Summer Endeavors

I've been awful about keeping with the blog lately. I have no excuses. Just life!

But tonight...the boys have all fallen asleep early, I'm actually caught up on grading (two more days of school!), and I'm not motivated to get off this couch and clean up any messes, so I'll write a bit. (Inside, I'm making a personal goal to jot down some thoughts here a little more often, but it makes me a little nervous to write that for fear it won't happen...but this is a start.)

One of my endeavors for summer is a Bible Study with some of my friends from school. I'm excited for the chance to sit on a patio in the summer sun and have some good discussions. Rather than studying a book or follow a study guide, we've decided to just read the Bible. I know I find myself, at times, reading more religious commentary than actually reading the "real thing." So, this summer we decided, let's get back to basics -- just dig into the New Testament, do some journaling, and then chat about what gets us thinking.

I'm into Luke right now and what's got me thinking is the idea that most people, when Jesus was walking on this earth, assumed he was a political savior. They assumed he was coming to save them from their government -- to swoop in and make the world right (which meant, make things better for them as citizens of this world). But, the thing is, he was all about making the world right -- but not in the way they expected.

Doesn't our society still do this? People lift up political leaders, as if they have the power to fix the world, to make everything better. Or, they criticize political leaders in such a way as if to say that if someone else were in power, the world would finally be in order. It seems our society much too often puts its faith in the wrong places.

Electing a good politician isn't going to save us. Passing a new bill isn't going to save us. Lowering or raising taxes isn't going to save us. There is only one person who can save us.

Jesus' message wasn't a political platform -- love your enemies, be humble, take care of each other, show more compassion, slow down enough to do what really matters. It was a personal message -- and a challenging one at that.

The kind of love Jesus challenges us to show can't be governed, it's a day-in, day-out, personal decision to do the right thing, even when it's hard, even when it goes against our human nature. It's not as simple as politics. It's much harder and bigger than that.