#misunderstoodchristians, or #supernaturalsupplements...

There is all sorts of good that's done every day by all sorts of people who don't "believe in God".

But 'Followers of the Way" don't claim to have the monopoly on a commitment to "good will to all (wo)men".

What I suspect a lot of secular society misses, and what I wish it saw as the thing that makes life with Christ different, is the incredible deal God wants us all to take Him up on. And I don't think it's the life-after-death deal you're probably thinking about.

At least, until I found my home with my church, I had NO idea this was what it was all really about.

So here's my take on the deal that's on offer...

1) By entering into RELATIONSHIP (not a religion) with Him (Her), on a daily basis, we will be constantly renewed with a supernatural power (a.k.a. the Holy Spirit) to do "good works" both tiny and enormous. Here, the emphasis is not that we will do "good works". The emphasis is on the fact that S/He will provide the petrol for the journey, not us.

2) That being filled with the Holy S, each follower will be guided, subtly but in detail, on where, and how, and when to apply themselves to relieving all manners of suffering in ways that will yield the most true resolution of suffering, because there is just simply no human way, even for the most brilliant of us, that we can take all factors into account.*

(* an aside that I can't resist - this 'ultimate resolution of all manner of suffering' - physical, emotional, economic and ecological, micro and macro - is also known as the arrival of God's Kingdom on our beautiful Earth.)

3) That this daily (in fact, moment by moment) relationship with God will fill each follower with a healing love and sense of peace that 'passeth all understanding'. And it is the absence of this longed for sense of peace and love in so many hearts which arguably underlies every form of human suffering. From the suffering caused by all forms of greed for or reliance on money or power, to the suffering caused by our failure to protect our Earth, to physical and emotional illness, to violent crime and child abuse and drug addiction.

It is possible to build a better world in every conceivable area of personal, social, national and international life, but not without God. And I don't mean so much that we need to all get back to following a set of pre-determined religious rules and regulations.

Rather, I mean that we each need to, little by little, try entering into a personal, intimate relationship and conversation with the loving God who granted us the free will to try to do it all without His love. To search "inside" ourselves for the fire that burns (maybe it's the cause of preventing child abuse that we are most impassioned by; maybe it's the lack of community in our own personal neighborhood that troubles us the most) and then to try humbly, falteringly, obediently and delightedly to take the action, or inaction, that we are guided to by Her tender voice, just for today, just in the next hour, and let Her work out the rest.

And here's a clue - the fire in our soul is most likely to be a familiar one. That's how amazing S/He is. I don't believe for a moment that He / She wills or designs our suffering, but WOW! is She able to empower us to use it to reach out to others who need us, with His help.

Truly loving and wise fathers don't demand absolute obedience and unfailing love. They let us go. Because they love us and don't want slaves but children. They just hope that if we keep our eyes, ears, minds and hearts open and honest, we will find our winding way into loving them right back, of our own free will, and to realizing how much they have to show us about how to live well.

If we just talk to them.

THIS is why I'm a Follower of Christ.

THIS is the deal I'm signing up for.

I want to be at peace, and to feel my true worth as His child.

Yes, I can't help but love this world and the people in it, and yes I want it to be all that it could be. And yes I burn to do something.

BUT I absolutely need Her power and Her plans for living, because my brain is simply too small to figure out how best to do my bit in the time I have, and my power reserves are simply too fininte, without a very particular form of supernatural daily supplement.

Come, Holy Spirit - do your stuff!