Over the past several years I have used the term “Missional” to capture what it is that I think that we should be doing. We all should be “missional” in our lives.
The word “missional” was created to be more meaningful in a modern sense to the worn out terms of “mission” or “missionary.” These terms were used to describe any number of different activities, some of them not so positive, and so people produced the word “missional” to captured a more specific and limited type of behavior. To be “missional” one was to behave in a way that was representational of the way a Christian was supposed to live. To be “missional” was to glorify God in all that one did. Then, to take a Roman meaning of “glorify” where a statue of the current Caesar was put on a cart and drawn around a area where the statue revealed the image of the person who was then Caesar. That is, the image looked like the reigning Caesar and this then brought the populace into closer contact with the Caesar because individuals now knew what Caesar looked like.
In similar fashion we are to glorify God by acting in a way that will reveal the image of our God. We take as an example of this a person, Jesus of Nazareth who was thought to glorify God better than any other person who has lived. That is, Jesus is said to have revealed the image of God to others so that individuals would have a real, concrete image of how one should live ones’ life as God would have him live his life.
But, in what way did Jesus reveal the image of God?
Well, we are told that “God is love.”
But, what does this mean? Do we have any more information about how one should live ones’ life? I mean, if God is love and we are to reveal the image of God…then we must be “love” as well. How do we become “love”…how do we reveal this image?
Perhaps our next clue comes from what we are told we are commanded to do…the “Great Commandments.” These are to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all are mind and the second is like it…it is to love our neighbor as ourselves. So the whole thing about revealing the image of God is about love…about loving God…about loving others…and in the broader sense other people and creation…and about loving ourselves. In this was we reveal what is meant by “God is love.”
How do we “love God”?
First of all we must know God…know about God. That is, we must put ourselves out and learn…gather information about God…review existing knowledge about God…and keep open and search in every way we can for more information about God.
Why do we have to put out this effort?
We have to make this effort because we cannot really love…we cannot really love God…unless we know as much as we can about the one to be loved. We have to know as much as we can because how can love the one to be loved if we don’t know who the loved one is, what the loved one does, what is best for the loved one…where the loved one is.
If we are to love the loved one we need to know where the loved one is and what will make the loved one happy and what will be the optimal things to do in relationship to the loved one. That is, to love God, we need to know where God is and what we can do to be in unity with God.
But, to be able to love God we also must be able to love ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, how can we love anyone, anything, or whatever. We must have, at a minimum, a certain care or concern for ourselves. Again, in order for us to love ourselves we must learn about ourselves…know ourselves sufficiently so that we can act in our best interests. This does not mean to act selfishly, or greedily, or in a controlling way to get our own way. It means that we must really find out about who we are, what we need to do to really act in our best interest, and to then act in a way that will bring us into greater unity with who we really are. So, knowledge and a long term view is very necessary to love…both self and God.
The same is also true of loving our neighbor as our self. We must again gain as much information as we can about other individuals and about creation. We must make an effort to learn a sufficient amount about others and creation so that we can move to attain greater unity with others and with creation. Study, learning, knowledge…all sorts of efforts like these must go into loving the other…not trying to get our way…but to learn where they are and what is in their best interests. This is how we love our neighbor as our self.
So, this is what it means to love…to study…and to act. To learn about the one to be loved…the part of creation to be loved…and then to act in the best interest of the one that is loved.
This is what God does…we are told. This is what Jesus has revealed to us…in his life and actions. This is what we are supposed to do…this is what it means to be “missional.” We are to live a life that shows to others the example of how we think people should live…how we believe God loves.
We are told that God “created” the world…and that he saw that it was “good.” That is, God saw the world and he loved the world.
When we study physics…when we try and learn the way nature works…so that we can work with nature in a way that raises our standard of living and helps people…and then we work to build this knowledge and act in a way that is beneficial to all. This is seeing God’s creation…it is loving God’s creation…and it is revealing the image of God to others…so that others will emulate this behavior.
The same thing is true of loving another person…let’s take a potential spouse…as the extreme. We date…we do things together…we talk with each other…we learn to become friends…we learn whether or not we can tolerate each other over a long period of time…we learn whether or not we can act in the other’s best interest putting aside our own interests when it is important to the relationship…we learn about each other so that we can be where they are not where we are…and this is love…and this can lead to a great marriage.
This is the foundation of “missional” behavior. If we are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves…then let us act in that way…let us be “missional” to one another. It doesn’t mean that we go overseas…or that we go into the cities…or that we make a special effort to reach out. Yes, being “missional” may include all of these…but being “missional” starts with the next person you talk with…the next person you see…the next thing you do. Being “missional” is action…right where you are…right with what you are doing at this very moment.
Being “missional” is revealing the image of what you believe to be the most important way to live.
Showing posts with label glorify God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glorify God. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
On Not Being Will-Full
The last post (January 12, 2009) argued against any person, group, or organization imposing doctrine, creed, or “truth” upon others. That is, one should be suspicious or stand-offish against anyone that demands 100% allegiance to the rules or laws concerning what they believe.
This position, however, opens up on the other side, the issue which is that individuals have complete freedom to choose whatever they want to, at any time they please. I call a person who takes such a position, a will-full person…a person who imposes their will upon a situation.
I find myself uncomfortable with this extreme position as well. I guess I am just wishy-washy.
There are two aspects to this issue that I believe to be very important. First, people, groups, and organizations do possess beliefs, worldviews, and other content that are helpful to one leading a better, fuller, or, more whole and alive life. These people, groups, and organizations can provide us with models and schema that allow us to make better decisions or solve more difficult problems.
To me, there is no question that this is the case. And, these people, groups, and organizations continue to provide guidance to individuals over time because, in a very pragmatic sense, a large part of what they have to offer succeeds…it truly helps others. The reason that they have “staying power” and are still around is that they do provide people with good models upon which these people make decisions or solve problems.
Where these people, groups, and organizations can go wrong, I believe, is when they either come to believe so strongly that they are “right” in their beliefs that they feel everyone should believe the same way they do, or, when they take a successful way of looking at something and use this success to build power and control for themselves. Of course, you can have situations where both occur and build upon one another over time.
The extreme of the first of these can be seen in the 16th century practice of burning people at the stake for their own good because they did not adhere to a particular form of belief. That is, these people were “going to hell” anyway, they could not be redeemed, and so they might as well get on with it…with the help of good Christians who knew of their depravity.
The extreme side of the second of these is the person who uses his or her charisma to gather followers to themselves, followers who seek certainty in one way or another. These people use their power over these people to enhance their own position and gain more and more control over others even to the point of committing mass suicide as the wish of the leader.
Variations can be found of both of these paths in highly organized clerical situations, political movements, or grass-roots assemblies. The foundation for such happenings is that there is fundamentally something positive that is offered people…whether it is hope, or certainty, or healing, or whatever. It is what happens in the evolution of the idea or ideas that corrupts the effort and turns it into something negative rather than positive.
My objection is that when the ideas, rules, laws, models, or schema start to be imposed upon individuals so that they cannot question or debate or investigate or be open to new information trouble begins. People must be free to ask questions. They must be free and open to new information. They must be at liberty to follow where their own minds lead them.
The problem with this, of course, is that people only have incomplete information about any subject. Thus, whatever questions they have or problems they face, they must go into them knowing that the answers they produce or the solutions they come up with are only uncertain and fallible. People must live with this deficiency…and this is a hard thing to do…for individuals, deep down, crave certainty. Individuals must learn to be strong and accept the fact that this is the reality of life. And some…because of life situations, of experiences, of personal weaknesses…cannot live with such uncertainty. They constantly search out those that offer a kind of shelter from the storm.
This leads into the second major aspect of the situation. There are people, groups, and organizations that do have successful worldviews, models, schema, and so forth and do not impose their ideas and beliefs on other people. These people, groups, and organizations accept the incompleteness and fallibility of their ideas and beliefs yet realize the positive aspects of their worldview, models or schema and want to share this fact with others.
I believe this to be true of those who truly follow Jesus…as argued in my post of January 12, 2009. I also believe that it is the responsibility of those that follow Jesus to share what Jesus has to offer with others. This is called “Missional” behavior and it is what we are supposed to engage in if we support the teachings of Jesus.
To go through the whole argument quickly: we argue that God is Love. Our objective is to love as God loves. First, we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Second, we are to love God’s creation…ourselves, other people, and the rest of creation.
