dangerous & uncivilized

2 Corinthians 6: 1-10 Companions, as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
"I heard your call in the nick of time;
"The day you needed me, I was there to help."
Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped.
Don't put it off;
don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing.
Our work as God's servants gets validated — or not — in the details.
People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . .
in hard times, tough times, bad times;
when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed;
working hard, working late, working without eating;
with pure heart, clear head, steady hand;
in gentleness, holiness, and honest love;
when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power;
when we're doing our best setting things right;
when we're praised, and when we're blamed;
slandered, and honored;
true to our word, though distrusted;
ignored by the world, but recognized by God;
terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead;
beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die;
immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy;
living on handouts, yet enriching many;
having nothing, having it all.

11-13 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

We live such prissy little hot-house kind of lives. When we look at the life described by Paul that he writes about here in this chapter, our lives of privilege are pale in their comparison to his. Would we be any more committed to Jesus if we suffered any of those things listed by Paul that had happened to them? (That part about "beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die" seems a bit daunting, to say the least.) We get cranky if our latte's are hot enough & our ac isn't cool enough, or if we have wait in line too long, or wait in line at all. What would we all be like if we had to live a life like Paul describes his to be?!

Last night, I told Tyler after HOG that God has an exciting & dangerous life planned for him. I tell you what I told him - don't miss it - embrace it. Let the current of God's will carry each of us to wherever & to whatever He wills.

I've learned to control myself (a little bit better than I used to - I know, I know - it's hard to tell sometimes) when people talk to me about how boring life as a Christ follower looks like. It's hard to not laugh in their faces! My life has been a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. About the time I get adjusted to where I am & what I'm doing, God's up & changes things - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

Let's embrace that dangerous, uncivilized life God dreamed for each of us; a life that fits into that overarching will for humankind - that will that's much like a large broad river in which our task is to not fight the current & not let our feet drag the bottom & slow our progress - to let the current in that river of His will carry us anywhere in the river He wants as we flow along with Him.

Think about it... (did any of this make any sense today?)

I love you