Walking into the Unknown

Sorry about my inattention to the blog. Summer travel plans distracted me (in a good way) from posting new entries. Currently, my mom is visiting with us and we are enjoying the time together.

Someone once told me that we are constantly changing. Our habits may become status quo, but our physical bodies, along with out mental capacities and emotions are continually in a state of flux.

Nowhere is this continual change more evident in my life than in my religious convictions. Sometimes my thoughts scare me, especially when I move in different directions theologically. I am realizing what beliefs I believe that the Bible teaches, and what beliefs are simply the creations of usually well-intentioned people.

The reason my transformation scares me is that change is a most unwelcome guest in most churches. People fear change and will go to great lengths to preserve things "just the way they are."

I don't believe that our job is to "preserve things just the way they are." I don't believe our job is to "take Jesus" into our neighborhoods and communities. Rather, I believe our job is to reveal that Jesus is already present. Isn't that what we mean when we speak of God's omnipresence? We teach that God is everywhere (usually to frighten our children from doing something bad ... God is watching you!). So if God is already everywhere, then our job is not to take him anywhere, but to reveal his presence to those who cannot see Him. This idea seems more in line with what the Bible says about some people "being blinded" to the presence of God.

Yet, my transformation is also placing me in conflict with practices and methods of many churches with whom I am familiar. Where this will lead me (I believe) is closer to the heart of Jesus. What I am finding however, is that this journey is painful ... but full of joy. Does that make any sense?

I am not ready to reveal the specifics of my changing beliefs, since this is still new to me, but I find myself excited once more at the road God has placed before me. Like Abraham, I feel like a "stranger in a strange land," who is simply walking toward God, not knowing what people and places I will find along the way.

Walking toward God with the light of the Bible and His Spirit directing my steps.

Walking by faith, and yet, I am afraid.