Only in seeing ourselves as both completely full in Him and, totally desperate for more of Him, can we find the beginning of the infiniteness of our relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ.
~Makala Barnabas Doulos
Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that you are in our hearts to die and live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in 2 Corinthians 7
Oh beloved, it is true. Everything is different now. Once we just hurt. And now we still hurt, and do it in the context of a joy that is simply not explainable to someone who has not experienced it.
This writer is learning as he grows that all human attempts at theology – and thus explaining how God is doing His thing – do indeed have something missing. So, in fact, the holiness “camp”, the grace camp, the reformed camp, the Arminian camp, and the whatever-else camps are all petals on the same beautiful flower with the central, VITAL stem being Jesus. HE is the way: Not grace, not mercy, not love, not holiness, not obedience, not even His infinitely valuable and effective sacrifice on the cross. HE is the Way, HE is The Truth, and HE is The Life. He is the way home. If we could learn, by His Word and by His Spirit to simply live out the life of profoundly powerful Love He has for us – for His glory and for each other – we could stop spreading the cancer (as Paul called it in 2 Timothy 2:14) of fighting over words and points and positions on some theological compass.
And surely beloved, Scripture is authoritative. Yet just as surely, He is the Author of His own Words. So, i do not propose that we just do whatever “floats our own boat.” i do, however, propose that we understand that His Spirit and methodologies and teaching in our lives are Infinite. They are not just bigger than we are – they are beyond our comprehension. So, instead of creating camps and separation, perhaps we could go ahead and do what Jesus has prayed and is praying that we will do – be one in Him; be united in the power of the Holy Spirit – and be known by the world by our Love for Him and each other.
Can we see it? The infinite cannot be measured by the finite. And the work at work within us is beyond the constraints of time and space. So, we have to be very careful about trying to normalize our own experience in our walks with Him and make them applicable to everyone else. His seven-fold Spirit at work in the world and at work in our lives is amazing in His ability to move in mysterious ways.
What if we let go of the fear that we might be wrong about our theology, and focused purely on the Author and Finisher of our faith?
What if we abandoned our quest to make sure that everyone else believes the same points that we believe – and began to believe that only Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life?
Might we find a completely right, and completely new norm in the way we live and love others? Yeah, we already know the answer to that question.
