What is your vision of God? For many of us our vision of God is too small, or even too aloof. We live in ways which reveal that we are unaware that God has a dream for the world, that God has hope for the way the world can once again be. We live as if God is around, but not near – God is really not involved in the life of the world.
Roxburgh and Boren, in Introducing the Missional Church express that: “God’s dream for the world is about redemption of all creation, not just individuals getting into heaven; it is about the restoration of life as God intended it to be; it is about realigning life around God and God’s ways” (pp. 101-102).
God is involved in the life of the world. God is involved in the lives of each human being (cf. John 3: 16-17). God’s hope, God’s passion, God’s desire is for all humanity and for all creation to be made new, restored to a wholeness, a shalom that is rooted in the very heart of God.
And where do we see this dream of God’s being demonstrated?
In the most unexpected place!
God has called and continues to call a people to be the sign of God’s dream for the world. Indeed, we are a broken and imperfect people, all humanity is. We are a people who are “jars of clay” (cf. 2 Corinthians 4: 7ff), vessels in whom God chooses to be present. God chooses to use that which is weak to reveal what restored life can become. It would seem that if God had sat in any of the numerous leadership seminars offered over the past 25 years, that God would have come up with a better plan, but God chooses to enact God’s dream through a broken people, who are developing ears to hear, opening eyes to see, hearts that are open to discover and understand, lives that are willing to be shaped and transformed, in order to demonstrate how God intends human beings to relate to one another.
The question becomes whether we seek to continue living in ways we think are best or whether we are open to being realigned by the Spirit of God to be the sign of God’s dream for the world demonstrating a different reality in being human. Living life with God is all about reorientation.
When we arise each morning – do we seek to live our own lives, seeking our own purposes, seeking our own ends, or are we willing to be part of a larger dream for humanity – a dream that continually challenges us to become human in ways we have never perceived, becoming more humane, becoming more compassionate, becoming more loving, merciful, faithful, courageous, hopeful – becoming complete human beings.
If the latter, then our life will be one of continual reorientation – a continually orienting ourselves to Jesus Christ (who is the embodiment of God, God who came to dwell among us), a continually embracing of Jesus Christ, a continually openness to the Spirit of God, of Christ, because in so doing, in our becoming like Jesus, we become a people demonstrating what it is to be truly human. This involves a purposeful aligning ourselves to God and the ways of God as revealed in Jesus Christ – it involves an aligning of ourselves to the Story and Vision of God (which we will explore more in detail next week).
Dare we align ourselves with God’s dream for humanity by opening our lives to being a sign of God’s dream?
Showing posts with label Vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vision. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Vol 1:13 Visioning and the Mission of God (Part 2: Noticing what God is doing)
The questions that were raised about visioning last week were: Since we are called to participate with God in God's mission, how do we go about discovering or discerning what God is doing so that we can join in? And, of all that God is doing, what part of that involves us? How do we know what we are to be doing as the people of God?
Last week we explored seeing what God sees so that we might develop a sensitivity to what touches the heart of God - rather than our living in such a way that is merely focused upon our accomplishing our own purposes. This week, our focus moves beyond what God sees to noticing what God is doing, what God is engaged in within our contexts.
Noticing what God is doing is developing eyes and ears for where God is engaged. Repeatedly in John's Gospel Jesus relates that he speaks what he hears his Father speaking and does what he sees his Father doing (cf. John 12: 49; 5: 19). How did Jesus hear what God the Father was saying and see what God the Father was doing?
I believe what we learn from Jesus is that noticing what God is doing involves living in a different rhythm than what has become "normal" in our world. Normal has come to mean living in ways which are frenetic in which we barely have time to notice anything except that which we are focused on doing - because it is demanded of us by an expectation of another or ourselves. And so we race around like rats, running helter skelter, here, there, seemingly accomplishing much, but sensing deep within ourselves it has little lasting value.
