blessedness of creation, we get regular reminders that creation is fundamentlly flawed, evil in fact. That is the starting point, the dilemma for which Jesus is presented as the answer. It's bad news before it's good news.
But isn't the Bible a story of continued good news, from the repeated "It was good" of Genesis all the way through to "Even so, come Lord Jesus" at the end of Revelation? In other words, a continual, back-and-forth, up-and-down relationship between God and God's creation. Yes, humanity screws it up, and yes, we need redemption, but for me the story of the Bible is that this has fundamentally, eternally been taken care of by the God who never gave up on us before and never will. Christ is the incarnation of that eternal Good News, and the life he calls us into can't be reduced to simple formulas of redemption and "accepting Jesus as your Lord and savior." That's almost magical thinking to me.
So I can't help thinking that the idea that as Christians we've got to go out and "save" people is grasping the stick by the wrong end, and that's where I part company with a lot of Christians, I realize. And where I'm living now, that leaves me without many options in terms of a church home, and thus wondering how I might find some other form of community that is more congenial to the kind of questioning and commitments I feel called to engage in.
That's all for now - not a very direct response to what you wrote, but I hope there'll be more time to write again soon.
Isn't it amazing that there often seems to be a tendency to focus on the negative - that something is inherently evil, that we are fallen, that we shouldn't do such and such. And yet I'm reminded that Jesus said that He had come that we might have life - and have it in all its fullness.
I know that Jesus spoke in the negative too - but I am convinced that the overwhelming feeling you would have got being around Jesus was one of someone who was living life to the full. It's interesting that when the Pharisees chastised Jesus' disciples for rubbing corn between their hands on the Sabbath, Jesus talked about the fact that the Sabbath was made for the Lord, and not the other way around. A simple statement that caused anger amongst the Pharisees then, but a sentiment that I think also speaks to your comments - that we can't contain Jesus in a set of rules and formulas - life (your spiritual life included) is just not that simple.
I look forward to enjoying more of this conversation with you...!
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