Vol 2:3 A Missional Journey

In continuing the series that the Mennonite congregation I serve is exploring, of being clothed with the Spirit of Christ, my focus this week is on missional journey.

I like the metaphor that our life is lived as a journey – it’s a biblical metaphor. We are all on a journey – times of celebration, times of sadness; times of strength, times of weakness; times of hope, times of despair; times of health, times of illness; times of victory, times of loss. Our lives are also lived in seasons.

Walking with Jesus Christ is all about experiencing life as a journey that is rooted in the Spirit of Christ. The challenge becomes how we seek to live out our lives in these seasons. Do we live grasping for breathe or do we find the rhythms of breathing in the Spirit of Christ?

Last Sunday, our community focused on Psalm 40: 1-11 which describes the journey of King David’s life lived in response to the presence of God – from waiting on God in times of despair, to being lifted up from the miry pit and being set upon a rock, to living life trusting God declaring the works of God in which he cannot find the words to give expression to what he encounters.

What makes the difference in our lives in as we journey through the seasons of life? I believe it has much to do with being open to the Spirit breathing the presence of God in and through our lives. Our breathing seeks to take control of our situations so that we have some control over the outcomes or directions of our lives – however, if we are honest with ourselves, we are more times than not, not all that facile at taking control.

Instead, when we surrender ourselves to the Spirit breathing into us and through us – we yield ourselves to a different rhythm, a rhythm in which the Spirit takes us along into rhythms which enable us to make confession in a similar manner as David expresses in Psalm 40 – a confession that realizes that it is God who embraces us in our living, leading and directing us in ways which fill us with life, giving us a different perspective in which our lives become more and more like Christ’s – being people who live our lives in openness and response to God’s engaging presence.

May we be open to breathing in the Spirit as we journey through the seasons of our life.