I had a brain burp.

Are we (really) converted to Jesus. Consider this angle...

In the Middle Ages the everyday language reflected the Christian life. The world was permeated with transcendence reminders; the sound of church bells, the music, the literature, architecture, everyday language and expressions ("God be with you", upon my soul," etc.). All these reflected the central elements of a story much larger than our own story. It wasn't football season it is was Advent season. Western culture no longer has the same worldview.

We've lost the larger story of mystery and transcendence. It didn't happen overnight but through the centuries. The Enlightment dismissed the idea that there was an Author. Western world rejected the mystery and transcendence of the Middle Ages. Mystery and transcendence was replaced with man's confidence in science, progress, and pragmatism (the Age of Reason). In the era of postmodernism we've been left with our smaller stories. It's not Pentecost; it's time for spring training. Our lives now revolve around the smaller stories of politics, little league baseball, soap operas, and rap music? Our best expression today is not, "God be with you," but, "Have a good day." The only story beyond our own is the evening news; which make no sense outside the context of the larger story. They are simply arbitrary collections of scenes and images, which lack a bigger picture to fit in.

Because we live within the framework of this western worldview we all, to one extent or another, become convinced that who we are is inextricably tied to our own self-redemptive story. Becoming a Christian doesn't alter a lifetime of western world influences and images, nor does sitting in a church building or a house church. Unconsciously, we live our daily lives within the context of our smaller story attempting to manipulate life’s circumstances and surroundings eager to make our existence a more palatable one with a secondary hope that maybe the One who can spin the earth and resurrect the dead will show up and rescue us from life’s pain.

Coming to know Jesus means we detach our hearts from every competing smaller story. It’s today’s Christians only hope of moving the human existence of our smaller story into the context of the bigger story; where a purposeful adventure (called the Christian life) is lived. Only in the bigger story does pain and suffering make sense. Only when our stories become a part of the larger story will a grassroot movement rise to the task of turning their comunities (and the world) upside down.

It's a little unnerving (for me) to think that a movement naturally flows from the bottom up. Not sure if that's a commentary on my faith (probably is).

I am praying for God to disrupt and unnerve us.