It is 20:05 and my wife is in the kitchen helping Angelica with her homework.
Like me, she also struggles with faith. Sometimes it feels as if we are walking the same path. The rest of the time we fight our own battle with religion. But right now, as she is teaching Angelica to speak Afrikaans and to understand Maths, I feel that something of God’s kingdom that Jesus used to speak of is real and alive in our home.
Angelica is not our child, neither a close nor distant relative.
Her mom cleans our house.
I know it sounds patronizing, but the effort she puts in and the passion that accompanies it, is the closest I can get to a picture of “kingdom come”. She doesn’t need to do it, but if she doesn’t then Angelica will not see her dream of becoming a doctor come true.
And this is where her struggle with religion ends and her journey with Jesus starts. Where religion survives by telling people they are bad unless God saves them , the Way of Jesus calls people from humble identities to take a walk in the direction of mercy, hope, justice and love.
You don’t need a Bible to do this. You don’t need a big church for this journey. You don’t need the next big preacher to show you the Way. The first followers had nothing of this, but their impact on the world as we know it is still echoing through the corridors of history. They grew from 12 to 20 million in 300 years. People got hooked on the countercultural way of living an everyday ordinary life of Love.
If you have a little bit of hope, if you made a small change towards giving, if you've decided to give forgiveness a chance, if you are feeling a slight discomfort with the state the earth is in and if you are pondering to live a life of substance and meaning, chances are you’re already walking it.
2 comments:
that was a great story to share. I wanted to comment on something somewhere that was relevant. I only recently joined the other followers of you blog but already my mind is ticking with so many questions. I guess why i chose this entry is where our journey with God begins. Again in philosophy we asked the question, what is the meaning of life. It turned out to be a rather boring and pointless exercise. I guess noone knows what the meaning of life is. But ever asked, what is the meaning of me? Who am i to think, to believe, to doubt? Descartes said, cogito, ergo sum. I think therefor i am. But who i am i. Don't worry i'm not looking for an answer. Thats part of the journey of being a doubtful believer. Figuring things out as we journey together.
What a "turn a around way" of aproaching the meaning of life question! Love it. "What's the meaning of me?" Bonhoeffer asked the same question while in a Nazi prison. Who am I?
This is probably one of the most important questions to explore.
The tricky thing is, we grow constantly. Just as you get close to understanding the innerworkings of your soul, life takes you in a different direction and a new journey brings out a different part of you, while leaving some of the old ways behind.
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