It was amazing...instead of being comfy in my church pew, listening to amazing worship music, eating awesome food, or dyeing Easter eggs, I served food to a bunch of homeless men and showed them the teeniest glimpse of God's love. As I looked around the room and saw all the volunteers from all over Charlotte serving, I thought, "This is how the Church is supposed to work."
N.T. Wright says in Surprised by Hope, "Our task in the present...is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second."
Do we really live our daily lives as resurrection people? Do our actions and choices reflect what has been done for us and what we will experience in eternity? Do our lives share with others the amazing opportunity they have to receive God's gift? My friend Greg, a very wise man, says our theology does not matter if our sociology does not reflect it....and I wonder where the American Church stands with our sociology.
It's been on my mind during Holy Week and in my prayers. How do I pray for this? I write daily in my prayer journal, as a way to collect my thoughts, speak clearly with God, record what I believe He is telling me, and see His faithfulness over time. I don't share from my prayer journal often, but here's what I wrote this morning, before our serving. I didn't make any edits at all, so excuse the run-on sentences. Enjoy and become the resurrection people we were created to be!
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Happy Easter! Father, I've been thinking a lot about Jesus' amazing sacrifice for us, our redemption and renewal, how incredibly deep, wide, and great is your love for us. Thinking about how I should respond to that kind of love, that kind of sacrifice, what kind of Church we/I should be.
I wonder what the Church would be like if all of us, who call ourselves believers, truly believed to the depth, the inner fiber of our being, and acted in a way that reflects the sacrifice and love of Christ. I am the first person guilty of not always reflecting what has been done for me, so I am not pointing fingers. But I think if the Church really believed and lived like we believe, we would change the world, be a force to be reckoned with for the good of our brothers and sisters. Isaiah 58 could really be lived out. People, families, cities would be renewed.
Father, will you use me for these purposes of yours, for your glory and for your kingdom? Will you give me a humble and obedient heart, a heart listening to your voice, a heart willing, able, and ready to move outside my comfort zone and outside my context to be your hands and feet, your face and love for the world?
Father, we say that 'the Church has left the building'....but does the world know it? Do I know it, believe it, live it out? I pray that you would change our American Church to be more radical for you and less concerned with ourselves...and let this change begin first with me!
Thank you for loving me and giving me this heart to love you, serve you, and follow hard after you!
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