Looking Beyond Our Imagined Good

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating." Simone Weil

It deeply saddens me that on the whole, Christians have done an awful job creating a vision of GOOD that is "new, marvolous and intoxicating." Instead, we've focused on two important, but completed aspects of our faith.

The first is redemption. It is important because it is the foundational truth for everything we believe. Christ's death, burial and resurrection redeemed us from the curse of sin and has made us new again. It is also complete. There is nothing more to do beyond His saving act.

Second is "the don'ts." Outside of salvation, the other focus of the church is what not to do or say. We've reduced our remaining time on earth to a mission focused on staying within a series of restricting and stifling rules. Now, like redemption, these are important because they are absolute truth and we are called to follow them. But once again, these rules are complete - they were written a LONG time ago.

Now, let me stress that I am NOT saying we should not focus on these things. We should. They are two pillars of the faith. But there's more that we never mention. We tell folks to NOT do this, or NOT do that, without giving them compelling alternatives. Nature abhors a void, and not offering replacements for the bad stuff means it will ultimately come back in. This has left people to lead grasping lives that are, or will be, "gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring."

It's sad. The people around us are literally DYING to see life manifested. Grab hold of God's gift.