I don't get that sense from Jesus - from reading the Gospels, he seemed to walk with purpose, a way of living that was attuned to a different rhythm. He took time to be distracted by people, by questions, by situations, by conversations - and yet, these asides were not tangential to what he came to do or who he was among us. Mark 1: 35 presents us with a clue as to how Jesus lived attuned to a different rhythm.
When Jesus awoke in the morning, he took the time to breathe in the Spirit of God, he took time to align his life to the purposes of his Father in heaven, he took the time to pray, to yield up his agendas, his anxieties, his deadlines, his "to do" list, himself, in order to open himself to living in a rhythm directed by the Spirit of God.
And then he lived into his day. And as he went from here to there, he encountered people - and the impression he gave those he encountered was that their encountering was by divine appointment. And as he went, he was questioned - and the impression he gave those who questioned him, that this was an opportunity to speak a word of truth, of life. As he went he sensed his living was directed by the Spirit of God. And through this openness to the Spirit of God, he became aware of what God was speaking in a certain situation - and he spoke those words; and through this openness the Spirit of God, he became aware of what God was doing - and he joined in with God in touching a leper or healing one who was blind or setting a child free from demonic forces.
Likewise, when we take the time to live prayerfully - breathing in the Spirit of God, surrendering our agendas to the Spirit, yielding our purposes and goals to God, giving of ourselves to walk through our day yoked together with Christ (cf. Matthew 11:29), we not only begin to live attuned to a different rhythm - regarding distractions as divine encounters, whatever situations we encounter as our being led there by the Spirit, we also become more sensitive and aware of the words God is speaking in that encounter or situation, which we then have the opportunity to speak as well, or the actions God is doing in which we join in to bring life and healing into broken lives and places.
I believe as we live lives which are open to the Spirit of God, the Spirit will enable us to see more clearly what God is doing all around us and enable us to speak the words of God into the lives of others.
Last week we explored seeing what God sees so that we might develop a sensitivity to what touches the heart of God - rather than our living in such a way that is merely focused upon our accomplishing our own purposes. This week, our focus moves beyond what God sees to noticing what God is doing, what God is engaged in within our contexts.
Noticing what God is doing is developing eyes and ears for where God is engaged. Repeatedly in John's Gospel Jesus relates that he speaks what he hears his Father speaking and does what he sees his Father doing (cf. John 12: 49; 5: 19). How did Jesus hear what God the Father was saying and see what God the Father was doing?
I believe what we learn from Jesus is that noticing what God is doing involves living in a different rhythm than what has become "normal" in our world. Normal has come to mean living in ways which are frenetic in which we barely have time to notice anything except that which we are focused on doing - because it is demanded of us by an expectation of another or ourselves. And so we race around like rats, running helter skelter, here, there, seemingly accomplishing much, but sensing deep within ourselves it has little lasting value.
I don't get that sense from Jesus - from reading the Gospels, he seemed to walk with purpose, a way of living that was attuned to a different rhythm. He took time to be distracted by people, by questions, by situations, by conversations - and yet, these asides were not tangential to what he came to do or who he was among us. Mark 1: 35 presents us with a clue as to how Jesus lived attuned to a different rhythm.
When Jesus awoke in the morning, he took the time to breathe in the Spirit of God, he took time to align his life to the purposes of his Father in heaven, he took the time to pray, to yield up his agendas, his anxieties, his deadlines, his "to do" list, himself, in order to open himself to living in a rhythm directed by the Spirit of God.
And then he lived into his day. And as he went from here to there, he encountered people - and the impression he gave those he encountered was that their encountering was by divine appointment. And as he went, he was questioned - and the impression he gave those who questioned him, that this was an opportunity to speak a word of truth, of life. As he went he sensed his living was directed by the Spirit of God. And through this openness to the Spirit of God, he became aware of what God was speaking in a certain situation - and he spoke those words; and through this openness the Spirit of God, he became aware of what God was doing - and he joined in with God in touching a leper or healing one who was blind or setting a child free from demonic forces.
