Living, Not Perfection
What could it mean to follow Jesus in a world that seems impossible to get right? What if, instead of overthinking and striving for perfection, we focused on living, one moment at a time?
Here is how Jesus taught us to live, in the good and the bad: eating together, crying together, forgiving each other, laughing together, loving our enemies, sharing our loaves and fishes and expecting abundance. He showed us that the kingdom of God is here among us, doing big and bold things in unexpected ways and through unexpected people.
To follow this way means asking each other where we are being invited to be salt and light and being brave enough to simply show up as ourselves, resurrection people loved by God and saved by grace.
We don’t know what the exact end result will be, but the resurrection reminds us that God is at work with us in the middle of uncertainty and challenge. Placing our hope in God’s literal rising from the dead power allows us to show up, ask what we could be missing, and join in.
I am learning that the paradox, and there is always a paradox in this crazy faith, is that letting go and showing up means we get to see resurrection everywhere, in the rhythms of our days in ways that are both ordinary and utterly impossible to predict. It’s Jesus fishing on the shore, it is community members talking to each other, it’s new ways of understanding the world through welcome, it is the ability to see where I could have gotten something wrong and even apologize. As we do, new ways forward open up that change everything.
This passage originally appeared as part of Peace is More Than a Wish.