Ready, Fire, Aim!!!

Great things are about to happen at the Vineyard Westside.  How do I know, you ask? One of the pastors, Ryan, touched people today. Many laughed, listened, and were obviously moved by his message. He reminded me of something, stirred something up, that I wrote a while back ... having to do with fear, having a plan, and taking action.  Here it is:

Being available is new to me in the sense of “doing so lacking fear,” and without a plan or map.

To say this differently, …I often find myself “being available” for things, people, and situations because I am afraid of what might happen if I am not available, and this has been done haphazardly and usually from the perspective of cornered-fear.

So, this means that I have been making decisions in this space, meaning fearfully lacking faith. I have been simply and selfishly reacting to what is going on around me.

Not to over-simplify this, but the fallout has been less than great. Far too often, I have fearfully been available, and have hesitated to speak truth, or listen, or take action, or not take action. And to over-simplify this intentionally, …I have taken the easier way out in my pursuit of “being there” in the perceptions of others.

I have not been following God’s plan, …I have been following my own, or the plans of others, which is clearly without courage.

To intentionally be available must include having “uncomfortable fear.” Anything else is selfish. So, I will work on being just this, …uncomfortably pursuing Jesus, the pursuit of His plan, regardless of what may be easier or more comfortable. To step one pace outside of fear and toward him is the path that I choose.

All nudges, all stuff, …simply listen and listen, and courageously listen, …follow the map, and (dare I say) battle when needed.

In “Mere Christianity,” CS Lewis writes:

“Now, Theology is like a map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: They are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God – experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map. You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion – all about feeling God in nature, and so on – is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work: like watching the waves from a beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.”

Someone in Cincinnati said today: "Yep, that's Oh and Five."