Changing

There is a point that came in my life that I talked with one of my mentor's about. A fundamental shift in the way we perceive, experience and think about God. When I was younger, it was much more formulaic. Like knowing about a character in a book or a movie. Living out what I assumed were the traditional roles and going through the proper motions. Living for the idea and less for the person. My mentor said basically everyone is in this place for much of their Christian walk. It's the reality of serving an unseen God.

Something began to happen to me in 1999 when my parents died. Heaven seemed more tangible. It was less of a nebulous idea. As I began in Seminary, it became evident that I needed to have a different sort of relationship with God. After all, can I really give my life to a nebulous idea, and not to the Living God? What I discovered is that most people do. Pharisees did. They began to live out the principles the best they knew how until it corrupted them.

I think we have done something very similar. My issue is that I feel God moving me out of it, and I see in the lives of others were God moved them out. A very influential, wise woman who is quickly becoming a mom figure in my life has experienced this shift, and I see it in her life, I hear it in the way she talks about God. My mentor and seminary professor experienced this shift. I have some great friends who I see are walking with me, experiencing this transition from Americanized Christian Religion to something else.

Do you experience it? Do you feel weighed down by all the legalism, culteralism, syncratism and idealism that seems to have missed the point? Does anyone else have that itch that doesn't seem to be scratched by our modern religious sensibilites? Do you struggle with the feeling that there is more, deeper in places, less complex or sometimes more complex? Are you concerned by all the modern evangelicals who seem to be able to explain everything in scripture? Nothing comforts me more than when I hear men like John Piper read a passage and exclaim that he doesn't fully grasp it. Many times I have heard him say "I wanna get that". It goes so much deeper than being able to rationally explain it away. Isn't that what we have done so often? We have naturally explained the Glory of God away in our promotion of self? Do you feel like I do?

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think God is going to move a great number of people beyond where we are. I want to be part of it. I pray that by God's glory, I can go deeper, move closer and become more Holy. Pray for me that God will change me, move me, break me and do whatever He wants to do to put me in line.