Ponderings From an Active Mind at Rest

I am on vacation this week and I am glad. I went out on the beach this morning and listened to the wind and waves, the sea gulls, and the voice of God. Psalm 23 comes to mind where it says "He restores my soul." The ocean does something for me that no other place does. As Norman Maclean so famously wrote, "I am haunted by waters." I think that it is because I was surrounded by water as a little boy in New Orleans and can still smell the salt air in my memory; or maybe it is because of some reason less romantic. Still, this is where I regain my step and where thoughts come together to form questions and ideas that eventually lead to life-change.

So, here are some initial questions that I am pondering this week:

What does it mean to be Christ-centered and Gospel-centered in life and ministry? I see those terms bandied about often and I use them myself. I am not ignorant regarding definitions, but I wonder if I live that way? What would our lives and churches really look like if this were the case?



If we understand that we are all sinners and that we all sin, and we understand that Jesus fully paid for our sins, and we believe that grace is true, then why are we often so hard on ourselves and others? I am not advocating lawlessness. We should grow in Christlikeness. But, I am wondering why a knowledge of our actual situation and the true gospel does not produce more love, graciousness, and compassion towards ourselves and others.



What does it mean to believe that the Gospel is "Good News"? Do we live that, proclaim that, or even believe it? I think that we understand that it is good news that we go to heaven instead of hell and that our sins are forgiven if we believe in Christ, but what about the Gospel being "Good News" for all of life?

What does a Christ-formed, Gospel-centered family look like? A church? What does it mean to understand these things in the midst of community and live them out together, loving one another as Christ loved us?



As I relax, swim, hang out with my family, read, and pray this week, these things are rolling around in my mind. I am really trying to refresh and re-ground myself in the implications of the Gospel, because it is easy to get lost in the details of daily life.

Thoughts to help me out?


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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Comments

[John Alexander]

One thought for you:

Relax.

One of my coworkers texted me a couple of weeks ago while he was on vacation, asking how things were going. (We work in IT, so we experience hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer panic.) I sent him this message: "You're on vacation. If I'm running around with a fire extinguisher, I'll still say everything's fine."

I'm certain your more important thoughts will reappear in your mind when you return. Meanwhile, relax and give your all to your family and to God. Trust me, you'll never receive these days with your children again.

[Alan Cross]

Thanks, John. I hear what you are saying and I figured someone would say that. Actually, though, I always start a vacation this way - lots of thoughts running around my brain. As the week goes on, they drip out like a leaky faucet and I know that I am relaxing when they turn to poetry and observations of beauty and then worship. That's how my soul is renewed.
Today is day 2. By Thursday or so, I will have slowed down considerably.

[Antje]

Dear Alan,

Good questions! And I don`t have clever answers, just thoughts. My thoughts on this one: ---"What does it mean to believe that the Gospel is "Good News"// what about the Gospel being "Good News" for all of life?---"

What I think is Good News IN THIS LIFE: the "Kingdom of heaven is at hand", we can all live our lifes with God, cooperate with Him, listen to Him. I find that very rewarding most of the time (I admit, I love to be blessed). We got the Holy Spirit as a deposit and helper. And there`s a nice challenge for all of us: focusing on God instead of a hundred other things. Really keeps a girl busy. All these are aspects that I cherish here on earth. Particularly as I know so well how it feels to live w i t h o u t God.

But now: vacation! Have fun! Thinking things through is fun, but so is building sand castles!!!

[Alan Cross]

Ah, the sound of the surf crashing onto the sandy shore as the cool night wind blows over my skin. I am having a great time, in case you are worried that I am thinking too much. It is day 3 and my mind is beginning to slow to a crawl as observations turn to images in my thoughts.

My reflections this week have settled on one object as a metaphor for life, as they often do: the ocean. On Tuesday, we sat on the shore under an umbrella, playing in the sand and venturing out ever so often to play in the surf and ride the waves. I played a game with my children where they got on their boogey boards and I pushed them hard when a wave would come. They would race to shore, just ahead of the foaming wave angrily chasing them, kicking and laughing all the way. Once, a fish swam by and people gathered on the beach pointing and screaming, motioning us out of the water. We heeded their advice and upon our re-entry to dry land learned that a barracuda had been within inches of us. I saw the fish, and not knowing what a barracuda looked like, I believed them, becoming a little queasy at the thought of the dangers of the Gulf and how close we had come to being eaten. Later, I looked up "barracuda" on Wikipedia and found out that the fish that swam nearby looked nothing like a barracuda. I still don't know what it was, but I doubt it was a man-eater. Thankfully, however, the shore was only a few yards away, so we could easily run to safety.

Today, we went out on a big boat that set sail from a harbor in Destin. It was a dolphin cruise and we went out in the deep water looking for dolphin and other marine life. As my family and I settled in at the front of the ship (bow? Stern? Aft? Port? I can never remember what's what), the sun soaked over us and wind pressed in hard upon us. We bounced up and down on the waves while sea spray matted our hair and covered us in splash and mist. The sun glistened on the dark green water and waves crested and fell with random abandon. Finally, after an hour of searching, we found a small pod of three dolphin that rose majestically from the water in a humped fashion before disappearing back into the blue-green Gulf in search of a meal. They were beautiful. On the way back, we saw a school of fish swarming to the surface causing the water to jump and pop like a crackling fire sending up sparks. The ocean was alive.

The two experiences, one at the beach and the other in the deep water of the ocean, speak to me about the spiritual life. God is like the ocean - vast, powerful, limitless, full of life and strength and fury and power. Like people who play around on the shore and think that they are experiencing the ocean, we get saved and begin to have some experiences with God and we think we understand Him. We write books about Him and explain Him to others as though He can be captured in words, but in reality, we are just ankle deep in His lapping waves. Like the sun-bather who thinks they know the ocean because they sit at the beach and take a dip to cool off now and again, we think we know God because we take a break from our "busy" schedules to read a few verses of Scripture or attend a church service. But, we are just standing knee deep in an ocean we don't begin to comprehend.

Many of our arguments about God are like two 5 year olds making sand castles arguing about the nature of the ocean based on their own narrow view. How silly and uninformed we are.

But, if we would set sail and venture onto the vast expanse, we would at least begin to gain an appreciation for the enormity of it all - the utter unfathomableness of the magnitude of God. He is not to be defined and controlled. You can't control or domesticate the ocean no matter how tranquil and approachable it might seem at times. Katrina proved that when angry, the ocean can unleash a 30 foot wall of water on the shore and wipe out everything for miles. Why do we think less of God?

These two days present me with a choice: Do I want to sit in the sand on the shore where I think I have control and wade in ever so slightly to cool off as it suits me, or do I want to venture into the deep, where untold adventures await? It is the difference between being a sunbather and a sailor. The first is on vacation, sampling what appeals to him, the second is on mission, embracing and being swallowed by a world not his own.

Which will it be? My thoughts continue on, Downshoredrift taking me unexpected places.