News that is Really Good

I am a professional Christian. My work is my faith and my faith is my work. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Imagine getting paid to focus on the thing you love the most, while at the same time being evaluated on that thing to such an extent that it drains the love out of it. I'm sure many artists could identify with this same struggle. Right now I am definitely experiencing the upswing of this pendulum, and I'm enjoying a renaissance of faith associated with my enrollment in a graduate school of ministry.

Recently I've been trying to wrap my mind about what it really means to be "Saved." If you've ever seen the movie by the same name, you know that often how Christians are viewed in America is the stuff of comedy. Particularly the proselytizing of a message that is completely irrelevant to the average human being's daily existence. I find this message myself quite dissastifying and I get tired of the oversimplification of Christianity I so often encounter around me. The gospel (or "good news") preached by a majority of American churches tends more towards humanism these days with a subtly unitarian approach. What I mean by this is that going to church is often equated with hearing a message about what you need to do in order to get your life back together. Words like repentance and sin are thrown about as if they hold the power to make or break your life. Unfortunately, these words have lost their original meaning, and instead of communicating the hope of another's success becoming your own, they communicate a message of guilt and conditional love.

The reason I'm in the Christian biz to begin with is that I want to share news that is actually good - the news that there is a God who has done it all and does not need me to do anything, but out of love for me invites me to participate in the work that God is doing in the world. The spirtual truth of the matter is that I am an orphan adopted by the best family in the world, and now I'm caught up in the most exciting adventure story the world has ever known. That is some good news. I don't want to be part of a story of sin-management and behavior modification, or of a church trying to be the moral compass for the world when the church itself is daily being "saved." I admit, even as I write this I am simplifying the issues and the issues are certainly not simple. Neither is the story of Christianity, but it is really, really good.

Three words for thought in closing: enacted inaugural eschatology. Those are some tag words that I hope grab some people's interest. I know they've grabbed mine, and The Story just seems to be getting better and better the more I get into it.

Welcome to Blogger Central

I went online looking for a friend's blog and found myself creating my own. Now that I've joined the ranks of millions, I thought I should explain the name of my blog. The name works for at least three reasons (perhaps more, who knows?). It comes from the parable Jesus tells about a man who stumbles upon treasure in a field. He doesn't know what he's looking for, but once he finds it, he goes and sells everything to buy the field. I want my life to be like that - full of surprises and full of sacrifice for the things of Jesus. My wife's blog is called "Pearl Seeker" taken from the same parable - I thought it only fitting to connect the two. And lastly, God provided a house for us two years ago with a half acre of property - a field in and of itself.

And so begins my writing - a man in a field, in a house.