The Fissure

I recently read a portion of a book called "Foolishness to the Greeks" which evaluates what it would take for a truly missionary encounter between Western society and the Gospel. Basically, the writer talks about some really interesting stuff concerning how the Gospel is always shaped in our understanding by the culture we live in. This occurs even in the context of Western culture - or that culture which is called "modern" - such that citizens are able to live alongside so much material about the Gospel without ever really being impacted by it. I don't know if what I'm about to share will make much sense to anyone who has read the book, but I found this in my files from May 21, 2012 and wanted to share.

May 21, 2012 – The Fissure

I dare say that in Western Christianity the fissure between public and private life and between fact and value runs so deep that we have actually divorced the aspect of our emotions and relationship with God from what we see to be our “function” and “role” in church community or our mission-calling. In this it can easily be understood why Christians so desperately pursue outreach continuously while never stopping to develop a relationship with God: we were raised in a culture that valued our productivity first and all other relationships were auxiliary to our “primary function” in our work spheres. This problem touches every age group, from the young student of the public education system that learned to relate as an ID number in the midst of the overall student body (who was ranked by grades, averages, and an overall mathematically calculated GPA), to the adult who climbs a career ladder. Their value is on their resume and in their salary, not in them as an individual.

No wonder the kingdom of God is such a conundrum to us! We believe it entirely natural to separate between fact and value, between dream and have-to, between public and private life – and we think that God is altogether like us! Nevertheless, when we meet with God, we encounter Someone who wanted us first. He never wanted us because we had some productivity value to add to His kingdom, but because each of us were uniquely designed to relate to Him in a deep and intimate way. The work that we do, we do as a labor of love. Although in our society little value is placed on the work of the house mom, the work that she does she does from a deep well of love for her children. She doesn’t expect a promotion or a paycheck. She does not define herself by her resume – in fact, she may not even have one. She is simply satisfied in giving and receiving love. In the same way, our work for the kingdom is not work for the kingdom incorporated. It is a labor of love, done out of the intention to reciprocate a love that God has already shown to us. When we’re connected with this we will not find His commands burdensome. We will not weary in well-doing because it’s from and for love – not for another star on a resume or another grade on a report card.