This is the first time in a year that I have blogged.
It has been a deep year. I am not sure how else to put it. I think the Father tucked me away in the shadows as he did some pretty weighty work in me. It was not an easy time but I trust the Father. I guess he knew what he was doing. If he can still use an "old crusty" like me, then I am most certainly available.
This blog was actually born two years ago, this month. There is a story in the bible about the rabbi Jesus, his 12 apprentices, a fig tree and a mountain. It is a simple story, yet the more I reflected on it simplicity, the more captivating it became.
Amidst the many various ways one can teach this text, what if a major component looks like this: Jesus wants to eat from the fig tree, but there is no fruit. This is just too great a moment for him to teach his apprentices (I do like that word).
My read on this account (Matt 21:18 - 22; Mark 11:12 - 25) had an air of empowering faith... Don't keep looking for last season's fruit, it is done. It completed its assignment. Turn around, look at the mountain I am placing before you...and speak to it...nope don't look at it. Speak to it! "Have faith in God...speak to the mountain ...believe and forgive" Mark 11: 22 - 25.
That was the textual catapult that empowered Meryl and I to partner together to get her to complete her Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. That was her mountain. As a grandma who had not formally studied for 32 years, she went back to university. That is what she had to face and speak to every day. That was her mountain. That was where she had to lay her doubts and moments of vulnerability down. We kept saying to each other..."this was God's idea, so He will get you through"
It has been a journey of faith rediscovered. A deeper faith, a bigger mountain, a great challenge, but it was his idea.
This blog series will journey you through a review of the wonder and catalytic nature of faith. "The just shall live by faith" was not simply a reformational revelation. It is the daily reality of each Jesus follower, where the Father places us in assignments beyond our wildest dreams and natural abilities.
I'm glad you're writing again Chris - always enjoy your perspective. Thanks. Drew
ReplyDeleteChris, I have to hold you accountable. As a young, young broken girl trying to find my way in your church...hearing you preach how we were a pilgrim people... a tent people...pushing the seats aside in the Glenwood Hall... and then handing the church over to Rory Dyer, the real estate man, only to build it into a corporate... (Rory's influence is directly responsible for the suicide of a dear member of the church who was judged for being gay)... to hear you, our mentor, tell us youth that we meant something to God - and then that you wouldnt let your own daughters to eat rubbish and roll down the aisle to marry a guy who was in to fat chicks... thanks for the eating disorder... I can't tell you the pain that followed when the whole church laughed, and I pulled my loose sweater a little further away from body. ..to be pointed as 'single' and in need of prayer for my marital status at 16... and to hear from your leadership that I was not woman enough... I'm grateful for you all helping me to realise that I'm a lesbian. To those under your leadership - whom you appointed- who told me there was no way back to God - thank you for showing me what bigotry is. You introduced me to church and brought me to God. But, I was young - too young to understand that God's subject could be so flawed, too. Under your leadership, the rot started. You appointed the 'next one' and conveniently escaped. There are many of us survivors out there in the world - former leaders, lovers of God,active members in your church who now consider ourselves to be survivors of abuse. We are in need of care. My personal favourite? As an abuse survivor and ptsd sufferer, during a prayer time one day, I found myself flashing back to my trauma (which had involved my neck being broken). While we prayed, I held my hands around my neck, tears running down my face. The next thing I knew, one of your elders was literally on top of me, trying to cast demons out of me. The question is: Were the demons on the inside or out? May someone one day own up to the damage that has been done. You set your leaders loose; you fed us a story, and we followed you, as we tried to find our own way in God ourselves. We were abused.
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