the complicated transition from coal to diamond

how many times do we read in scripture about apprentices being blessed by their predecessors as a rite of passage? a lot. the patriarchs, the kings, the prophets- they all speak words of blessing over their young padawans before being released of the work to which they were originally called. it's God's succession plan. even Jesus, baptised by john, prays blessing over his disciples. this moment is a significant passing of the baton, the torch, the scroll or the mantle- you pick the metaphor that works for you.

in each case the follower(s) encounter an intense challenge early on which frames in the faithfulness that will be required, lest anyone think that following will be a comfortable gig, tailor-made to fit the gift mix and passions of any successor. no servant steps into a preformed role ready to fill it. the servant is shaped by it over time and pressure the way diamonds are created out of lumps of coal.

i wonder if we’ve gotten some things a bit turned around a bit in our church culture with all of our talk and training about gift mixes and personal passions. i wonder if we may have even become fickle ministry consumers, trying things for awhile until the thrill, newness and novelty is gone, replaced by an ongoing bumping and grinding that never seems to abate- then wondering if, because we’re no longer passionate about every aspect of the gig, we’re still supposed to be engaged in it.

like involvement in work of God towards the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be easy simply because it’s right...

where is that written down? if anything, the opposite is often true: the things that are right seem to encounter some of the greatest friction in life simply because they are right. look it up: even Jesus' ministry years weren't glorious, trouble-free do-gooding... and he was God!

at my high school graduation commencements, bob chalmers, kamloops city alderman and the father of one of my graduating classmates, was asked to speak a few words about the future to the class of '82. i remember him telling us as we gathered there to celebrate this important life transition that he wasn't gonna lie to us: times were tough and many of us were gonna find ourselves out of work, with families to feed and no hope in the desperation. that there was no point in expecting things to be handed to us because the hands of provision would already be tied up by things like fiscal policy and an uneven and unfair distribution of power and wealth. although it was supposed to be a 'when the going gets tough...' kinda thing, I remember sitting there in the may heat wearing my cap and gown over my three-piece suit, thinking 'Geez- couldn't you lie to us a little?'

still, it was 1982 and we were in the middle of a recession- the man wasn't being cynical; he was just being real. in the years that followed, his prophetic words resounded and proved to be inspirational for me. we had been aptly warned and the world that we bold and beautiful young people were about to inherit would be instrumental in transforming us from our glib and naive arrogance into the meek and the wise the way a work boot must reshape the foot before being reshaped by it on the jobsite.

in his book Desire, writer and scout leader john eldredge posits that '...because we have not solved the riddle of our existence, we assume that something is wrong- not with life but with us.

when i delivered this talk in a sunday morning gathering, i showed what i had found to be an inspiring video clip. featured in it was a man named nick vujicic ('VOY-chik') who has overcome the complex range of human emotions resulting from being born with an overwhelming physical disability: for no medical reason, he has no arms or legs.

at that time, i had not dug deeper into his story in order to find the source of his seemingly limitless optimism. i shared simply that, in my view, he was doing the work of God because he was inviting everyday people to recognize and embrace their own intrinsic value by modelling it in his own life's journey. with a little further snooping around online, however, i discovered the place fromwhich his inner and outer strength originates. his is a spirit-filled life. to live by the spirit is to live in faith and service to maturity and to the realization of God’s dream for you within his larger context.

"The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for his people." (a.w. tozer)