I am not an expert psychologist, nor an expert in human nature, but I do know what it is like to feel like something is missing. I am writing on a hot computer. I don't mean it is stolen, I just mean it has been running all night. Every touch of the keyboard is being made delicately, I am afraid if I touch the keys to hard my computer might go into overdrive, and worse case explode or something worse. Life is a little like that sometimes.
Most of us grew up in a safe world. The world around us is a mess. I'm not just talking about the moral climate, but geopoliticaly we are in trouble, and may I also say morally. I am not a strict moralist, I think rules are important, but the are not what make up the bedrock of society. I am not saying that we all should abase ourselves in the hopes of achieving a virtuous society, I think what I am saying is that rules apply only where they are necessary and I think that it should be done with discernment and common sense. I think what we are missing in the twenty first century may not be what we really think will 'fix' our society, some strict fundamentalist will say back to the romanticised version of the "Cleavers" you know picket fence and so on. But I think we have progressed, (and I use that word shamefully) to the point where we have realised that progress has not filled our hearts.
Twenty first century evangelicalism will offer you a relationship with God, and I'm not against relationships, where I think the church needs to step in is in the areas of reconciliation and new creation. What I mean with that is where there is life there must come growth. Not the kind of growth that happens to a dead tree, now that would be funny, but character formation and biblical transformation (another way of saying forgiveness) and at the heart of it renewal of life. When you feel like something has died inside it is probably because something actually has. We don't need a revolution, sorry John Lennon, we need reality. Something that the twenty first century will be crying out for in generations to come. Part of that reality is that we all were created for something great and it is character formation that we all need. A renewal of a culture, shaped by the goal that after we die there is life-after life-after death.
Most of us grew up in a safe world. The world around us is a mess. I'm not just talking about the moral climate, but geopoliticaly we are in trouble, and may I also say morally. I am not a strict moralist, I think rules are important, but the are not what make up the bedrock of society. I am not saying that we all should abase ourselves in the hopes of achieving a virtuous society, I think what I am saying is that rules apply only where they are necessary and I think that it should be done with discernment and common sense. I think what we are missing in the twenty first century may not be what we really think will 'fix' our society, some strict fundamentalist will say back to the romanticised version of the "Cleavers" you know picket fence and so on. But I think we have progressed, (and I use that word shamefully) to the point where we have realised that progress has not filled our hearts.
Twenty first century evangelicalism will offer you a relationship with God, and I'm not against relationships, where I think the church needs to step in is in the areas of reconciliation and new creation. What I mean with that is where there is life there must come growth. Not the kind of growth that happens to a dead tree, now that would be funny, but character formation and biblical transformation (another way of saying forgiveness) and at the heart of it renewal of life. When you feel like something has died inside it is probably because something actually has. We don't need a revolution, sorry John Lennon, we need reality. Something that the twenty first century will be crying out for in generations to come. Part of that reality is that we all were created for something great and it is character formation that we all need. A renewal of a culture, shaped by the goal that after we die there is life-after life-after death.
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