Return to Egypt?
by Dale on Jan.16, 2010, under Church
After enduring the pain of rejection and the subsequent discovery of freedom, there comes a sort of wistfully imagined clarity that says, “Maybe it can work.” However, I wonder if this is the same seduction of perceived comfort the Israelites expressed when they craved the leeks and garlic of Egypt. Life outside the ABC institution– first experienced as an outcast, but later reinterpreted as an escapee –is no less exhausting either way. We have moved constantly MHBC, DCR, SGBC, IVBC, TPBC (not to mention all the people we’ve met, but with whom we failed to connect by joining their church) till now, and my family refuses to move any further with me. Out here we have had to feed ourselves or starve, and some of us have not faired so well in this journey of faith. There have been no peers to share the sacred path with my children or provide encouragement in their discipleship… for a while, it seemed like we were called to live out the apostolic job description:
“For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession,
like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe,
to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!
We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!
To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we
endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we
have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”
I Corinthians 4:9-13
So now, while I feel that I’ve overcome Moses’ fear of returning to Egypt, I’m hoping to work through the institution to help members discover the joy of an interdependency beyond the more familiar dependency of church membership; how to grow in faithful discipleship which will make the institution a help, rather than a substitute for personal ministry.
January 29th, 2010 on 12:30 am
“not right”? It would be hard for those who are my closest friends to clearly discern the rightness or incorrectness of my comments; so, how do you prove or disprove the movement of such a spirit? I’d really like to know. –Dale
February 2nd, 2010 on 4:18 am
Agreed.