To love God and to love our neighbor…creation…we need to have some idea of what it means to love like God. This is where Jesus comes in. We who follow Jesus believe that he was an example of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation. In this, Jesus glorified God which translates into the statement that Jesus revealed the image of God in all that he did. Thus, Jesus is our model of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation.
This is what it means to be “Missional”. We are to do as Jesus did and that is reveal the image of God to others. That is…we are to “go and do likewise.”
Notice…in no way are we to force our ideas on others…in no way are we to impose on others…in no way are we to try and control the beliefs and actions of other individuals. We are to reveal what kind of life is led by those that follow the teachings of Jesus. No doctrine…no creed…no toeing the line to a specific way of thought.
The idea is, of course, that leading a life in this way will result in us being in greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. It will lead to greater wholeness and more aliveness. It will lead to a life that others will want to imitate.
Thus, there is no forcing…no imposing…no intimidation…no will-full-ness. We believe in a way of life that is our choice. We live that life and are able to reflect on and explain to others why we live the way we do and why, we believe, we get the results we do.
This, to me, is the way we live our lives. We believe in something. Our choices are not arbitrary. And, it is the way we help other individuals.
This position, however, opens up on the other side, the issue which is that individuals have complete freedom to choose whatever they want to, at any time they please. I call a person who takes such a position, a will-full person…a person who imposes their will upon a situation.
I find myself uncomfortable with this extreme position as well. I guess I am just wishy-washy.
There are two aspects to this issue that I believe to be very important. First, people, groups, and organizations do possess beliefs, worldviews, and other content that are helpful to one leading a better, fuller, or, more whole and alive life. These people, groups, and organizations can provide us with models and schema that allow us to make better decisions or solve more difficult problems.
To me, there is no question that this is the case. And, these people, groups, and organizations continue to provide guidance to individuals over time because, in a very pragmatic sense, a large part of what they have to offer succeeds…it truly helps others. The reason that they have “staying power” and are still around is that they do provide people with good models upon which these people make decisions or solve problems.
Where these people, groups, and organizations can go wrong, I believe, is when they either come to believe so strongly that they are “right” in their beliefs that they feel everyone should believe the same way they do, or, when they take a successful way of looking at something and use this success to build power and control for themselves. Of course, you can have situations where both occur and build upon one another over time.
The extreme of the first of these can be seen in the 16th century practice of burning people at the stake for their own good because they did not adhere to a particular form of belief. That is, these people were “going to hell” anyway, they could not be redeemed, and so they might as well get on with it…with the help of good Christians who knew of their depravity.
The extreme side of the second of these is the person who uses his or her charisma to gather followers to themselves, followers who seek certainty in one way or another. These people use their power over these people to enhance their own position and gain more and more control over others even to the point of committing mass suicide as the wish of the leader.
Variations can be found of both of these paths in highly organized clerical situations, political movements, or grass-roots assemblies. The foundation for such happenings is that there is fundamentally something positive that is offered people…whether it is hope, or certainty, or healing, or whatever. It is what happens in the evolution of the idea or ideas that corrupts the effort and turns it into something negative rather than positive.
My objection is that when the ideas, rules, laws, models, or schema start to be imposed upon individuals so that they cannot question or debate or investigate or be open to new information trouble begins. People must be free to ask questions. They must be free and open to new information. They must be at liberty to follow where their own minds lead them.
The problem with this, of course, is that people only have incomplete information about any subject. Thus, whatever questions they have or problems they face, they must go into them knowing that the answers they produce or the solutions they come up with are only uncertain and fallible. People must live with this deficiency…and this is a hard thing to do…for individuals, deep down, crave certainty. Individuals must learn to be strong and accept the fact that this is the reality of life. And some…because of life situations, of experiences, of personal weaknesses…cannot live with such uncertainty. They constantly search out those that offer a kind of shelter from the storm.
This leads into the second major aspect of the situation. There are people, groups, and organizations that do have successful worldviews, models, schema, and so forth and do not impose their ideas and beliefs on other people. These people, groups, and organizations accept the incompleteness and fallibility of their ideas and beliefs yet realize the positive aspects of their worldview, models or schema and want to share this fact with others.
I believe this to be true of those who truly follow Jesus…as argued in my post of January 12, 2009. I also believe that it is the responsibility of those that follow Jesus to share what Jesus has to offer with others. This is called “Missional” behavior and it is what we are supposed to engage in if we support the teachings of Jesus.
