The Kingdom.

I've been having some really good meetings with some really wise people. Here's what I've been learning.

1) The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
My job is not to do God's work, but to find it, participate in it, and point others to it. As an usher of the Kingdom, my main function is to recognize it and lead others to do the same.

2) The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.
My job is not to fix everything and there will not be a time when everything is fixed until Kingdom come. Instead I live an example of faith. The results of real, deep, hard, spiritual questions are not answers, but healing. God takes our complicated me-centered piles and heals our brokenness. Before our Creator, our questions are not answered, but cease to be. My job is not to tell someone everything they need to know, but to do life with them.

3) The Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great price.
When you find it you will sell everything you have and immediately go buy it.

4) The Kingdom never seems to make sense at first glance... but it is oh so good.

Some good quotes from the book I'm reading with Joey and Mike-- Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen.

"No truth can be found unless there is a search for meaning, recognition of human vulnerability and limitation, relationships with trusted spiritual friends, and openness to the disclosure of the transcendent mystery of God, before whom all questions cease."

"In spiritual listening, we encounter a God who cannot be fully understood, we discover realities that cannot be controlled, and we realize that our hope is hidden not in the possession of power but in the confession of weakness."

"When God enters into the center of our lives to unmask our illusion of possessing final solutions and to disarm us with always deeper questions, we will not necessarily have an easier or simpler life, but certainly a life that is honest, courageous, and marked with the ongoing search for truth."


Life, in short, is wonderful in the service of Him who called me.