One of the motivating factors behind my writing is that I am very aware of the amount of content that is always available to us on a regular basis. I have a real challenge with the way current content is attention seeking. This is not inherently wrong, but the reality is that this can lead to motivating factors that lead us away from depth. Superficial, shallow, and reactive tend to win the day. Why another blog? I want to lead us into a more contemplative way of thinking about the Bible. I want to engage you in deeper thinking about the implications of Scripture.
Let’s be real, I want you to be reading these posts. The goal is this doesn’t become a self-motivated project to stroke my ego. I intend for people to get something useful out of this material. I am not going to pretend that I have something special to offer other than what has been given to me. I’m forced to believe that I’m made in God’s image and that he has led me a specific way to produce my story, my thinking, and my interests here.
No Performance Here
This blog is meant to give you a taste of my deepest ways of thinking about the world through the Bible. You need to know upfront that I am a very idealistic type of thinker. A lot of my thinking could be thought of as being intense. It is. I’m not going to downplay it. I believe in certain values and principles. Having those values and principles, I attempt to live them in a specific ordering of my life. I want everything I do to be aligned with those deep values. But you can imagine how unrealistic this is, right?
I believe in these values, and I believe that I have lived them out to some extent. At the same time, no one is perfect at living out their values, so I need to clarify that I’m not claiming perfection. I believe that people and life are complicated and that living out our stated values perfectly is profoundly unrealistic. This means that grace and understanding become the most important part of how I interact with others.
It’s one thing to say that in the abstract. It gets harder for those in public life—a politician might say they believe something, but you and I both know that the pressures of governing a diverse group of people mean that whatever that politician says is relatively meaningless until they actually do something. This goes for everyone. That pastor you listen to? It could all be a performance and we’ve had plenty of examples of that… but maybe it wasn’t a performance, either. Maybe people’s characters are more complicated than that and require less scrutiny and more patience?
We all recognise, though, that a platform requires integrity. Choices are made about who we are and what we represent, so we need to be honest and transparent about struggling to live out the values we hold so dear. I struggle with the idea of doing any sort of public work like this because this is not meant to be a performance. People are complicated, and I am no different. I mess up. I have fits of anger with my kids. I don’t always speak nicely to those I love. I am a human being, just like you.
So why another blog? Why more content? Because I believe in these values enough to say that you should consider them as well. I have this suspicion that we all want to find authenticity and be able to trust those in positions of leadership. I hope the writing here refreshes you, and I hope that while it challenges you, it also affirms the struggle you’re experiencing. In writing this, I am doing a lot of reflective work, and I hope you do this as you read as well. That is a true relationship, where you learn and grow through relating to my experiences, while opening yourself up to a new vision that provides hope.
Relationship Over Ideology
I hope this challenges you to find grounded and life-giving relationships that help you to exercise relational skills and understanding. This is the most important aspect of loving God and people because you must be able to understand God and understand others. In understanding, you can respond with a better representation of your values. Love can often be reduced to sentiment, but it is more about the decisions and actions you take in seeking the good of others. This requires going beyond performance and being committed to the hard labour of walking with people while they struggle and even hurt us.
I would like to present the Bible as it provides a grand vision of relational harmony. Harmony between us and God, us and humans, and us and creation. Each of us has a whole host of experiences that allow for commonality between us. What often happens, though, is that we prefer ideology over relationship. Our ideologies can segment us from others and their experiences. As Christians, this segmentation will happen. Eventually, the King of Glory, Strong and Mighty, will bring judgement and provide the safety that ideology attempts to provide. That King, when he was on earth, went to a cross and willingly laid down his own life to relate with us in our suffering. We need to reconsider what it really looks like to love people.
Our physical actions and experiences also define who we are and change us, so it is important to incorporate those things into how we relate with other people, especially those we have ideological differences with. I might encourage you to let go of your ideologies altogether, if not simply hold them with a much looser grip. Ideology is focused on the world and what happens in the world, whereas here, we’re looking to take the next faithful step in the kingdom of heaven, not dictate everyone else’s paths.
An Invitation to Reflect
My goal is to not simply share ideals or biblical facts, but provide an immersive reflective environment to consider Scripture more deeply and personally. I’ll even be providing some commentary on my own life to describe next faithful steps, my own challenges and struggles, and how I’m learning and growing. I hope you read, but more than anything, I hope this becomes a prayerful exercise in seeking the kingdom of God for your life. Depth and meaning come from God’s Spirit, so I pray that as you follow along on this journey, you find his Spirit and his presence.
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