Against the Grain
I call this ‘Against the Grain’ because of how often I find myself having to carve my own path. As an 8w7 that’s par for the course but, ironically, I actually hate division and conflict, especially in the church. I strongly believe love must be what motivates all Christian word and deed, love is the gas in the tank of the church. This is because love is the heart of God. To speak or act without love is to abandon the heart of God and that car won’t go anywhere. So at the end of the day that’s what I fight for, chase after, preach and teach.
But in a broken world we have sinful hearts, sinful systems, and sinful neighbors. We are fish and sin is the water, we’re soaking’ in it. As Christians we’re made privy to this reality and given the power to live differently, to BE different as Kingdom Citizens. We are given the task to evangelize the world as Christ’s ambassadors, to live peacefully as foreigners and exiles in this world. We are the hands and feet of Christ to a lost world.
Easier said than done. As John Calvin said: ‘the human heart is an idol factory’. We just keep pumping out new things to replace God. Obedience to the Greatest Commandment requires actual EFFORT but in affluent cultures (like ours) spiritual effort runs against the grain.
This blog is about putting in the effort. It’s about what’s gone right with Christian faith, our ideals as Christians, and the beauty of what we can be in this world. It’s also about what’s gone wrong, were we failed in our calling and mission, were we’ve allowed fallen thinking drive Christian action. What have we been putting in the gas tank of our faith other than love?
There’s a Latin phrase that inspires me: semper reformanda. It means ‘always reforming’. It was the calling card during the Protestant Reformation when the Catholic Church was extremely toxic. Things needed to seriously change in order to save the church so some very brave people went against the grain and made change happen. They also had the wisdom to realize there’s no such thing as a silver bullet, the need for reformation would come again. It would take constant reformation to keep the church on target. Semper reformanda!
Sometimes it’s good to go against the grain.
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”
Martin Luther
Against the Grain 