This will not be the first time I’ve mentioned story on this blog. Should I keep writing, it won’t be the last time either. There is a reason for that and this entry plays its part in outlining the reason.
I love watching television with my wife. We are not telly addicts, we don’t have the time and our children won’t give us the time either. Yet there are glimpses where the children are down (asleep of course, they’re not dying animals). We snap them up, we enjoy each other’s company and we will watch a TV show. One we’ve recorded for as you know you cannot depend on schedules for quality TV. So we will record the stuff and in the fullness of time we will sit down over a cup of tea (her) and some bakewell tarts (us) and perhaps a ginger beer (me), to have a look. What I love is that Authrine gets into the story. She is aware it is not real, but her investment in the drama will be as if it were real. With my more philosophical mind, we will talk about the issues that arise from the programme we watch. Depending on the intensity of what she’s watching we could turn a drama into a prayer session about social injustice, family breakdown or the quest for racial harmony. That is why I love watching stuff with her. She watches, she invests, she engages, she shapes, she talks and she acts. That is why she makes a tremendous Christian. She is not half-hearted, she is not enjoying the theory of it all, it has meaning for her to act out.
I read the Bible. I love reading it, because even before i revered it as God’s Word, I was fascinated with its stories. From Adam and Eve to Paul’s exploits, Abram’s call to John’s revelation of the new heavens and earth. As someone who loved a good story I loved the Bible. As I got to know Jesus more and as I moved away from the Bible as solely a storybook or an academic textbook for ethical and moral compliance something emerged. That was the message of the Kingdom.
As it is now, it took me quite a while to connect the dots of what is going on with the Old Testament and what is going on in the New Testament. The hints of Jesus in the OT, the realisation of OT strands in various NT episodes. How all this is culminated in Jesus and the story of his Kingdom took my breathe away.
I appreciate how easy it is to be distracted from this by good intentions, man-made traditions and the pressure to conform to standards of the world. We end up with all kinds of confused expressions and notions of christianity. What they have in common is there skill in missing the heart of jesus and the story of his Kingdom.
What my wife continues to teach me by her example and what some of my peers and role models convey in word and deed is a need to take a particular approach to Jesus and the story of His Kingdom. That approach is to see myself engrossed in the story, caught up with the main character interacting with Him and discovering more of how the story goes. Not casually observing and fondly reflecting on things, but fully investing heart and mind into the story.
That approach wards off a familiarity that breeds contempt through a lack of dynamism. That approach keeps things fresh and alive. That approach requires the discipline to focus and a sensitivity to the move of God’s Spirit. Church is not static, it is always moving and growing in readiness for the return of the central character. I don’t divorce myself from the story as if criticism can passively be given – it is now all about softening and sharpening up. Being shaped to the image of the loved one.
I am challenged when I read His word, am I part of this story? Am I just taking it for escapist entertainment for a feelgood factor, but my life is not shaped by the narrative of Jesus and His Kingdom?
The story continues …
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 