Sunday, July 13, 2008

Things are Not as they Seem, Part III

This morning a couple of unusual things happened which may show the fruit of this kind of revelation. Barb and I were planning what to do for Sunday morning, something we do quite regularly since we do not have a "regular" church where we attend as members. We both had the same ideas as each other, several in a row, showing that we were "tuned in" to each other--which of course doesn't always happen. [In fact, just the other day we were praying together about a very important issue, and for some reason we couldn't "hear" together on it, and kept running into snags as we prayed. That makes our inner agreement this morning even more striking.] I'm not sure why this is happening, but I can see two possible factors: one was that we were thinking "sideways," without being under specific obligation to anyone; and as Barb often says, we do the most significant works of love and service when we're not really thinking about it--sort of "by chance," as in the story of the man on the road to Jericho, and in the description Jesus gave of the judgment of the sheep and goats: "When did we take care of You?" They didn't even know they were ministering to Jesus!

I like to think that another factor is the freedom that comes from this realization that things are not as they seem: when we know that the human institutions that are all around us are not (and never will be) what they're "cracked up to be," we can make the right choice to be FREE among those institutions, not to take them (or ourselves) too seriously--and we can freely navigate among them, doing what needs to be done, and blessing people freely everywhere we go--because we DESIRE to do this and not because we have to. It is this aspect that allows us to be content wherever we go, and that keeps us in the New Covenant, the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of willingness, rather than slipping back into the legalistic covenant of obligation.

I believe this was the kind of freedom Barb and I were enjoying this morning, during both the planning for the morning and then later in fulfilling the plans.

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