And this is something completely different, but equally awesome.
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This is a pretty epic song. Rawly beautiful; strangely captivating.
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If on a Winter’s Night Young Lover’s…
by Paul Sheaffer
God isn’t tame or safe. True, he is merciful, but his mercy has sharp edges. God judges sin and transforms sinners in a way that often feels as if it is ripping apart our deepest selves. Even on our loneliest roads, when the valleys are so shadowed that day feels like night, God is watching, rejoicing over every inch gained, gazing down as the Author who cares about every twist in his story.
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Facebook is one of the most ingenious time-sucks known to man. I’m fully willing to admit that I’m not above looking at the vacation pictures of every single crush I’ve ever had, and all while on deadline at work, but that’s why I don’t give myself the temptation. The Internet outside of Facebook is an endless black hole of procrastination opportunities; toss in the chance to wallow in schadenfreude while staring at dozens of pictures of your ex’s lame new significant other, and it’s a wonder anything gets done at all anymore.
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According to Newbigin, the public truth of the gospel has been reduced to a personal message about the otherworldly future of the individual person. He believed, however, that the gospel is a message about the goal of cosmic history. In the death of Jesus God dealt with the evil of the whole world, and in his resurrection the renewing power of a renewed creation broke into history. This restored creation will one-day fill the whole earth and all of history will culminate in the kingdom of God. If this is true, Newbigin argues, the Gospel is not a private message. It is news about the goal of universal history, the cosmic completion of God’s purpose to restore his original creational intentions for the whole creation and all of human life.
Consequently the “Bible tells a story that is the story, the story of which our human life is a part,” says Newbigin, and it is possible for us to know this true story because in Jesus God has decisively and finally revealed and accomplished where the history of the world and humankind is going. And so it is only this story that can give true meaning to the full spectrum of human life today.
If the gospel is true, if it tells us where all of history is going, then mission must follow; the true goal and meaning of universal history has been revealed and now must be made known. The way Jesus chose to do that was not to write a book, as Mohammed did, but rather to choose a community that would make it known by embodying it in its life, expressing it in its deeds, and announcing it in its words. He commissioned them with these words: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). The church is missional by its very nature—a people charged with embodying the true end of history for the sake of the world.
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If you feel that Catholicism or Christianity or religion is not represented, by detractors or defenders, in ways that honor its profundity and beauty, live out its profundity and beauty. To do this is more telling than any argument.
