Friday, September 07, 2012

A Ride Like No Other

We Christians pray, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

But it's doubtful that any of us (especially, I think, I) have any notion of what we're asking for.

I am convinced though, that when God's kingdom comes to us in our every day lives and when it comes to us finally, fully, definitively, on the day of judgment when Jesus returns to this world, it won't look much like the visions of the kingdom spouted either by the Christian Right or by Liberal Protestantism.

Any time we try stuffing the God we know in Jesus Christ into our little ideological boxes or preferred paradigms the way these folks do, we end up engaging in idolatry, worshiping a false Jesus or ourselves.

God defines His kingdom. Our job as Christians isn't to define the Kingdom of God for God or others, but to be so totally surrendered to Jesus Christ, that the kingdom flows to us and from us to the rest of the world in all its richness and wonder.

People who think they can control God are delusional. You can't control a hurricane, even less God. The best we can do is surrender daily to Christ, let God's Spirit take control of us and then, go along for the ride.

That's how the wild, mighty, uncontrollable God of the universe does His will and brings His kingdom to us and through us, to others. His kingdom comes only to those who let go and let Christ be in charge.

It boils down to this: Do you want to drive, knowing that ends in death and separation from God? Or do you want to be God's passenger, knowing that it ends in the full, rich, scary, fulfilling, everlasting life for which you were made?

Who wants to go along for the ride?

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