How is God’s Kingdom really built? Why do people get saved? What does it take? What if you got to be in charge of coming up with the master plan for building the Kingdom? If you were on the strategic planning committee for advancing our faith and bringing more people into a relationship with Jesus, how would you do it? For most folks, their honest answer would have to do with undeniable proofs, amazing miracles and air-tight arguments by brilliant people you could never out-wit. Our natural way of thinking tells us that the best way for God to bring more people into this thing would be for Him to show up physically in such a way that His existence would be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. I truly believe tons of Christians would love nothing more than to turn on a cable news network and watch live footage of God marching through Times Square behind a phalanx of fiery, floating angels, healing every disease, punking out all the pagans and then dropping the mic into the Rockefeller Plaza Fountain right before moonwalking across the Hudson River. We think that if God just showed up and proved it, everyone would be forced to repent and convert. We like proof and winning arguments because when there’s a clear winner and a clear loser, it’s tidy and we know where we are. The thing is, the Kingdom of God isn’t built this way. People don’t lose a debate and then joyfully join the winning side. The truth is, most people never really think they lost the debate - they just wind up thinking the other guy is a jerk. Visual proof doesn’t work the way we think it would and the reason goes deeper down than what our eyes can see. The problem with human beings is our hearts - our messy, stubborn, dramatic, broken hearts. We don’t need God’s existence to be merely proven before our eyes. We need to be loved when we’re impossible. We need to be forgiven when we don’t deserve it. We need someone who is willing to take the time to enter into the crazy mess of our ridiculous lives and love us. That’s what Jesus did. That’s the way the Kingdom of God advances. This isn’t about proof. It’s not about who is the smartest or most gifted. It’s not a matter of miracles. Our faith advances when one person really loves another person. It’s slow, it’s not tidy and it would probably make a really boring movie, but it’s what works.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:04:43 +0000
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