He does not believe, that does not live according to his belief.
... Thomas Fuller
While taking a missions class in Seminary I was given a day of Sabbath. We staying in a Catholic retreat center in West Virginia. While there I wandered the grounds and found a path and began to follow it. It wound through a grove of trees toward the bottom of the hill. I made my way to the bottom but stopped as it turned steep. As I stood there I noticed, to my right, a peaceful stand of trees, a narrow hollow leading further into the woods, places unseen, peaceful and quiet. On my left through the trees I can see traces of buildings; the smell of fast food reaches me when the breeze blows in my direction. I can hear the steady drone of traffic, the world moving from one place to another. Here I stand, between the patient solitude of nature and the frenetic energy of the world. In this place I am a reflection of the Church, poised between the Kingdom of God and the world. Here I can see the tension of the now and not yet of the Kingdom. It would of course be our nature as the Church to make the turn to the right and head into the peaceful woods that seem to beckon to us, yet we are compelled by God to turn to the left, meet the people in that frantic world, and guide them back to the place where we stand. That is the nature of Christianity, we stand with the vision of the Kingdom firmly within our sight, we long to be with our Father, and yet we are charged by the Lord to go into the fields, to head for the streets, and to spread the Gospel to those who are too far away to see the Kingdom as we do.
While taking a missions class in Seminary I was given a day of Sabbath. We staying in a Catholic retreat center in West Virginia. While there I wandered the grounds and found a path and began to follow it. It wound through a grove of trees toward the bottom of the hill. I made my way to the bottom but stopped as it turned steep. As I stood there I noticed, to my right, a peaceful stand of trees, a narrow hollow leading further into the woods, places unseen, peaceful and quiet. On my left through the trees I can see traces of buildings; the smell of fast food reaches me when the breeze blows in my direction. I can hear the steady drone of traffic, the world moving from one place to another. Here I stand, between the patient solitude of nature and the frenetic energy of the world. In this place I am a reflection of the Church, poised between the Kingdom of God and the world. Here I can see the tension of the now and not yet of the Kingdom. It would of course be our nature as the Church to make the turn to the right and head into the peaceful woods that seem to beckon to us, yet we are compelled by God to turn to the left, meet the people in that frantic world, and guide them back to the place where we stand. That is the nature of Christianity, we stand with the vision of the Kingdom firmly within our sight, we long to be with our Father, and yet we are charged by the Lord to go into the fields, to head for the streets, and to spread the Gospel to those who are too far away to see the Kingdom as we do.
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