“The important question to ask is not, “What do you believe?” but “What difference does it make that you believe?” Does the world come nearer to the dream of God because of what you believe?”
– Verna Dozier, The Dream of God (via inward/outward)
This month has been one crazy month and hopefully will end its intensity when I step into August. But there were little pockets of space where good questions resurfaced to keep me in check. After 7 years of exploring various dimensions of life, faith and ministry, especially with the realization of my limits as a human being, perhaps it’s time to settle and REALLY focus on a number of key areas which may have been neglected due to more experimental pursuits.
By nature, I think I will still have that kind of itch … it’s more of I have less energy to scratch every itch which comes along my way. And that includes being sucked into other people’s agenda and itches. There are times when I find myself trying too hard to empathize and understand that I’m distracted from the dream of God which ultimately should be leading the way. Egos abound in the internet age. Tribalism redresses itself with high sounding lingo too. Frankly, I’m plain tired after a while. And I can accept the reality that this kind of environment won’t go away in the near future. We live with it. But that’s different from allowing one’s life to be sucked from a more life giving direction. Only when we are centered on the dream of God can we handle the multiple nightmares that may come our way.
And in the world of conflicting beliefs and declarations or even confessions, I’m sitting here coming back to more earthy stuff. The stuff that really matters. Stuff that makes a difference for me, for others, and for the surrounding world I live in. I’m challenged once again to ask whether because I believe it’s making any difference in the world today. Very often, the content of the conversations on the lips of Christians are tempted towards rants, complaints, preferences, dissatisfactions , frustrations and /or speculations. It would be a great bonus if there are more who will commit to a path where “the world comes nearer to the dream of God because of what we believe.”
Oh yes … I’m happy that Nat Tan is released. Conversations and prayer over his matter has become raw material for me to reflect upon the last couple of days. I salute my friend Bob Kee for his moment of fame and clear thinking during the interview on Nat Tan : BBC Radio’s Live Five Coverage