a drop of water

At small group there was this idea shared that what we do is often the best vision we have for our lives.  This is slightly different than what we would want to do with our lives (dreams) and more in touch with reality, dependent on our perception of the reality of our circumstances.  When we make a decision that someone else believes wrong or unwise, it is because they have a different vision, or perception the circumstances.  No one makes a wrong or unwise decision consciously.  I want to live under kingdom visions.  I want my decisions, my actions, my words to be based upon God’s understanding of my circumstances.  I’d like to read the Bible through, picking out visions (truth) about how life, is.

So here are a few familiar visions of what reality that I picked out from a scan of Galatians (just because it came to mind first):

• I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20 - I think that understanding this vision, of Christ living in me, is a life long journey, but its a vision that I want to keep at the forfront of my mind always.  I think that a lot of people sometimes wish they could live other people’s life and I believe that desire is partly rooted in our desire for self worth.  The fact that the reality of being a Christian is the that our self worth is rooted in Christ living in us, through us, and with us brings our focus back to what really matters.

• But now that you know God—or rather are known by God… Gal 4:9 - We always talk about wanting to get to know God more, when that is only half of the coin.  The reality is that maturing in faith is also about letting God know us more, about opening up the deepest part of ourselves so that God work, cleanup and restore us.

• For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Gal 5:6 [and] But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Gal 5:13-14 - Life, especially relationships to people, things, responsibilities, etc, gets complicated.  But the vision of the kingdom is that “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”  Something I need to remember when I’m trying to figure out the best plan of action to fix this or fix that.

• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Gal 5:22-23 - Maybe the vision, the hope for life is that every one of my actions and responses to the circumstances and events of every day could be categorized into one of the these words.  Maybe not all actions and responses could be categorized in one of these words, but the world would significantly different if most did.

• Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Gal 6:2 - This vision is two fold, not only must I be more willing to carry others burdens in prayer, financially and through friendship, but I must also be willing to share my burdens in vulnerability, in humility and dependence.

With the turning of the year I’ve been trying to formulate questions to evaluate the health of different areas that I consider crucial to inviting (and discovering) God into my life.  All of these areas are interrelated and sometimes difficult to separate, but trying to understand them individually helps me better understand their influence on each other.  This list is by no means exhaustive (and there is no implication by order), but intended to be a concise list of questions to poignantly touch key issues in our lives today.

Spiritual Health

1. What are the prayers that I have prayed?
2. Where have I grown more dependent on God in my life?

Physical Health

1. How much time do I spend creating and cultivating with my mind and body versus consuming and condemning?
2. How can I grow and mature in my physical intimacy with my wife?

Resource Health

1. Where are am I giving, saving, and spending finances, time, energy and creativity?
2. Where am I undercommitted and where am I overcommitted?

Educational Health

1. Where and from who am I learning from and being inspired by?
2. Who am I teaching and investing in, hoping to inspire?

Work Health

1. Am I satisfied with my level of dedication to work?
2. Am I bringing good to my coworkers, customers and managers?

Relational Health

1. How am I intentionally loving the people most important in my life?
2. How am I intentionally loving the people in my life who I would prefer not to love?

What if … I went to heaven and started looking around for my friends and family members.  I found most of them, but some of them were missing.  I couldn’t find them anywhere.  Then I asked God, where they were?  God said, I didn’t know you wanted me to save them.  You never talked to me about them, never truly asked me to save them.  You spent more time asking for health and blessing for yourself and your small little world, so I gave those things to you.  See that long list over there, thats all the stuff you asked me for.  But you never truly asked me about _____.

That was the sobering thought I had while working out yesterday.  It was specifically during a personal conviction that I need to pray for someone more.  I usually ignore praying for them because I don’t feel like it’ll do much good.  I end up surrendering them to the to mercy of their own life decisions.  When you pray for someone, you become apart of the answer: directly you are asking God for help and indirectly in that you are preparing your heart and mind to be part of the solution.

In his book, Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard outlines three aspects of discipleship making: “we must be disciples, we must intend to make disciples, and we must know how to bring people to believe that Jesus really is the one.”  Here are some further hard hitting ideas that are inspiring.  I would like to share with you in hope of a similiar experience, though admittedly the context is partially lost.

…non-discipleship is the elephant in the church; it is not the many moral failures, financial abuses or amazing general similarity between christian and non-christians. These are only the effects of the underlying problem. The fundamental negative reality among christians believers today, is the failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in the kingdom among us. And it is an accepted reality. The divisions of professing christans and to those for whom it is a matter of whole life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer or client relationship to the church has now been an accepted reality for the last 1500 years…

…it must be our conscious objective, consciously implemented to bring others to the point where they are daily learning from Jesus how to live their actual lives as he would live them if he were they. That implemented intention would soon transform everything among professing Christians as we know them.  For example, much time is spent among Christians trying to smooth over hurt feelings and even deep wounds, given and received, and to get people to stop being angry, retaliatory, and forgiving.  But suppose instead we devoted our time to inspiring and enabling christians and others to be people who are not offendable and not angry, and who are forgiving as a matter of course.  Great peace, the Psalmist says, have they who love thy law, nothing trips them up.  Psalm 119:165.  To intentionally make disciples is to open the doorway for people to become like that…

…we [should] intend to make disciples and let converts happen instead of intending to make converts and let disciples happen…we are not talking about the duties of full time ministers, but the duty of a friend, a neighbor…

…you lead people to become disciples of Jesus by ravishing them with a vision of life in the kingdom of the heavens in the fellowship of Jesus. and you do this by proclaiming, manifesting and teaching the kingdom to them in the manner learned by Jesus himself.  You must change the belief system that manages their lives…

Resolved to use my heart to love and pass on what God has given me, instead of using to fester hate,complaints and or bitterness.

“God has given us a heart to love him and other people with. To use it in any other capacity would be toe waste God’s gift. Two questions I ask myself: how big is my heart and what is it filled with?”