Likewise, when we take the time to live prayerfully - breathing in the Spirit of God, surrendering our agendas to the Spirit, yielding our purposes and goals to God, giving of ourselves to walk through our day yoked together with Christ (cf. Matthew 11:29), we not only begin to live attuned to a different rhythm - regarding distractions as divine encounters, whatever situations we encounter as our being led there by the Spirit, we also become more sensitive and aware of the words God is speaking in that encounter or situation, which we then have the opportunity to speak as well, or the actions God is doing in which we join in to bring life and healing into broken lives and places.
I believe as we live lives which are open to the Spirit of God, the Spirit will enable us to see more clearly what God is doing all around us and enable us to speak the words of God into the lives of others.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Vol 1:12 Visioning and the Mission of God (Part 1: Seeing what God sees)
Since we are called to participate with God in God’s mission, how do we go about discovering or discerning what God is doing so that we can join in? And, of all that God is doing, what part of that involves us? How do we know what we are to be doing as the people of God?
Over the next four weeks we will explore how we envision our participation with God in God’s mission.
Often we think about ministry as seeing a need and responding to it. We can exert our resources and energies in doing good and then we burnout. We wonder why we can’t sustain the effort to do all that is needed to be of help to people in need. Perhaps it has to do with the way we see needs, and/or, once we see them, how we respond to them. If partnering with God in God’s mission is participating with what God is doing, perhaps seeing what we see is not enough. It seems that a first step in being involved with God in God’s mission is to develop a sensitivity to see what God sees (and what God hears) in the ministry contexts in which we find ourselves.
You may be asking yourself, “what does that mean?” “What does it mean to see and hear what God sees and hears?” It means to begin looking at the world differently – to try to capture how God sees and hears us and others in the midst of our daily living. It means that as we develop a God-centered way of seeing and hearing, we become aware of what is going on all around us in a very different kind of way.
I became much more aware of this a few months ago as I was involved in a prayer experiment. I was reading through Richard Foster’s book, Streams of Living Water, and came across the story of Frank C. Laubach, a missionary to the Philippines, India, and Africa in the early part of the 20th century, who did significant work in bringing literacy to thousands. Frank would often engage himself in prayer experiments to become sensitive to the needs of others.
As I engaged in one of these experiments, of praying flash prayers for people I met, drove by, walked by, or noticed during the day – just a momentary prayer lifting them up, praying for the Spirit of God to be present with them, to help them, to touch their lives, I began to notice something. These people whom I just noticed for a mere second, I began to wonder more deeply about them – what is going on in their lives? What are they struggling with? What decisions or situations are they dealing with? What relational issues are in the forefront of their minds? Even though I did not have the opportunity to engage the majority of the people I passed by, I began to take notice of them as I was going about my business.
In noticing them in this new way – I came to sense again that life was not just about me accomplishing my purposes, but that I was living among hundreds of others who are going through life with their own sets of hopes, dreams, and struggles. And then I realized, God must be very aware of all that is going on in everyone’s life. It helped me understand much more deeply the opening words of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world . . .”
God’s gaze upon us as God’s creation is a gaze of love – God loves us and what God does in sending Jesus, the Son of God, is a sending that is motivated by love. What does God see as God gazes upon us? God sees our struggles, our hopes, our questions, our conflicts, our decisions, our relationships, our longings, our dreams. Because God loves us, God sees us. Because God loves us, God hears our cries, our conversations, our words of love, our words of anger. God sees! God hears!
And then it hit me – if ministry is to go beyond doing something for those in need and to go beyond seeing people as mere recipients of our “good” tasks, then we need not only change the pace and focus of our lives to see people as God sees people, to hear people as God hears people, but we need to be open to become sensitive to be shaped by God’s love for those we rub shoulders with each day.
It also changes the primary question of our missional involvement – it is not merely “what does God see?” instead it becomes, “Whom does God see?”
Without developing a sensitivity to seeing whom God sees and hearing whom God hears, and the way God sees and hears them, we will continue going about doing what seems best to what we see and hear, accomplishing our agendas, even if these agendas are named “ministry.”
