Thursday, March 31, 2005
'Tension' Headache
Living in the tension
It seems much of life is about balance and living in the tension between opposite ideologies. And yet I think many of us, at least me, long to be on one side. There was a time when that's what blogging was for me...a place to yell "THIS IS WHAT I THINK..." to make bold statements, often in arrogance, proclaiming a viewpoint as if to convince myself as much as anyone else. So here I sit, an ideological blogger between ideologies. My church journey has left me almost where I started yet not at all the same.
I'm so cautious as to get caught up in it like a shoe string in a turbine at the mill. "it" being either ideology.
But here's the truth - not trying to convince anyone - life is best lived in the tension...
It's God's grace....and God's justice
It's being free from sin....and a slave to Jesus
It's God's kingdom that's both ALREADY here....and NOT YET
The Bible doesn't contradict - it rightly places itself in this tension. And yet we are so uncomfortable with that tension that we shirk it off - we have the Evangelical Conservatives preaching about life, life, life...and we have the Liberal Christians being much more active in issues of social justice and serving those that Jesus served. I can't condemn either on their strengths. Either could easily be condemned on their weaknesses. And yet imagine a world where we could have "one holy universal church" in which we balanced these tensions...
It seems much of life is about balance and living in the tension between opposite ideologies. And yet I think many of us, at least me, long to be on one side. There was a time when that's what blogging was for me...a place to yell "THIS IS WHAT I THINK..." to make bold statements, often in arrogance, proclaiming a viewpoint as if to convince myself as much as anyone else. So here I sit, an ideological blogger between ideologies. My church journey has left me almost where I started yet not at all the same.
I'm so cautious as to get caught up in it like a shoe string in a turbine at the mill. "it" being either ideology.
But here's the truth - not trying to convince anyone - life is best lived in the tension...
It's God's grace....and God's justice
It's being free from sin....and a slave to Jesus
It's God's kingdom that's both ALREADY here....and NOT YET
The Bible doesn't contradict - it rightly places itself in this tension. And yet we are so uncomfortable with that tension that we shirk it off - we have the Evangelical Conservatives preaching about life, life, life...and we have the Liberal Christians being much more active in issues of social justice and serving those that Jesus served. I can't condemn either on their strengths. Either could easily be condemned on their weaknesses. And yet imagine a world where we could have "one holy universal church" in which we balanced these tensions...
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