Before you head off into your weekend, here are three things that I have read and been thinking about this week. Hope they are as helpful and challenging to you as they have been for me.
#1
The pivot of the oracle is the term “wait,” that is, hope, the refusal to accept or conform to the closed world of imperial reduction.
Reality, Grief, Hope by Walter Brueggemann
The very act of waiting is a finger waving in the air against the tide of inevitability. It is saying to ourselves and anyone who is willing to listen, I think something is coming, I think something is changing, the status quo of today will be replaced, the hope of tomorrow is dawning. From the great pumpkin Charlie Brown to the stories of animals waiting for their owners to show up to people refusing to give up on their loved ones…waiting is an act of aggression against the way things are.
#2
Psalm 103 thus attests that the primary vehicle of theology is praise and doxology.”
Lord of the Psalm by Patrick Miller
Not only does gratitude show the temperature of our spiritual life it also is the clearest way we to see our theology. As we thank God we are necessarily describing God’s character, depicting his ways, acknowledging his power.
What do we think of God? The answer to that question, in part anyway, is what we give God thanks for. The greater our understanding of God the deeper our thanks and praise becomes.
#3
I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important
Jeff Bezos
While it feels that so much of our world is changing, the church can take great comfort in the fact that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God is the only certainty in an uncertain world. Therefore, the people of God are uniquely qualified to not only answer Bezos’ second question but to offer a helping hand through it.
What won’t change in the next 10 years?
God is not about to change. Nor is our God-given mission of making disciples. In ten years we will continue to need to be involved in justice and mercy for all people. And the desire to belong in a community to support and be supported is not going away.
Sounds like we have plenty to do…thankful God has given us one another for the days ahead.
todd nelson 