Of This I'm Sure. . . I think

This has been a difficult entry into this blog because I want to ensure, more than ever, that I am thoughtful about what I am saying. I decided to release it in multiple postings so that I could really give some thought to it. Besides that, it’s too dang long to read in one sitting. Personally, I have the attention span of Golden Retriever, so short segments are always good. Here is part One.

One of my favorite authors is Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz and To Own a Dragon). For those that don’t know Donald Miller, he is a Christian writer with a profound sense of wisdom in the whole notion of being in the World, but not of it. One of the things that resonates with me is that Miller does not take an “in your face” approach to living one’s faith, but rather he espouses to what I would call “relational humility” as we interface with the world in which we live. Don’t assume that Miller is soft on truth. Quite the contrary. But what is certain is that as Christians, we cannot storm the castle without first looking at our own behavior to make sure our own house is in order.

One of my favorite Donald Miller stories is about when he was a student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. At one of the college’s more radical annual celebrations, Donald, and a few of his Christian friends, erected a booth to offer apologies for all of the wrongs Christians had invoked on humanity for the past several centuries. At first, students were skeptical, but as Donald and company engaged people in authentic apologies followed by authentic relationship, skepticism eroded into guarded trust. This action did not result in revolutionary change for Reed College, but it did give a few individuals on both sides of the apology something to think about. I think we would do well to offer a compassionate shoulder for the world to lean on rather than meeting it with a judgmental finger.

We live in a society where almost everything comes down to a “moralitical” issue. (“Moralitical” is my word for the collision between morality and politics). Each side regards the other as unenlightened, intolerant and downright evil. And each side is more than willing to outshout the other side in order to be heard. The real tragedy to all of this is that millions of people searching for answers to some of these big questions can’t be heard over the clattering rhetoric. Moralitics has become the clanging cymbal referred to in I Corinthians 13.

So what is the answer? I am but a mere man. However, I would like to make a suggestion. Unfortunately, that will have to wait and be the subject of my next blog. Thanks for your time.