I recently had the privilege to hear the author of The Shack speak. One of the things that he said that struck me was that God only ran once in the Bible and that was in the story of the Prodigal son where his beloved son had returned home. More often than not, Jesus took his time and was often days late -- sometimes to the point that people died. But because of this, he never missed the present moment, whether it was being careful to feel the touch of a bleeding woman or simply recognizing the presence of an outcast Samaritan at a well. Another story that has always left an impression on me is that of the earthquake that freed Paul from his chains. With every opportunity to escape, he risks his life to save that of a jailer who had likely beaten him just hours before.
The idea of transformation has been on my mind of late. I happened to be in Durham about a month ago when I visited a Church there with friends and heard one of the most challenging sermons I have in on a long time on the "Sterility of Religion" http://www.summitchurch.cc/templates/System/details.asp?id=29456&PID=319636&sermonsite_action=view_sermon&sermonsite_sermonid=31111. There were many things that resonated with me but one was the example he gave of going to the homeless shelter to feel better about ourselves and our "service". This hit me right between the eyes as he very well could have been describing my experience with the Safehouse outreach here in Atlanta. It is easy for me to pretend that I am doing some outstanding thing while the true service opportunity is staring me directly in the face. All the while, I go on talking to my friends.
A friend of mine, Sandor, recently spoke in my Sunday School class about the idea of Transformation. The premise was this: What could really happen if our entire Church and our entire community were transformed by Christ?! I went to speak with him on this and the conversation fell short of what I had hoped. Nevertheless, the idea is still stewing on my brain. Have we as a congregation settled for just enough to ease our consciences? Do we really believe (or want to believe) that God is ready to do immeasureably more than we can ask or imagine?
It is seemingly ironic that a blog that begain talking about patience ended up talking about transformation but the ideas are not mutually exclusive. In fact, more often than not the two have to work hand and hand and I believe that to be God's preferred way anyways.
I do not want to leave this as just a passing idea. Frequently, good intentions are choked away in the weeds of life. I think that there is only one way to start and that is through patient prayer.
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