Am I useful?
I have been grappling with questions of whether I am involved in the right things for me at the moment. Even though I enjoy student ministry, I don't always feel like I am tremendously useful, and have been wondering if I should do something to change that.
Tonight I read something incredibly encouraging in Jacques Ellul's "The Presence of the Kingdom".
"In a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most useful things a Christian can do is to live - and life, understood from the point of view of faith, has an extraordinary explosive force. We are not aware of it, because we only believe in "efficiency", and life is not efficient. But this life alone can break the illusions of the modern world by showing everyone the utter powerlessness of a mechanistic view.
... what we need is to rediscover all that the fullness of personal life means for a man standing on his own feet in the midst of the world, who rediscovers his neighbor because he himself has been found by God. In the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit we receive the answer to this work of God, and we are bewildered because we are no longer very sure about the way forward, which no longer depends on us, and we hesitate as we look at this way which lies open befor eus, whose end we cannot see; we have only one certainty, and that is the promise which has been made to us of a certain order, which God guarantees: "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you". (Matt 6:33)
... Today we can only live in dependence on that promise, that actually "all these things" will be given us, in addition to the Kingdom, which is both promised and granted to us." (1989:77-78)
Tonight I read something incredibly encouraging in Jacques Ellul's "The Presence of the Kingdom".
"In a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most useful things a Christian can do is to live - and life, understood from the point of view of faith, has an extraordinary explosive force. We are not aware of it, because we only believe in "efficiency", and life is not efficient. But this life alone can break the illusions of the modern world by showing everyone the utter powerlessness of a mechanistic view.
... what we need is to rediscover all that the fullness of personal life means for a man standing on his own feet in the midst of the world, who rediscovers his neighbor because he himself has been found by God. In the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit we receive the answer to this work of God, and we are bewildered because we are no longer very sure about the way forward, which no longer depends on us, and we hesitate as we look at this way which lies open befor eus, whose end we cannot see; we have only one certainty, and that is the promise which has been made to us of a certain order, which God guarantees: "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you". (Matt 6:33)
... Today we can only live in dependence on that promise, that actually "all these things" will be given us, in addition to the Kingdom, which is both promised and granted to us." (1989:77-78)
posted by Bronwyn at 3:09 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home