Greetings - What you read or view in this blog is a mixture of what I muse on, feel passionately about, wrestle with, and or capture by word or photo. I choose to name this blog amalgam because that is what this blog is. You may also here from other contributors who will add perspective to push you to consider what you believe and why you believe it. -
Tory Campbell - Lead Pastor
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29
Time to Purge
April 29, 2010
When was the last time you purged long-held ideas that no longer served you? Released things you'd clung to only because they provided nostalgic and predictable outcomes? Change is one of life's most painful necessaries. As much as we think we are adventurous, nimble and progressive, too often we are fearful, loathing of and repulsed by change.
My wife loves to purge my stuff and often does it without my permission. What she throws away, sells at her famous garage sales or gives away are the clothes that don’t serve me well anymore, but only provide me nostalgic and predictable outcomes. In this case, the nostalgic and predictable outcomes are that the clothes fit a certain way or conjure up “my look”--even if the crotch of my pants are blown out or the sleeves of my shirt are paper-thin after hundreds of wearings and washings.
Often in our lives, cultural shifts occur when someone or some circumstance comes in and begins to pull at our worn-thin or blown-out preferences or ideas revealing their inability to keep us relevant. What are we to do? Do we grab for the needle and thread to try to repair our old, ratty ways, or do we courageously put on new and improved modes of thinking, living and being? The church is dynamic, not static, and yet it is easy for us to crave a tradition frozen in time that brings us back each week to a moment of sweet nostalgia. I say, it's time to throw out those worn-out and tattered methods of doing church and allow God to introduce us to a world that is ever-changing and demanding a fresh new us. Jesus’ teachings, though unchanging, are continually alive for those willing to see with fresh eyes that which is attractive, alluring and freeing--His good news.
So let us not be those who say "give me the needle and thread," or "give me the patch," or those who throw up their hands when the old clothes don't fit. But let us be those who say "Jesus, give me the new, the fresh." Though I may want to live in the past, though I may want to hold onto those old threads...Man, I'm ready get me those skinny jeans.
