Question for you...

What are the things that matter? What are the things that we should never take our eyes off of in life together as Christ followers? And don't just throw out the buzz words like authenticity or relevance... what do those things mean to you? Stories are always welcome.

3 comments:

  Kristen Joy

August 14, 2008 at 12:23 PM

This is a post made by Jud Wilhite on the Deadly Viper blog yesterday!

"Here’s my big learning–if you wait for the perfect conditions for anything in your life, you’ll never get started. Procrastination gets fueled by perfectionism. We say, “When things settle down, I’ll do it.” Or, “I’ll start the diet tomorrow.” Or, “When the economy gets better.” But we just keep delaying."

This really has been surrounding us lately. God's speaking, are we listening?

  Justin Bowers

August 14, 2008 at 12:31 PM

Yeah... I think there is starting and sustaining that kind of have to balance each other. Starting is sometimes the most difficult part. Sustaining can be tougher though. But the worst is not even trying, like I said before.

  Bruce

August 16, 2008 at 8:32 PM

So what are the things that really matter? In my mind it comes down to real relationships. Real relationships have trust and trust comes from the honest knowledge of who a person really is. Seems basic right? Wrong! Are we really honest with each other as Christians? Honest in a way that is not offensive or cynical? Usually not. How do I know? Because I speak from experience (of not being so honest with myself and others a lot of the time). I believe Christ was the perfect example of how the church was supposed to work through his relationships with people one on one. Why was this a great example? Because no one could lie to him. He already knew the truth. If we as Christ’s followers could relate to each other in even a small fraction of the same way he did with his followers, then I think we would be a lot better off. Imagine if you had no choice but to be completely honest with each other? What would it be like to have the ability to see someone with that kind of transparency? So to me, the strongest most meaningful relationships are ones that have a deep trust. If we could start with a new sense of honesty with one another, we would be that much further ahead. We as Christ followers are in desperate need of a filter. A filter of honesty that gets us past the masquerade that is all too prevalent in the church today. We have been given this inner desire to want to feel important and recognized for who we really are. And while this is part of our human nature, it gets in the way and we become false and materialistic. In an attempt to want to fulfill this desire, we loose perspective on what really matters and we can no longer be honest; even with ourselves. Mind you, I am not much interested in a church of people that do nothing but spew their dirty laundry all over the place and depress me with how terrible their lives are in an attempt to gain more false attention. I am interested in a group of followers that will be honest with themselves about themselves. A group that is not worried about impressing others and serving their own self interests. A group of people that can encourage and confront each other in a very loving and honest way. Isn’t that what people really want anyway? For someone to love them for who they really are? It seems to me that at different stages of life, God has a way of humbling us in a big way through different events. It has been my experience that through these events, we have to face this honesty issue right in the face. We have to see ourselves for who we really are. So one must ask, “Why does it take these events for us to be so honest with ourselves?”