6/14/10

So, I know I said a couple of pretty vague things at the end of my last update, so, I'll do my best to quickly explain before I go onto camp since early last week. I was driving another intern's car back from a church on the east side of the city. I was diving kids back from a game time to the common ground building. I don't think I hit anything so my best guess is the front right tire just blew. I was in the middle lane and eventually got over to the left shoulder. We were all okay. Eventually we got the kids out and Micah, Maurice and I with the help of the cops (it did take about 45 minutes for them to get there after we called) got the spare on and then a new tire.

In our training time we've been going over two things: racial reconciliation and kingdom theology/the kingdom of God. I think it is safe to say that my world has been rocked, shaken, or wrecked (or whatever other simile you'd like to use). But I won't go into detail on that now. I need time (and probably a lot of it) to process and apply before I say too much. I will say that one of my cultural blinders to Scripture has been somewhat moved, or at the very least, is now seen to exist: God's justice and mercy. I've seen how I have skipped/not read/but mostly skipped so many passages because its not part of my cultured thinking.

Earlier I mentioned Kingdom theology (see my preceding post). If I didn't, then well....yeah. Kingdom theology. Well, as Mark Driscoll put it: we must be careful to avoid reductionism (paraphrase). This has hit me in the face with mercy and justice as well as the kingdom. I was and am amazed how I misinterpret and skip so much of what Scripture teaches because its the norm. As Tim Keller said, every culture has come cultural blinders to Scripture (paraphrase).

But I must refocus before I go too far down the rabbit trail. Expect more of the Kingdom soon (since it is one of the things we're studying in our training time and it's been hitting me a good bit. Basically, the King is Jesus and he has a kingdom. It is here but not here fully (yet). Because we don't live in a society with a king I found for me its hard to understand a lot of what the people of Israel knew as second nature. It's been really awesome learning more about it.

But I need to go to bed and since I titled this 6/14/10, I need to finish this before midnight. So, look for more in the future! I'm excited to see what God will reveal tomorrow and kinda hesitant as well, because I know God is about to wreck me some more, which is not the most enjoyable experience initially.

So, as always, in Christ the King,

James