As my and your friend from SEED, Ruthie, and I sat in the Atlanta Airport for 46 hours trying to get home from our spring break mission trip, we wondered how this struggle of dashed hopes and confusion would affect the memories of our trip. We had just experienced the most amazing week of serving and being served by the community of Harmons, Jamaica. Would we dwell on the torments of a two day layover? Would we curse Delta Airlines, the funny little man who kept giving us misinformation, or the whole city of Atlanta?
Each evening of the trip, all 26 participants would sit in a circle for a time for reflection. The final evening, the reflections were dominated by questions of whether or not we could really take the lessons we learned back to our normal lives. I know I’ve previously felt similar spiritual ‘highs’ after a great retreat or trip. They always seemed to fade to some degree though when faced with entrance back into a lukewarm Christian American society. This might have been the case, given my travel woes, had I not received the most inspiring faith I’ve heard in a long time on this very trip.
Keller on the Gospel
May 28, 2010 in Commentary, Personal Experience by Ruthie | No comments
Earlier this month, another Seed contributor, Andrew, and I attended Chapter Camp with Intervarsity. It was an awesome time for many reasons, but really it was all about the bible study. That consumed our time and minds and energy. We studied the first half of Mark, aka “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We’ll study the second half next summer. It’s not that I’ve never studied any Mark before, but this time I saw God as huge and mysterious, the way he really is. I had so many questions, and so did everyone else. I am so glad that we weren’t satisfied leaving the pieces of Mark at what we’d heard that this or that was supposed to mean for us but kept digging. The great thing is that we prayerfully approached what we didn’t understand, began to understand, and were moved by it. We all came to the table leaving behind what we thought we already knew and just read what Mark had to say. God worked in that. I saw Jesus as love and a man and I was moved to tears when he cured Legion. We let Jesus be Jesus and he met me there. Too often, I don’t experience the reality and magnitude of Jesus when approaching the bible. This time was entirely refreshing.
Just today, thinking about all of this, I found an article by Tim Keller, “Preaching in a Post Modern City.” He gives an interesting perspective on how we live and fail to live gospel centered lives. He talks about how we become the changed people that we desire to be and are supposed to be. Speaking about virtue he says,” it particularly grows by a faith-sight of the glory of Christ and his salvation.” I believe that to be true, that seeing Jesus is powerful and causes us to move. He also says, “Is [the gospel] basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done?”