People have been asking me, “So, really Kim, why are you going on The World Race? Out of all the places worth going and all the things worth doing, why The World Race?”
**Cut to the dialogue inside my head: How much of an answer are they really asking for here�? The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is really hard to sum up in 19 seconds�**
“I‘m going for a lot of reasons�” I tell them, trying to keep it within the invisible 19 second box.
“�Because I’m tired of living comfortably�
…because I want to take the red pill and choose the matrix’s truth�
…because its an opportunity to share Christ’s love through service to the ends of the earth�literally�
…to explore this idea of simplicity, which is something I don’t think I really comprehend�
…to learn to listen well to His voice�
…to immerse myself in new cultures and develop a clearer paradigm�
…to stop asking what the will of God is for my life and start focusing more on BEING the will of God to the world�”
These are 100% completely true. I am going for these reasons, and more. Largely in part, though, I am going because I don’t think I really understand church.
**Cut to what I am really saying inside of my 19 seconds answer�**
Because I think I may be lonelier than I’ve let myself believe. I think most of us are lonelier than we let ourselves believe. I say that because of how absolutely subtle our Western independent society is� The air reeks with individualism, and its slowly choking many of us with its grip. But we aren’t aware of what our independence does to us. So we keep on choking… getting just enough air to get by, enough to keep our heads above water. But our faces are starting to change color, and our figures are becoming disfigured�
I predict that in November 2008, I will be only 1 of 40 who takes a deep look at my life and asks, “How did I live so long without this?” And I predict that, as I continue choosing this way of living, I really will be wrecked for the ordinary.
By grace, I’m starting to be.
Good old Frodo Baggins. (Read New)
The kind of life we’re promised is one that is� full. “You cannot experience the fullness of Christ until you are in the Body of Christ.”
�Yes, I agree with that statement. But what does it REALLY look like? Apart from what even Christian culture tells us, what does that take to live that way??
I have to be honest… I’m not sure that I really know. YET.
For the last 4 years or so, I’ve had this dreamy aspiration� It would look something like this: 6-10 of us buy a plot of land, and we build our houses on it. We eat meals together, we raise little people together, and we share more than holidays or even weekends�we share life. We prioritize each other, above comfort and career, and we commit to digging to the core of church and to tossing out all that is merely cultural distraction. Why did America (and beyond) fall so hard for the show ‘Friends’? …Maybe we long for this way of life. …Maybe someday we’ll own that plot of land� but for now, come January I’ll be a part of something similar, except we’ll own mobile backpacks and tents instead.
I’m going because I long to see the church rise up and be all that she is created to be� but it needs to start with me. I long to rise up and be all that I am created to be. I am a part of this living, breathing organism that God wants to birth LIFE through�
I heard it said recently: the church is the hope of the world. The implications of that are HUGE. What am I doing with that? I agree that she was not intended to be a geographical place to gather; rather, to be a connected people who share life, and who are living their stories out with one another, being scripted in with every shared meal, tear, joy, confession… As Gregory Boyd puts it, “Only people, not institutions, can be Christian.”*
…And if you have a few more seconds, I could share about why I think inviting a [media crazed, obsessed-with-reality-tv- and living-the-adventure-through-their-favorite-Survivor/American Idol/The Amazing Race] culture into a missions trip that uses the mediums of video through internet is so relevant…
**Cut to the next 19 seconds… **
*Letters from a Skeptic, by Boyd
