Belonging in Autonomy

Have you ever had an Out-Of-Body-Experience? Now wait, don't quit reading just yet. Hear me out on this one. I'm not talking about new age transcendentalism or some whack-job idea from the latest sci-fi novel.

Have you ever taken a step back, and really listened to the actual words that are coming out of your mouth and evaluated them as if they were coming out of someone Else's mouth?

There have been too many times I've gone back and read one of my old college research papers or an old journal entry and said to myself, "what was I thinking?". I can remember feeling embarrassed by what I wrote and thinking I must have been clueless at the time. I know I must have been trying to make some kind of point; but reading it now, it escapes me. I wonder what we'll think when we look back on ourselves 5 or 10 years from now. Why wait?

Let's look at it from another perspective: The Church. Some of us try to belong while being autonomous at the same time. We contradict ourselves and its really embarrassing when we stand back and gaze into our own lives from the third party perspective. But it has got to be one of the healthiest things we can do.

Pastor Rick McKinley of Imago Dei Church, who I quoted in last week's blog, says: "We often see this in the church. If we don't like what the pastor says we fire him. If we don't like the music, we complain. If the leadership tries to corral us into a small group, we buck even harder. Finally if our needs aren't being catered to we leave... and think, 'that'll teach em'."

Jesus want us to see ourselves as participants not spectators. John 17: 21 "Father, just as You are in me and I am in You, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me." Unity is in Him.

The lie of 'Autonomy' tells us that it's someone Else's problem, so we sit back and watch from the bleachers. (that's pew to you and me). These past few weeks, I have seen so many of our church members do things from helping new families move into a home to painting a few walls around the church to making visits to members they haven't seen in a while. They're doing it without anyone asking or suggesting anything. They are showing that they belong to each other because they belong to Christ

In the community of the Church we belong to each other, because we belong to Christ. Community can get real messy, but messy is good. McKinley calls it "...the messy blessing of community..."

I wish I could take back all the dumb things I have ever said, and change them to what I believe is the right thing to say now, but what good would that do? I'd just want to change them again next year. I'm laughing at myself right now.

I suppose the Church is not only for people who have got it all together like many of you, it's a place for dummies like me who contradict themselves, make mistakes, say the wrong thing from time to time, and belong to each other because they belong to Christ. That's the messy blessing of community.

-John