Continuing my thoughts on “Overload.”
I have great confidence in my second birth–the eternal duration of it, the glory and richness and promise of it.
One of the things I didn’t get, though, by being born again, was omnipresence.
That’s why I’ve been an absentee blogger for the past few weeks. Alas, I can’t be everywhere, or do everything at once. I’m sure everyone would admit to having the same limitation, but for some of us, it’s harder to accept than others.
Thankfully, what is true and possible for us through our new life, is being able to live a multi-layered truth all at once, without practically doing it all at once.
The book of Acts, of course, models evangelistic and apostolic flow. It portrays movement, where truth and life advances. As the disciples, the witnesses of Jesus, penetrate the wild, woolly world, Jesus goes with them. The core implication of this spiritual model has to do with the kingdom going where it has never been allowed, rooting out demonic strongholds, and planting new assemblies. The ark is on the move here. The act of accompanying it means spiritual warfare, and proceeding through open doors.
Meanwhile, in another part of the inerrant, divinely inspired word, First Timothy emphasizes maintaining the mission of the church local, as the pillar and base of the truth. Its interior services and leadership, the holding of the faith, and refusal of demonic doctrine guarantee a stable witness rooted in the neighborhoods around it. The implication here, of course, has to do with staying. It means dedication to the long game of making the gospel known in the same place, twenty-four, seven.
The point is, that you have to occupy a multilayered truth (not a contradictory one), being open at all times to the Spirit’s application of that truth in your life, whether it has to do with staying or going.
This isn’t easy.
Some folks, by nature, want nothing to do with missional enterprises or operations. They don’t like the inconvenience, or the risk, even if it only means heading over to another neighborhood. But as a child of God, you have to be ready for the “Go” impulse. It will come to you, and it probably has many times.
Then there are those who can’t put their adventurous nature to rest long enough to build community with anyone. They love the mantle of “Missionary.” For them, nothing could be more unattractive than commitment to regular people, without fanfare, or excitement. But again, as a child of God, you have to be ready for a long season of non-movement, and not to be special. Staying is a spiritual art to be learned–falling into the ground and dying, Jesus would have called it (c.f. John 12:24).
At any rate, we don’t get to choose exclusive positions. I think about Ananias, a disciple in the early church. He was a resident of Damascus, quietly and faithfully living there while learning the way of Christ. He was not an apostle or a missionary in the official sense of the word. Still, Jesus appeared to him, saying, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying” (Acts 9:11). This command to “go” across town, created a threatening moment for Ananias, for Saul had hardly been a friend of the faith. Still, this little visit helped launch Saul into a life of service and ultimately, the writing of half our New Testament.
Ananias promptly disappeared back into the fabric of local church life. His one notable experience in the book of Acts, as far as we know, never translated into some kind of itinerant ministry. But that was okay because he was available to his Lord from within a staying-going, multilayered truth. At the end of the day, it’s all that mattered.
Anyway, that’s where I’ve been. Or trying to be.
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This is an updated edition of a post originally published on John Myer
Featured Image by Jaime Perez from Pixabay
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