My Death in Life

The conversation turned to something that I am very passionate about- church. We were updating each other on strategies to participate and further integrate into the local church that we both attend. In the midst of this I shared some thoughts that I have been going through in the weeks that I have become a member and started taking steps to committing to this particular organized community. If anyone knows me, this turn was loquacious and had many connections to many other thoughts. All of to which my gracious friend had a blank stare and then made a comment to side step a lot of what I introduced and tried to get back to the flow of the conversation.

At first I was confused and a little surprised at the abrupt change of conversation (probably as surprised as he was when I started). But then it made sense. A lot of what I ranted on about spoke to what just took place in our conversation (the irony that this friend and I had a laugh about later). It is all summed up in the idea of thoughtfulness.

Thoughtfulness, as I am using it, is having a goal in mind and then thinking through all actions and consequences that lead to said goal. Yes, that does take a lot of time. Yes, it does require a lot more than can come out of one man.

The amount of time and focus that thoughtfulness requires is quite counter cultural to us in America. You need time to figure out your goal and vision. It requires a lot of space so that you have time to play out strategies, work in hypotheticals, look into questions. But what happens when you take that time is that you will have more time for when the actual circumstances come up. If you start something off from a thoughtful stance it is easier to have space to remain thoughtful while things are happening. This is counter to what seems to be an American trend of putting in enough thought to come up with an efficient plan that will then keep people busy to meet an immediate goal or need. In this trend, it is very much a trial and error where things can be fixed on the fly. Resources are spent more on repair than foresight.

It also creates space for when emergencies or unforeseen interruptions occur. Why do we have emergency servicemen practice emergency situations? So they know what to do and they can adapt to each specific situation. Despite the panic and fear that surround them they can default to a plan. It is like Jason Bourne- so well prepared that you are able to execute things perfectly on the fly. This is connected to another thing America is generally poor at- hospitality. When you leave space where you can be interrupted you are in a better position to deal with the interruption as well as what you normally had planned.

Thoughtfulness can also not come from one person. One person has one set of eyes, one set of experiences, one set of skills and discipline. Thoughtfulness requires the help of many people to bring their differences for the common goal and look toward meeting that goal in unity. With other people, one person is able to overcome their limitations and truly try to come to an idea from all angles. And hopefully, in good community, they can get closer to the form.

I hope this to be something that Christianity develops in people inherently. As our focus is pulled toward something that is eternal and perfect, hopefully we are able to reflect on how that affects things presently. That would be the effect of something being already, but not yet, no? To bring this full circle I shall end with this: "What the church is, in short, is determined by what the church is destined to become."- Stanley Grenz