His Kingdom, Our Dream

Have you ever experienced that feeling you get when you know-you absolutely know-that you're exactly where you need to be? I have. It's the feeling I got as I watched Jonny and Dani pull in to the bus station parking lot to pick me and Luke up. It's the feeling I got when I met my first roomie, who knows the same people as I do from an obscure surf town in Chile. It's the feeling I got when I got to Sam's house to reunite with my old friends and connect with some new ones. It's the feeling I got at breakfast this morning as Werner, the base director and leader of SLAM, began talking about his vision for these next eight weeks. I found myself close to tears as he talked about the very thing I have been wrestling with since I arrived home in August- the dichotomy between western culture and Kingdom culture and what it looks like to live the life God has called us as followers to live. God is so good. He is so trustworthy. He is so wise. He knows where we need to be and when we need to be there. He even knows why. Even when He doesn't explain those things to us, He knows, and our job is not to demand an explanation from Him, but to trust in His infinite wisdom and obey Him without question. 

This week, we're doing a series on passion. It's already been totally awesome and we've only listened to an hour of speaking so far. Here are a few things Lloyd said that really hit me:

-"passion" comes from a Latin word that means "to suffer for" 

-passion is more than an emotion; it helps us to determine what our beliefs are

-"If we actually believed in Hell, we would live like it. If we actually believed in Heaven, it would affect our attachment to things in this world."

And here are a few notes I jotted down about what's been going through my head today:

-I am so excited about this time for God to seriously convict my heart and to continue to radically transform my passions into His. 

-What I see around me is a generation of young people eager to throw away the comforts and securities of this world to live for something that is much greater than that. I see a generation of mobilizers, leaders, and world-changers. I see a radical, restless generation ready to live life the way God intended for us to. We are on fire and not about to settle for anything less than the fullness of life which was promised to us. 

I realize this is scatter-brained. However, I feel like that's better than it being nonexistent. 

You may have noticed my blog posts from when I was at home were in a bit of a different tone than my previous and most recent posts. I was feeling a ton of frustration because the issue of living radically for the Lord was brought to the forefront of my attention, and I didn't have much to fill my mind with aside from that. I read this book (for those of you who don't really know me, that is a feat. I haven't read an entire book for ages) called Radical by David Platt. I've talked about it before, but I finished it a few days ago, and it produced so much conviction and frustration that I didn't know what to do with. It was an incredible book. So phenomenal. But I knew that if I didn't do anything with the contents, it would have been for nothing. Trying to figure out what to do was the really hard part. It sucked. It agonized me to think about. I had no idea what to do with all the thoughts in my head, all the revelations, all the truth. I figured I would come here, to SLAM, and I would get a little community, a little clarity as to what it looks like to live out the Great Commission. Notice- I said A LITTLE. This is (basically) the third paragraph in the welcome letter Werner and Lisa wrote to us:

"The theme for this seminar is 'His Kingdom, Our Dream'... The Kingdom of Jesus and the ramifications of His reign in our lives and in our societies is one of the most fascinating and intriguing things to ponder: Has the Kingdom already arrived? Or when will it come and what will that look like? How will our lives and our societies be changed because of it? Where do we start? All those and many more questions are there to be pondered and in the midst of it, you're wondering about your particular place and assignment." 

Try to tell me that God didn't plan this. If you heard me talking about coming back to LA and what I'm doing here, pretty much my answer was "Something to do with ministry development, but I really have no idea." Well. God had an idea. I know I already talked about this at the beginning of my post, but I really wanted to expand upon it to make a point to you readers: 

YOU+GOD=MAJORITY

A very wise man, aka my dad, told me that. When God tells you to do something, no matter what anyone else says, no matter how anyone else feels, no matter how irresponsible and illogical it sounds, our job as His followers is not to understand His reasoning but to obey Him fully without question. Why? Because. He knows better. How arrogant are we that we think we deserve an explanation from God? How can we, the merely created, ever have a smidgen of hope that we could understand our infinite Creator?  

I invite you to come with me on the next chapter of my adventure with God. I know big things are about to happen. I challenge you to not just read what I'm writing for entertainment or information, but to take in my words and decide what you're going to do about them. Decide if I'm speaking truths or if I'm mistaken. Decide if I'm totally off-base or if I'm on track with what God says in His word. I'm going to say things that will offend you. I make no apology in that statement. I will do my best to offend with real, Biblical truth and not with my own crazy thoughts, but realize that just because you disagree does not mean that the statement isn't Biblical. I think it's time that we stop being concerned about our truths and start being concerned with God's. I think it's time that we stop being wrapped up in what we think living a Christian life looks like and start really looking at what Jesus said about following Him. Notice that I say 'we' and not 'you'. I realize that I have to include myself in my statements. I realize that I'm not above reproach, that I'm not doing it right, that I'm flawed just like everyone else. But I am not content to stay where I'm at, and I hope that you feel the same way. 

With much love,

Ash