I was just
reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald
Miller. I find it funny and interesting how God is leading me in this blog
series. I started writing it thinking I’d finish in a couple blogs after I got
my thoughts onto paper. But I guess this is more a blog series where I’m
telling you what God’s showing me and growing me in. That being said, I’d like
to rewind to my last blog. About the mob…
God showed
me while I was reading Don’s book, that I was part of the mob. Most days, I’m
still part of the mob. But with all that’s within me, I want to be the friends
with that shameless audacity or even the paralyzed man from the Luke Story. And
that’s what I’m learning and striving to be. The mob is easier. To be the friends,
you have to make a choice; a choice to shamelessly pursue the Lord even if you
look like you’ve gone off the deep end.
Right, I
started this blog talking about Blue Like
Jazz. So, Don told a story about how he and his buddy went to protest at an
event that the president was speaking at. He made a sign and was in a mob of
people all sharing their opinions. He said that as the president drove up to
the event, he held his sign extra high just in case the president looked. But
as the president came and went, Donald’s sign, as well as his opinion, went
unnoticed. And then God revealed to him something super profound, and something
that I had to hear again:
“I
think every conscious person, every person who is awake to
the
functioning principles within his reality, has a moment
where
he stops blaming the problems in the world on group
think,
on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself. I
hate
this more than anything. This is the hardest principle
within
Christian spirituality for me to deal with. The problem is
not
out there; the problem is the needy beast of a thing that
lives
in my chest.�
Again, I’m
finding that ultimately this issue comes down to the heart-“the needy beast of a thing� living
inside our chests.
The next
thing that I see is that the friends that chose to pursue the Lord at all costs
in the Story in Luke were selfless. They unselfishly
carried their friend. They gallantly dismantled a structure in front of
the elite religious leaders. They chose to not partake in the majority, but
instead valiantly
stood as a minority.
And their strength, insanity, and courage brought about reconciliation.
Then I
realized that in the last month alone, I’ve been selfish, timid, and
unconfident in who I was as a child of God. But by the grace and mercy of 
God,
I have a community around me that wouldn’t let me sit in that for long. My eyes
were opened to see that I do not want to be the mob. I want to be selflessly pursuing
reconciliation for the Kingdom of God.
And I saw that I had to make a choice. I couldn’t just stand at the protest and
wave my sign as high as I possibly could. I have to first get over myself and
then find a different way to have my voice heard. I have to muster up that
shameless audacity to intercede on behalf of the American people. I have to
figure out a different way to dismantle the existing structure. It’s a third
way; a way that people often bypass because it doesn’t look like action.
But
I think I found a way…
