The Messiness of the Gospel

Sociologists have written much about the unique mentality of the suburbs. One writer condensed it like this: “Many Americans flee to the suburbs to escape severe urban contexts or stark rural ones. The Suburbs are geographic and psychological buffer zones that offer safety from such things as violent crime and boredom. We have evaded urban influences that so easily jade the human psyche and threaten our preferred way of life. We drive in to work and out to live. The suburbs are safe.” (Suburbianity, Byron Yawn)  We like that—safe and predictable.One of the obvious things you notice about Collierville, and the suburbs in general, is how neat and manicured everything is. You have to get a permit for every activity in order to keep everything just right. We like things properly ordered, neat and safe.  But I have lived long enough to know that you can only prescribe so much order. Life is not like a math equation where you have a formula and solve for x. It is not cold and detached, where if you can just get the right data, you can solve the problem. It is not a matter of memorizing the propositions and rules, and then if you just follow them, it all works out. In fact, the truth is the exact opposite. You can memorize the formula, follow all the known laws and theorems, and lo and behold, nothing works out. 

No, I think the best way to look at life is like a story, a drama; it is messy, and it can’t be learned in a book. Life is physical--it is learned in the actual living and doing of a thing, mistakes and all. Read all the books, but you still have to figure out what your life means with the gospel in one hand, and just living in the other. Is that good news or bad news? We'll talk about that Sunday!

Blessings,

Jim