To go through the whole argument quickly: we argue that God is Love. Our objective is to love as God loves. First, we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Second, we are to love God’s creation…ourselves, other people, and the rest of creation.
To love God and to love our neighbor…creation…we need to have some idea of what it means to love like God. This is where Jesus comes in. We who follow Jesus believe that he was an example of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation. In this, Jesus glorified God which translates into the statement that Jesus revealed the image of God in all that he did. Thus, Jesus is our model of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation.
This is what it means to be “Missional”. We are to do as Jesus did and that is reveal the image of God to others. That is…we are to “go and do likewise.”
Notice…in no way are we to force our ideas on others…in no way are we to impose on others…in no way are we to try and control the beliefs and actions of other individuals. We are to reveal what kind of life is led by those that follow the teachings of Jesus. No doctrine…no creed…no toeing the line to a specific way of thought.
The idea is, of course, that leading a life in this way will result in us being in greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. It will lead to greater wholeness and more aliveness. It will lead to a life that others will want to imitate.
Thus, there is no forcing…no imposing…no intimidation…no will-full-ness. We believe in a way of life that is our choice. We live that life and are able to reflect on and explain to others why we live the way we do and why, we believe, we get the results we do.
This, to me, is the way we live our lives. We believe in something. Our choices are not arbitrary. And, it is the way we help other individuals.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Aliveness
“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, “I come alive when I listen to music,” or “I come to life when I garden,” or “I come alive when I play golf.” Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual. To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives, is the task that is never accomplished but it remains a goal.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and then do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
Howard Thurman
What is it that makes us come alive?
I believe that we really come alive when we are whole, when we are in unity with God…within ourselves…with others…and with creation. I believe that we can come alive listening to music, gardening, playing golf, helping other people, doing our daily chores, performing in our profession and so on and so on because we can find ourselves as more complete beings…more whole…working with and within God’s creation rather than against or in conflict with it.
I believe that in the times we are “alive” in this way, we are revealing to others an image…an image of God. In times like these we reflect a love that is God-like and that is why we feel “in unity”…why we experience the feeling of wholeness and peace.
One cannot control the world and in trying to do so we experience separation, alienation, and anxiety. All that one can hope to control is one’s self and a person must exert his or her efforts to bring themselves into a greater unity with all that there is. But, this requires love. And, if we are to love, we need to bring this love into everything one does…and, in acting “in love” we need to reveal this image of love in all we say and all we do.
We have been told that there are two commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that we must take an enlarged definition of neighbor and expand the definition to include all of God’s creation, not just another person. That is, we are to love what God has created and that includes all that is within this creation. This is our neighbor.
Thus, to love our neighbor consists of coming into unity with others…and with creation. One should note, however, that loving our neighbor and coming into unity with our neighbor may not mean that we get along with them or are not at odds with them for some reason. Being in unity means that we are acting within the situation that we may agree to disagree. Since we do not control the other, we may not be able to bring them into unity with us. This raises a question, therefore, about what do we mean by love?
My definition of love is this: to love someone or something is to try to be where they are, see things as they see them and then respond to them with as full an understanding of this knowledge as possible. To love someone or something is not to respond to them as we would like them to be or as we see the world. We must learn as much as we can about those we are to love so that we can respond appropriately to where they are. Sometimes this means that we sacrifice for them. Sometimes this means that we work together. Sometimes this means that a “tough love” must exist between parties. But, to love someone or something means that we must work hard to try and understand them and their needs within a specific situation. I believe that God does this for us.
Another important point in this understanding of love is that to love our neighbor as ourselves…we must love ourselves. We must learn about ourselves and work to bring ourselves into a higher degree of unity, internally. We cannot really love someone else until we are confident in our love of ourselves. And, this does not mean that we are to be ego-maniacs!
And, of course, to be as “alive” as possible we must love God…be in unity with God. But, how do we do all this? We, of course, need examples. We are told that “God is love” and that we are to glorify God…that is “reveal the image of God.” We do have an example of a person who reflected God’s love and glorified God by revealing to us the image of God. This person is Jesus. By looking to the example of Jesus we can see how a person can love as God loves us.
Jesus is our example of what it means to love our neighbor, to love others, to love God’s creation, and to love God. Jesus shows us how to love as God loves.
