Jason Clark has been commenting on the stories we live by and i've been whittering on about my own job narrative which says i need "senior" in my job title. Anywho, i came across this great post on inward/outward, which made me think again about just how myopic i can be at times...
What's your vision
"Each of us lives by some vision - perhaps a depressing vision, or a very limited vision, or a vision that everything is going to pieces. But each of us lives by a vision, conscious or unconscious. Should it be a dark vision moving toward disintegration and chaos, we will be fearful. If it is a larger vision, a universal vision, a vision of the kingdom, and we really believe that it is going to take place, we will be filled with hope.
The biblical vision, the vision of the Shalom, is the vision of the totality. God is the God of a people called to be a blessing to all the nations, all tribes, all combinations of people. No one is going to be excluded. All are moving toward this Shalom. Everybody shares and participates, is a part of it - no one is left out. This vision is one of universal justice and peace….
In reality, we are not separate individuals, as we often feel ourselves to be. We are meshed, we are intertwined, we flow into and out of one another and all others. There is no way to fix the boundaries. The Christ who flows into us is simultaneously flowing into the billions of the world’s people. Where do we end and they begin? Millions of cells in the human body make up the body’s totality. All are working harmoniously on behalf of the whole, unless some of the cells become sick or cancerous. Each of us is part of God’s total people, and we cannot separate ourselves from the totality.
Until awareness of this universal belonging dawns upon us we are a hindrance to the human family. It is a great day when the boundaries drop. We are part of others, and they are a part of us. We are constantly flowing into them. We cannot protect ourselves from their sickness and pain and brokenness. Nor can others protect themselves from ours. All become united. The common life of humanity is not an ideal, not something that would be just wonderful if we could but realize it. The universal quality of life happens to be a reality, and we utterly defeat ourselves when we violate that premise. We can live in the illusion of separateness, but it is an illusion.
The overall vision of God and the kingdom gives assurance that all of humanity is going to be freed from its present bondage and is going to be reconciled with the source of its life - God - and with one another. And each individual or cell in the body will know total, inner reconciliation and total fulfillment of all of its potential…. A basic question, of course, is how often or how deeply do we see this vision as really happening so that we live by it? We say the prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ but when we pray do we see it as happening? Or as we say, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ do we feel that everything is going to pieces? Do we ever feel our prayer moving all of humanity toward the Shalom?
The vision is so fantastic that believing it requires supernatural faith. The nature of our sin is so profound and our alienation is so deep that the vision is seldom taken seriously. I can believe the vision when I am in the midst of my community. But all one has to do to shake that belief is to walk down the streets of Adams Morgan, down Columbia Road, as I did this morning. I saw at least 10 people - addicted, homeless, hopeless - just as those who work in the neighborhood see them or others like them every hour of the day.
In the midst of all the negative situations and data, there is no easy way to hold that universal vision - the vision that God, using us, is going to usher in the Shalom - that the kingdom is really coming - that one day justice and peace will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Hope is the deep conviction that the vision will come to fruition; the confidence that it will really happen. Let us suppose that we have this conviction, and we want to use the few remaining years of our lives to move the vision forward. What is the power, what kind of leadership, will move it toward its destiny?"
Gordon Cosby is co-founder of The Church of the Saviour (1947), and is a member of the Friends of Jesus Church and two spiritual support groups
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