Seeing people as God sees people and hearing people as God hears people, I believe is the beginning place for us to become aware of how we are to be involved participating with God in God’s mission. Since, it is God’s mission – we need to develop eyes and ears and hearts that are attuned to God’s eyes and ears and heart. To see and hear, we first need to become sensitive to what sensitizes the eyes, ears, and heart of God – otherwise what we see will only be what we see.
Over the next four weeks we will explore how we envision our participation with God in God’s mission.
Often we think about ministry as seeing a need and responding to it. We can exert our resources and energies in doing good and then we burnout. We wonder why we can’t sustain the effort to do all that is needed to be of help to people in need. Perhaps it has to do with the way we see needs, and/or, once we see them, how we respond to them. If partnering with God in God’s mission is participating with what God is doing, perhaps seeing what we see is not enough. It seems that a first step in being involved with God in God’s mission is to develop a sensitivity to see what God sees (and what God hears) in the ministry contexts in which we find ourselves.
You may be asking yourself, “what does that mean?” “What does it mean to see and hear what God sees and hears?” It means to begin looking at the world differently – to try to capture how God sees and hears us and others in the midst of our daily living. It means that as we develop a God-centered way of seeing and hearing, we become aware of what is going on all around us in a very different kind of way.
I became much more aware of this a few months ago as I was involved in a prayer experiment. I was reading through Richard Foster’s book, Streams of Living Water, and came across the story of Frank C. Laubach, a missionary to the Philippines, India, and Africa in the early part of the 20th century, who did significant work in bringing literacy to thousands. Frank would often engage himself in prayer experiments to become sensitive to the needs of others.
As I engaged in one of these experiments, of praying flash prayers for people I met, drove by, walked by, or noticed during the day – just a momentary prayer lifting them up, praying for the Spirit of God to be present with them, to help them, to touch their lives, I began to notice something. These people whom I just noticed for a mere second, I began to wonder more deeply about them – what is going on in their lives? What are they struggling with? What decisions or situations are they dealing with? What relational issues are in the forefront of their minds? Even though I did not have the opportunity to engage the majority of the people I passed by, I began to take notice of them as I was going about my business.
In noticing them in this new way – I came to sense again that life was not just about me accomplishing my purposes, but that I was living among hundreds of others who are going through life with their own sets of hopes, dreams, and struggles. And then I realized, God must be very aware of all that is going on in everyone’s life. It helped me understand much more deeply the opening words of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world . . .”
God’s gaze upon us as God’s creation is a gaze of love – God loves us and what God does in sending Jesus, the Son of God, is a sending that is motivated by love. What does God see as God gazes upon us? God sees our struggles, our hopes, our questions, our conflicts, our decisions, our relationships, our longings, our dreams. Because God loves us, God sees us. Because God loves us, God hears our cries, our conversations, our words of love, our words of anger. God sees! God hears!
And then it hit me – if ministry is to go beyond doing something for those in need and to go beyond seeing people as mere recipients of our “good” tasks, then we need not only change the pace and focus of our lives to see people as God sees people, to hear people as God hears people, but we need to be open to become sensitive to be shaped by God’s love for those we rub shoulders with each day.
It also changes the primary question of our missional involvement – it is not merely “what does God see?” instead it becomes, “Whom does God see?”
Without developing a sensitivity to seeing whom God sees and hearing whom God hears, and the way God sees and hears them, we will continue going about doing what seems best to what we see and hear, accomplishing our agendas, even if these agendas are named “ministry.”
Seeing people as God sees people and hearing people as God hears people, I believe is the beginning place for us to become aware of how we are to be involved participating with God in God’s mission. Since, it is God’s mission – we need to develop eyes and ears and hearts that are attuned to God’s eyes and ears and heart. To see and hear, we first need to become sensitive to what sensitizes the eyes, ears, and heart of God – otherwise what we see will only be what we see.
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