Would You Die For This?

For what or who would you die? That's a disarming question. I recently read of a business expert serving as a consultant for a company. He helped them to come up with a mission statement and a vision for fulfilling that mission. (Mission and vision statements have been the rage in business for some time. Churches are kind of johnny-come-latelies in utilizing them.) The consultant led the company through a retreat-type experience in which they examined the company's core values and common aims. They brainstormed, word-smithed, trail-ballooned and did all the things that groups do to create mission and vision. Finally they had a mission statement and vision that created a fair amount of collective enthusiasm. In the midst of mutual congratulations over the achievement, the consultant looked at the final product and asked the disarming question.

"Would you die for this?" Stunned silence followed. Work for it, promote it, support it...but die for it?!?

It's one thing to get excited about mission and vision. It's a whole other matter to pay a price for it. Two millenia ago a small group of people embraced a vision of making Jesus-followers of themselves and all people. They didn't just rally around something with popularity and momentum. They saw their mission as something for which to die, and thousands of them did. And, in spite of all sociological, economic, and politic indicators otherwise, their movement would not die.

For what would you and I die? Not a pleasant thought, perhaps...but maybe a centrally needed thought. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Connecting

I'm an off-the-chart introvert. That doesn't mean that I don't like people; I really do. It just means that I tend to draw life energy from within rather than from folks around me. I can be perfectly content with my own company. (When I lived in the Kansas City area I had an extroverted associate who was stunned that I'd get up at 4 a.m., drive three hours south and east to a state trout impoundment by myself, fish alone for three hours, and drive three hours back, and be happy as a clam!)

In spite of this, however, I have a basic need to connect. Two recent events in my life accentuated this truth. During my wife's extended illness late last year I came home night after night to an empty house. I really wanted other people around. I spent two months this summer apart from the congregation in which I served. I missed them, and I felt lonely away from them. Even the most introverted among us have a fundamental need to connect.

How do you think we're doing at connecting? I remember when personal computers first hit the market in businesses and homes. We were told that a cyber world would streamline our work lives and we would have more and more leisure time to enjoy each other's company. I think it's gone the other way. We're 24/7 busy and barely have time to say "hello" to one another. We say that cyber-communicating, Facebook, texting, Twittering and all the rest have expanded our capability to communicate in an exponential way. Maybe it's helped us to move data and images without limits, but is it helping us to connect? Are we any better at sharing time and space in the physical presence of another human being?

Jesus followers believe that we are wired for connection. They say that the God in whose image we are made is relational, and we are created for relationship with the God and with each other. Without that we are creatures failing to live the purpose for which we are made, they say.

Are we made that way? How are we doing at connecting? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.