This is our charge. This is why we can “feel alive” in doing something. We can “feel alive” in doing something because we can be more whole, more in unity with God, when we do those things…even playing golf.
Having played golf I can admit that this activity can be looked upon as rather trivial. Yet, it should remind us that even in doing very trivial things we should take them on as an opportunity to reveal the image of God. Others see us, see how we act and behave…and break golf clubs…see how we speak…and swear. They respond to the image we create. Realizing this we must decide whether or not we want the image we reveal to be helpful and productive to others…or are we satisfied as having little or no influence on them…or even a negative influence on them.
The image we reveal to others is important for that image not only reveals to others whether or not we “are alive” but how they might be “more alive” as well. In everything we do…whether it be playing golf, listening to music, or gardening…we should be exhibiting love…and in exhibiting love we “reveal the image of God.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and then do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
Howard Thurman
What is it that makes us come alive?
I believe that we really come alive when we are whole, when we are in unity with God…within ourselves…with others…and with creation. I believe that we can come alive listening to music, gardening, playing golf, helping other people, doing our daily chores, performing in our profession and so on and so on because we can find ourselves as more complete beings…more whole…working with and within God’s creation rather than against or in conflict with it.
I believe that in the times we are “alive” in this way, we are revealing to others an image…an image of God. In times like these we reflect a love that is God-like and that is why we feel “in unity”…why we experience the feeling of wholeness and peace.
One cannot control the world and in trying to do so we experience separation, alienation, and anxiety. All that one can hope to control is one’s self and a person must exert his or her efforts to bring themselves into a greater unity with all that there is. But, this requires love. And, if we are to love, we need to bring this love into everything one does…and, in acting “in love” we need to reveal this image of love in all we say and all we do.
We have been told that there are two commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that we must take an enlarged definition of neighbor and expand the definition to include all of God’s creation, not just another person. That is, we are to love what God has created and that includes all that is within this creation. This is our neighbor.
Thus, to love our neighbor consists of coming into unity with others…and with creation. One should note, however, that loving our neighbor and coming into unity with our neighbor may not mean that we get along with them or are not at odds with them for some reason. Being in unity means that we are acting within the situation that we may agree to disagree. Since we do not control the other, we may not be able to bring them into unity with us. This raises a question, therefore, about what do we mean by love?
My definition of love is this: to love someone or something is to try to be where they are, see things as they see them and then respond to them with as full an understanding of this knowledge as possible. To love someone or something is not to respond to them as we would like them to be or as we see the world. We must learn as much as we can about those we are to love so that we can respond appropriately to where they are. Sometimes this means that we sacrifice for them. Sometimes this means that we work together. Sometimes this means that a “tough love” must exist between parties. But, to love someone or something means that we must work hard to try and understand them and their needs within a specific situation. I believe that God does this for us.
Another important point in this understanding of love is that to love our neighbor as ourselves…we must love ourselves. We must learn about ourselves and work to bring ourselves into a higher degree of unity, internally. We cannot really love someone else until we are confident in our love of ourselves. And, this does not mean that we are to be ego-maniacs!
And, of course, to be as “alive” as possible we must love God…be in unity with God. But, how do we do all this? We, of course, need examples. We are told that “God is love” and that we are to glorify God…that is “reveal the image of God.” We do have an example of a person who reflected God’s love and glorified God by revealing to us the image of God. This person is Jesus. By looking to the example of Jesus we can see how a person can love as God loves us.
Jesus is our example of what it means to love our neighbor, to love others, to love God’s creation, and to love God. Jesus shows us how to love as God loves.
This is our charge. This is why we can “feel alive” in doing something. We can “feel alive” in doing something because we can be more whole, more in unity with God, when we do those things…even playing golf.
Having played golf I can admit that this activity can be looked upon as rather trivial. Yet, it should remind us that even in doing very trivial things we should take them on as an opportunity to reveal the image of God. Others see us, see how we act and behave…and break golf clubs…see how we speak…and swear. They respond to the image we create. Realizing this we must decide whether or not we want the image we reveal to be helpful and productive to others…or are we satisfied as having little or no influence on them…or even a negative influence on them.
The image we reveal to others is important for that image not only reveals to others whether or not we “are alive” but how they might be “more alive” as well. In everything we do…whether it be playing golf, listening to music, or gardening…we should be exhibiting love…and in exhibiting love we “reveal the image of God.”
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