I have no interest in maintaining traditional beliefs or values simply for the sake of carrying on tradition or because my parents taught me that way.
Neither do I have any interest in throwing away values and beliefs or adopting a progressive worldview simply because I am disgruntled with people in my past or with theological systems or with churches.
Nor am I interested in following the ever-restless crowd or my ever-fickle feelings.
What I am interested in is following Jesus.
I want Jesus. I want all of Jesus. And I want Jesus to have all of me. My entire heart, body, mind, and theology.
I will stand where He stands as revealed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture; I will go where he goes; and I will stay where he stays; and so help me God, I will go nowhere else.
How will I know where Jesus is?
I will pray and I will study scripture. I will talk to vibrant, life-giving people who have experience and knowledge of God I don’t yet have and I will talk to vibrant, life-giving people who have fresh, unique, or unpopular perspectives. I will listen to my tribe, I will listen to people outside my tribe, and I will study church history and question why a belief has been long-held or why it was already rejected millennia ago or why it’s only now becoming popular. I will observe the fruit of people I listen to and the theologies I encounter and I will compare it to the fruit of Christ–if it matches, I’ll especially value that person’s opinion and explore that theology; if it doesn’t, I will reject it quicker than Jesus cursed the fruitless fig tree.
And in the end, I will gather the weight of evidence, hold it up to the light, and if it stands, I’ll stand by it. I don’t give a damn if that makes me a stuck-in-the-mud fundamentalist. I don’t give a damn if that makes me a Mennonite. I don’t give a damn if that makes me a Democrat, or a Charismatic, or a loosey-goosey progressive liberal.
All I care about is that I am close to the Anointed Life from God: Jesus, Christ, my Messiah.
Love you guys.
C.D.