Not My World...

Eugene Peterson has a gift. The guy is a poet. He has a way with words that spill passion onto the pages of his writings. Nothing about what he writes is cliche or common. Descriptions to him seem to be opportunities to wield a pen as though it were a scalpel surgically dissecting his depictions of a phrase.

Peterson is the author of various books but none more recognizable than The Message. Yes, the paraphrase version of the Bible. You know the one that is issued to every youth pastor in America... We get a copy of it right before we are issued our designer-messed-up-holey-jeans, t-shirt and leather flip flops... Yes, the outfit we preach in even on Sunday mornings.

I've been, however stuck on a particular phrase that Peterson word-smithed in Romans ch.12. He said, "Don't wake up and fit in to the culture around your without even thinking about it." (Okay, I'm now paraphrasing Eugene Peterson... At what point do we no longer even use words?) But, the phrasing has gripped me. We are most used to hearing this said like so, "Be not conformed to this world... ." What Christian can escape this indictment? We all effortlessly fit into the culture around us - and without thinking about it. Insomuch that the true Biblical normal becomes abnormal to how we exist.

Normal is back in a long forgotten garden where humanity was created to sup with God... Face-to-face supping. The kind of supping where God politely asks you to pass the sugar to Him for more coffee.

This is the normal we've forgotten. God isn't near humanity any longer. We're too close to time to start church. We have a schedule to keep man. Humanity has left the garden. God still sits and sups, but often alone.

Normal is a kingdom. A kingdom we can have in this life, and no it's not normal. It's kingdom where we sit again with Him, Kingdom that doesn't push its own way. Its not this anti-kingdom we know so well today that has become our new normal.

Are we capable of waking up and fitting into His kingdom in a way that requires little thought because we've been citizens for sooo long? Can we fit into His kingdom and rediscover new normal?

We will find Him again in the garden of His original intent... supping with humanity, but only when we become less concerned about the culture around and consumed with the Kingdom of His design.