The Tension of our Milieu - Living the Kingdom Life Style in the Not-Yet Kingdom.
This was the first line of a rant of musings I scribbled down one day last year, I believe. I’ve edited it to correspond with my thoughts of today, the values I am wrestling with. Here goes, thoughts welcome.
Our environment that we live in, our milieu is one of privilege and access. It is one of choice. We have the choice to engage or not to engage.
"We have it so good, I've often said, which is true, but I always meant it in the material/physical sense. This is true. Or so I thought? What is the so good implying - wealth, security, or Gospel? That is for you to answer. Could those with little wealth and fleeting security have it better? Maybe they have the secret to the deepest joy. A joy that has been muted by success, technology, and “things” in our nation.
I will be the first to admit. I struggle. So much of me wants wants wants...comfort, security and nice things. Although, a year later I will say my wanting has subsided some, and I thank God for this. I want a beautiful house with timeless antiques, I want healthy children, I want financial security, I want good health care, I want good food, I want a different body...whatever, I want. I want comfort. Father Ben Beltran of Manila said it best, Jesus came to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted."
But why?
Isn't it ironic that when we spend our lives of behalf of the poor and marginalized...THEN we will be like a well-watered garden, then we will know God, then we will prosper. (Isa. 58, Jer. 22, and 29)
What about leftovers. I'm so prone to give my leftovers, keeping for me what is good and the crème of the crop if you will. For fear that if I give the good stuff...I'll be unsatisfied. Is that truth? Isn't it better to give than to receive?
It isn't wrong to want beautiful things. My fear is that my pursuit of beautiful things will supersede my pursuit of living the kingdom life.
The crème of the crop will come, the good stuff with come...the nice things will come - when we give of ourselves when we satisfy the needs of the hungry. And who knows in that process my idea of what is good, beautiful, and comfortable or 'nice' just might be transformed. I will stop lest I sound like a prosperity gospel.
I've been told what is beautiful and prosperous...infiltrated by the media of what is good and satisfying; inundated with images of beauty and success. What is beauty? That is the question. Is it a life that is like a well-watered garden? What is success? “Success is being faithful,” said J. Fanous.
I'm wrestling. I'm okay with no answers. This is the tension we are always going to be living in. The tension of the now but not yet kingdom. (For more on this check out Kingdom Come by Allen Wakabayashi)
We're exiles. God has brought us here. He says build and live, plant and eat, marry and reproduce. There is a command...but there is also the insinuation of provision. Like God is saying build and enjoy, plant and enjoy, marry and enjoy. And he adds, seek the shalom of the city!
We must remember to ENJOY. Isn’t it about enjoying God and enjoying others? The others are people God places before us. Enjoy them. I think I could do better at building, planting, and seeking shalom in this new place called Durham, North Carolina.
~sifting.
2 comments:
Beautifully written. Adam and I struggle with many of those same things (but you said it so much better!).
thanks Em. I read the ending again... where I say "we must enjoy", I think it should read, we must be obedient, we must be faithful, we must seek first his kingdom, then the enjoyment will come, the joy will come. But then you think, what about those who have been faithful, but continue to suffer. Do they know joy? Some, I think do, but other I wonder. I wonder if those in less developed countries get it more than ANY of us in more developed countries...both the suffering and those less in a place of suffering. Who knows...
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