I can’t say “no;” Creation itself demands I do this.
Let’s not even pretend it’s some kind of altruism. I’m doing this for my own sanity and peace. I’m embracing a mission with two prongs. First is bringing the joy of heart-led living to my fellow Christians who don’t have it. Second is the prayer that this thing grow and organize itself.
Do you understand that this thing is self-organizing? Sure, people migrating to this parallel society will need some guidance to begin shaking off the chains of moral blindness. Still, once people begin to share in this society I’ve proposed, they will tend to find their own path. And we can trust that God’s divine Presence will bring a spontaneous shape and power. It’s a structure and power that doesn’t require any one of us, but will surely include us so long as we live.
I’m committed to making this happen. I didn’t choose me for this; it was in front of me waiting all my life. It knew my name and kept calling until by some miracle I was able to see what it was. Even trying to say “no” would put me back into that Valley of Spiritual Death and I can’t take another round of that. I tasted it once a few years ago and three days was enough to make me suicidal again; the experience was connected with taking a wrong turn on the path. Trust me; I’m committed to this.
I’ll do what’s required of me. I don’t much care for fancy titles, but some of you understand that my role may turn out to be apostolic in nature. That’s not my ambition by any means. It’s a burden that will surely kill me at some point. But I’m utterly certain I won’t be working alone. At least one or two of you Dear Readers will join me in this task. The rest of you need to consider other callings and commitments.
Right now I’d love more than anything to be able to travel and meet with some of you face to face. Without a well-funded sponsorship that ain’t happening. Still, I’m praying that I get to meet some of you who have engaged me. Some part of me believes that if we could do this, both our lives would change radically and this parallel society will begin taking shape.
But the part of having people join us must rest in the hands of God. As previously noted, this is not a social context where preaching in public does much good, so we can’t ape the methods of the First Century churches. However, private meetings in the form of house-churches are quite valid. I’m praying each of you who take this thing seriously will somehow find yourselves involved in that some day. Right now, I’d say, is a good time to start praying toward that. Veloyce and I have been worshiping together at home for longer than a decade, sometimes with others. Often enough we’ve been alone, just the two of us before the Lord. Home worship is a skill set we all need to work on.
That Radix Fidem pamphlet project never went anywhere because not enough of you folks were ready to help. It’s an all-or-nothing thing using other writers, so I’ll end up writing it myself in the coming days. You can already download a tri-fold single sheet summary of it in PDF format. The longer booklet will be based on the same outline.
And frankly, if none of you bothers to tell me you are involved in some way in your own part of this world, that’s on you. There’s no way a lack of participation is going to hold be back. I’m content to push ahead and die without seeing any results. I’m not going to give you any instructions. Either you will be driven on your own path or it won’t happen. I’m just trying to make it easy. You can ignore all my output and come up with your own stuff.
Since I’m not giving any marching orders, the one thing I will not do is wait for you all to execute any part of this. It’s going to happen with or without you, so you can decide how to claim your share of shalom or lose out. Be sure of one thing: You can’t harvest your full share just trying to keep it to yourself. There’s no doubt going to be some lag time between stepping up with the resolve to go with it and the time we begin seeing fruit. It’s going to feel lonely and some of you will wonder if you will ever find fellowship in meat space.
This where I remind you that God does not fail in His promises. If we obey, the results are in His hands. If He provokes us to get to work on this, it can only be that He has planned to reach some folks through us. He’s not playing head-games.
How much shalom can you handle?
