Living In
For the seventh question of the Holy Club, John Wesley chose what is, at least to me, a rather strange question:
Another image that comes to mind comes from our experience moving around. As a United Methodist pastor, itinerancy is part of the job. We've been fortunate to not move as often as some others have, but every time we have arrived at a new home, there has been that period of time when it doesn't feel quite right. When you don't know where "stuff" is. When it isn't yet "home." You have to live in it a while for it to feel like home. For us, there usually comes that moment when, maybe after having been away for a few days, you turn the corner and head toward...yep, it's become home at that moment, because we've lived in it.
Or another image: a lot of folks are using the words "live into" to describe gaining experience. When a change is made in a business, organization or church, we talk about having to "live into" the change, to get used to it, to make it our own. It takes time...especially in a church, where change happens slowly. Or even in a community, where a building that may have changed hands three or four times is still referred to by what it was at first, "the old grocery store" instead of what it is now. Change is hard. We have to "live into" it. We have to make the changes our own.
I think both of those images fit well here, because though I've read many significant books in my life, some that I would even describe as "life-changing," the reality is that most of them are forgotten after a period of time. But the Bible changes me every morning. The Scriptures are living words, full of life and continuing to call me to be better than I am. But to be the sort of person the Bible describes, I have to "live in" those words, I have to allow them to "live in" me, so that I can, in Ghandi's words, become the change I want to see in the world. So, at the end of the day, this is a good question to ask. Did the Bible live in me today? Did I live out what I read? Did the living words of the Bible and the Living Word of God (Jesus) change me today? Am I allowing His words to live in me?
I know it's a challenge for me. How about you?
Did the Bible live in me today?What does that mean? What does it mean to have something "live in" you? I mean, all sorts of science fiction movies come to mind where an alien takes over a human body and... Well, it doesn't usually end well for the human, let's just say that. But I don't think that sort of rather gruesome image is what Wesley had in mind.
Another image that comes to mind comes from our experience moving around. As a United Methodist pastor, itinerancy is part of the job. We've been fortunate to not move as often as some others have, but every time we have arrived at a new home, there has been that period of time when it doesn't feel quite right. When you don't know where "stuff" is. When it isn't yet "home." You have to live in it a while for it to feel like home. For us, there usually comes that moment when, maybe after having been away for a few days, you turn the corner and head toward...yep, it's become home at that moment, because we've lived in it.
Or another image: a lot of folks are using the words "live into" to describe gaining experience. When a change is made in a business, organization or church, we talk about having to "live into" the change, to get used to it, to make it our own. It takes time...especially in a church, where change happens slowly. Or even in a community, where a building that may have changed hands three or four times is still referred to by what it was at first, "the old grocery store" instead of what it is now. Change is hard. We have to "live into" it. We have to make the changes our own.
I think both of those images fit well here, because though I've read many significant books in my life, some that I would even describe as "life-changing," the reality is that most of them are forgotten after a period of time. But the Bible changes me every morning. The Scriptures are living words, full of life and continuing to call me to be better than I am. But to be the sort of person the Bible describes, I have to "live in" those words, I have to allow them to "live in" me, so that I can, in Ghandi's words, become the change I want to see in the world. So, at the end of the day, this is a good question to ask. Did the Bible live in me today? Did I live out what I read? Did the living words of the Bible and the Living Word of God (Jesus) change me today? Am I allowing His words to live in me?
I know it's a challenge for me. How about you?
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