“The church lives in continuity with the life and work of Jesus.”
David Bosch
This is nothing really revolutionary. But, I wonder how many of us really grasp that we carry on the work of Jesus. We are in the long line of Christ followers who, since he sent the first disciples, exist to carry on His work at redeeming creation, caring for the hurting, reaching out the disenfranchised. Basically, loving God and Loving people.
In the midst of this however, a question comes to mind. How do we do this in the midst of great suffering and trials? What does this look like? When the crap hits the fan, do we take a break for this outward mission and focus on ourselves and just try to get our lives in order? What does Jesus call us to as we lose our jobs, lose loved ones, find ourselves unable to pay bills, feed our families and clothe our children? In the midst of desperate struggle, what does it mean to “live in continuity with the live and work of Jesus?”
Last night a group of us got together for a temporary small group on marriage and dating relationships. We are pretty much getting together to talk about the struggles, hopes and joys of relationships. As we do this, we are trying to learn from each other, grow with each other and continue to grow and develop marriages that reflect kingdom values. During our discussion we listed to the story of a married couple that has simply been through the valley lately and this thought came to my mind. How in the midst of all of this are they to live missionally? Now, what is cool is that they are really trying to do this and I believe they are doing it well…
But, I think the question is fair, what does it mean to live missionally in the midst of the suffering of life? I believe that we are not exempt from mission and living the heart of Jesus because things are rough. At the same time, it probably looks much different than when things are smooth…