Come and see

Wow! No blog yesterday. I simply didn't have time. And today is already stacking up to be extra busy. So I'll just share a short thought from yesterday evening's small-group meeting at church.

My men's Bible-study is looking at some of the "spiritual disciplines" Richard Foster describes in his book. It's a helpful study/discussion because there is always so much more to learn.

The spiritual is, by definition, unfathomable; it deals with the infinite and the mysterious. Spiritual life, then, is a constant journey - it has to be. One huge problem with being Christian in the North American cultural milieu is our tendency to want to control everything about our lives. The only way to control the spiritual aspect is to limit our exposure to the point that what we have is small enough for us to A) understand and B) bury in a manageable nook, somewhere fairly shallow where we can keep an eye on it.

Yes, that's a harsh generalization. But generalizations like that can be useful in terms of painting a picture. The picture is me (and probably you) keeping God at arms length, and being very suspicious of anything we can't easily control.

Remember the lion, Aslan, from C.S. Lewis's Narnia series? The lion would growl when the children asked if he was "tame", or "safe". How tame is your Jesus?

In my men's group we're at least talking about the possibility that God may just want us to step out of our safe zones. Personally, I'm both intrigued and on guard.

More later today if I have time. Meanwhile enjoy the scripture (from John 1) that's on my heart this morning:

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"

They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

"Come," he replied, "and you will see."