A Year Later

In the past year, God initiated a new venture as an “interim” pastor. Quotes around “interim” as it’s been a year…what is “interim” about that? This call provided me the opportunity to experience a new community of disciples and the gracious gift to revive GraceXChange.

First, God calls and you discern with the Holy Spirit to take a new step. I was fresh off ‘retirement’ after serving consecutively in places for 25 years. I was admittedly ‘not ready’ to return to weekends. God said – GO!

Here I am, a year later, still an “interim” pastor. Incessantly, the Word that tackles my lament – How Long Lord? (until a new pastor for this community is sent?) is Habakkuk Chapter 2, verses 1-4: I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

By faith and trust in God, I actively wait and now I am compelled to revive my commitment to engage the ministry of reconciliation in a more consistent manner. It’s the Season of Lent – a time to practice a new habit.

Let’s begin…

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The realm where social media, public works projects, and engineering intersect is commonly referred to as ‘infrastructure’. How do we facilitate movement across the terrain? I propose we look at two means of facilitating travel – bridges and tunnels. Assume they are alike in financial costs – which can be far from reality. Consider just the means of movement alone.

Tunnels are veiled, hidden, and keep us isolated for a moment in time. Bridges keep us fully seen, above, and exposed.

There are certainly highways that have both, either in serial succession or intermittent over distance. Life by faith certainly reflects these realities as well.

When traveling do you prefer bridges or tunnels? or both? When conflict arises, what is your default – building bridges or digging tunnels? Either piece of ‘infrastructure’ facilitates forward motion, but both avoid the hazards and realities of the terrain.

In our ministry of reconciliation, it appears that enduring and understanding the need for the bridge or tunnel is a key prerequisite. The engineer and the construction team have up close and personal understanding. They have applied all they know about the hazard to make sure travel is safe and moves forward.

Our created being has both bridges and tunnels. We suppress emotions to bridge over or tunnel under hurtful realities. God, our Creator, made us whole, where the entire infrastructure functioned well for our health and well-being. Then the ‘garden event’ (Genesis 3) shattered this perfect creation and we became enslaved to sin.

Our human infrastructure is broken and no matter how glorious we try to engineer and construct our movement over or under ‘sin’, we fail. To give permanence and wholeness (true Shalom) God sent Jesus to reconcile us completely with Him.

In Jesus’ time on earth, and now through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus implores us to GO! Follow me into the valleys, to hazardous places – to visibly demonstrate love for yourself and neighbor. By faith alone, we go into the hidden and veiled places to gather and lead all people into the light.

We can’t safely and expeditiously travel over or under the hazards without well engineered and constructed highways. But these marvels will always be temporary and need maintenance. This is also very true when we try to engineer salvation by our own works.

Sin is contagious and innate. We continually desire bite into the sweet fruit of temporary pleasures even though that it fosters shame, deceit and division.

There is an Arabian proverb: “Don’t get bit from the same snake hole twice”. From experience we come to know that wisdom, caution, and foresight are learned behaviors that are important reconciling relationships and situations. God knows us. We have a tendency to reach into the same snake hole (tunnel) perpetually.

We needed a reconciler, a savior. God sent his Son Jesus, out of love to perfectly and permanently grant us freed movement into eternity through repentance and belief in His Son. God is the ultimate bridge builder to eternity and simultaneously, Jesus is the light at the end of the tunnel.

In Jesus’ name and by his example, we are called and equipped for a ministry that reconciles the world to Him and each of us to one another.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It’s a year later and Jesus is still THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE.