The biggest problem that the church faces is denial. Denial about our materialism. Denial about our idolatry. Denial about our failures. We want to live in a rosy world, and we will lie to ourselves to make us feel like we are.
Grace frees us from denial. It allows us to look at ourselves for who we really are. It allows us to see Jesus for whom he really is. It allows us to see the kingdom for what it can be.
Denial and grace are bitter enemies. One dresses itself up in order to like the other. The other acts like itself and doesn't appear like others think it should.
Grace is the pauper to the bourgeois' life. The bourgeois that are worried about respectability and material values overlook what grace has to offer because it is dressed in garments of servitude, piety, and surrender.
A church free of denial, with all of its clothes off, will not always be the prettiest site. In it you will see humans weeping, hurting, struggling, and longing for a better life. But you will also see people laughing, loving, helping, and living a more fulfilled life.
Everyday we can choose the life of the pauper or bourgeois, the life of denial or the life of grace. I pray that I will always have the strength to choose grace.
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I've been in the mood to write at night rather than the morning lately. It seems odd. I think I am less coherent at night, so I almost apologize. It certainly has a different feel.
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I keep putting off writing on The Dysfunctional Family of God. I'll try to get to it some day. Lindsay has helped me have something good to say concerning my thoughts on the matter. Maybe someone else could take it up the task of writing it if they want.
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I'm in a weird mood. Probably most of you haven't read one of the greatest comic books of our time, Bone. I highly recommend it.. In it Grandma Ben always gets the gitchie feeling when something is going to happen. I seem to get in a weird mood when something is going to happen. Something is going to happen. I'll keep you posted.
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Watch out for the potholes.
