I watched something recently that made me sad.
I saw things that were meant to be so beautiful, corrupted by the pursuit of money and power. Relationships so sacred were sullied by deception. Interactions designed to help each other were full of mistrust and disrespect. Enforcing this was a system that was more concerned with external trappings of success than the inner dynamism and growth that marks something creates to flourish.
Not only was this the case, but it was accepted as just the way things worked. It was ingrained in the culture of the organisation. It was embedded in the apparent life and function of the collective. Though some noticed and criticised, no one did anything to challenge it or address it. No strong positions of contention. No heart cry for change. Just weak acceptance and an ever depressing sense that this was all there is to what was apparently life.
It was not life.
It may have been existing and fulfilling set routines for an institution. It may have been functioning to hit the requirements of the machine. It may have been following the protocol put in place after years of turning a good idea into an unquestioned tradition and a underpinning convention. It may have been all these, but it was not life at all.
This got me thinking about the Life again. How implicitly natural it is once it’s connected to the true source and definition of Life. This is not hankering for an unrealistic utopia. It’s not about joining John Lennon to imagine this, that and the other in a hope that one day you’ll join us. It is about looking to Jesus Christ and seeing His heart for His Body to be built up into maturity in Him. Even as that process gets messy because we’re involved, the Spirit-driven intention guides us in negotiating through the mess and purifying ourselves even as He is pure and loving each other even as He loves us. Getting to grips, exposing and confronting the issues within and without that threatens that and seeing victory through painful victory as our hearts are joined in the good matter of seeing God glorified within us, among us and beyond us.
Connection to that source makes the growing process natural. It’s not artificially boosted, it’s not contaminated by malicious and subtle devices. It grows because the Source is the foundation on which it can flourish. That commitment is strengthened especially during times of great opposition and resistance.
To get there, however, requires a great deal of honesty in acknowledging the many things we have put in the way of that level of progress. Admitting our own shortcomings and lack of desire to change. Confessing our investment in maintaining dead things rather than look to Life to lead us in what matters to Him.
As we do so, we must know that we are aligning ourselves with Jesus more and if we just let it grow in Him, it will grow naturally. Not fitting comfortably with the expectations of some, but pleasing in the sight of the One who matters.
Oh for grace to trust Him more indeed.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 