Working Through Detachment
The waters of chaos have been looming and washing over me for the past 6 months.
Questions, doubts, uncertainties, discontentment, confusion, frustration, and loneliness. In a culture that has consumption ingrained within it's very fibers of being, the church exists as a community that is supposed to be salt and light. The chaos I find is in trying to justify the shortcomings of an institution within my own convictions and beliefs. However, though glimmers of hope shine through the institutional structure, the culture inside itself is casting a large shadow in the culture outside itself, fostering anxiety and fear of the unknown, using mystery as a means of separation rather than an invitation to experience the holy.
We have become detached. We are a commuter society that is allowed to come and go as we please. We want change, but not at the cost of our spare time, and only if it fits conveniently in our schedule. We desire community, but community cannot be forced, and rarely can be created. It needs space. It needs time to grow and mature out a genuine love that people have for each other. It cannot be programmed. Community begins by sharing life together, not simply commiserating or dropping baggage on each other, but wanting and desiring to not simply spend time together when it's convenient, but to spend time together because we want to and because we need others to restore us back to life. This puts our detachment to our faith communities at risk, because we may have to give up our consumptions, assumptions, and individual lifestyles. Community will demand attachment, not to a program or place, but to a people.
It seems to be messy. It's not ducks in a row, it's not all of your eggs in one basket, it's a complicated bond between imperfect people that are willing to sacrifice our comforts for the sake of our brothers and sisters. To speak of this and do nothing is vanity and only furthers the gap between ourselves and authentic relationships without agendas.
This is only the tip of the ice berg for me. I do not know where God will be guiding this conversation within myself and with close confidants, but what I do know is that as I continue to work out my faith with fear and trembling, that God will restore life back to me, to my wife, and to my family.
May we make peace, and be peace together.
Questions, doubts, uncertainties, discontentment, confusion, frustration, and loneliness. In a culture that has consumption ingrained within it's very fibers of being, the church exists as a community that is supposed to be salt and light. The chaos I find is in trying to justify the shortcomings of an institution within my own convictions and beliefs. However, though glimmers of hope shine through the institutional structure, the culture inside itself is casting a large shadow in the culture outside itself, fostering anxiety and fear of the unknown, using mystery as a means of separation rather than an invitation to experience the holy.
We have become detached. We are a commuter society that is allowed to come and go as we please. We want change, but not at the cost of our spare time, and only if it fits conveniently in our schedule. We desire community, but community cannot be forced, and rarely can be created. It needs space. It needs time to grow and mature out a genuine love that people have for each other. It cannot be programmed. Community begins by sharing life together, not simply commiserating or dropping baggage on each other, but wanting and desiring to not simply spend time together when it's convenient, but to spend time together because we want to and because we need others to restore us back to life. This puts our detachment to our faith communities at risk, because we may have to give up our consumptions, assumptions, and individual lifestyles. Community will demand attachment, not to a program or place, but to a people.
It seems to be messy. It's not ducks in a row, it's not all of your eggs in one basket, it's a complicated bond between imperfect people that are willing to sacrifice our comforts for the sake of our brothers and sisters. To speak of this and do nothing is vanity and only furthers the gap between ourselves and authentic relationships without agendas.
This is only the tip of the ice berg for me. I do not know where God will be guiding this conversation within myself and with close confidants, but what I do know is that as I continue to work out my faith with fear and trembling, that God will restore life back to me, to my wife, and to my family.
May we make peace, and be peace together.
posted by Levi at
1:23 PM
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