…life can be like a never-ending trip on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Believing the lie that no one is in charge (so we must be), we fight for control, angry when unfamiliar hands grab the wheel. Careening around the corner, we veer toward a wall, frightened by the red-painted DANGER AHEAD, even though we know…deep inside we know there’s nothing scarier on the other side than a churro stand and sleepy toddlers waiting their turn. For reasons we can’t explain, we anxiously fight for our place in a car going no where and accomplishing nothing. And we glare suspiciously at each other.
Are you listening to the current political rhetoric? It seems the most important question of our age is
- which gender,
- which race or ethnicity,
- which economic level,
- which political worldview is the true and valid one.
Whose voice ought to be heard? Who should be allowed to take a turn at the wheel? Who has earned the right to be in the car at all? The flashing warnings and hair-pin turns shove us into one another. And we shove back.
Even the church joins in. An entire wing appoints itself to weed out those who don’t fall into its narrow brand of belief and practice. As if the purpose of Christian life is to defend, like squabbling siblings, doctrinal back seat territory.
But the life and teachings of Jesus confront us with questions, and demand that we each give an answer:
What does a true human being look like? Which gender, of what color, earning what income, holding what political opinions are created in the image of God? Which ones matter to him? Upon which of them does he pour out his Spirit?
Have you asked yourself those questions? Do you ever long, like I do, to get off the wild ride? I would love to hear your thoughts.
7 replies on “When People are in Charge…”
Janet, ya got a gift, girl. Nicely done.
Thanks, and good morning!
Ouch! You should write editorials, my friend. Your words have a piercing truth that will definitely shake some people up – in a good way – unless they choose to put their fingers in their ears.
Linda,
I get shaken up the most! Here’s to taking the fingers out of our ears!
OK, so what do you do when someone on the Vision Team of your church, which is supposed to be encouraging people to follow Christ more closely, turns out to be a pluralist who wants to change Christianity so that other faiths are seen as equally legitimate ways to God? And whose view of Jesus is that he was a good example, a Christ (but not the Christ)? And whose idea of reaching out to other faiths is to create a sort of generic Theism?
Marilyn, fodder for another post! I guess I would say that the impulse to objectify and vilify those who don’t look/think/act like us, i.e. a church deciding that other (orthodox) churches who don’t line up with their thinking are inferior, can also be seen in one person deciding that the rest of Christianity is wrong and ought to change to fit their unbiblical views. How do we speak the truth in love, without reducing the other to a caricature? How do we stand our ground firmly but with humility? Where does prayer come into it? Maybe your example and my example are two extremes and the church veers wildly between them. Is there another way?
Sorry–just struggling with this.