As simple as a conversation

I am constantly amazed at the ways that God seeps into my life, speaks into it. Speaks through others. Like today. I went to the library after work to study one of my least favorite subjects at the moment: ecology. But it was bearable because I got the chance to spend some time with a friend of mine I haven’t hung out with in over a year. This particular friend has been on my heart for awhile and I was overjoyed at the start of this semester when I found out that he would be in my class. Infrequently, thoughts will come across my mind about an old friend who I regrettably did not take the chance to get to know better or have relevant, meaningful conversations with. I think about my first couple years at college when I was still a seeker, not yet a Christian, and the friendships I had made. How those relationships could have been different. How, if only I knew Jesus then, I could have shared something special with Mike, who’s now off graduated and attending some law school or his roommate Mark who’s God knows where now. Those relationships sprouted up and died almost as in a flash it seems. But I thank God for his sovereign nature and his open ears. For the fact that I can trust Him to reach those I foolishly let slip by then and for listening to my continuous prayers for them even now.

I’m reminded of a verse from last night’s Common Ground, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” – Ephesians 2:10 and the comment Clayton made about how God works in our lives. He is not only working on us from the inside, but from the outside as well, through every aspect and avenue and situation of our lives. Most of the time we are not cognizant of it, but he is nonetheless there. God really is the great weaver of this enormous tapestry we call Life. Every day, a new thread is added, every day a new part of us and his divine personality is revealed. If only we would see it….

I have been contemplating all sorts of things lately, like I usually do. It’s like my mind never stops. Not for a moment. Danilo is the same way. And I love it! I saw another facet of Jesus’ omnipotence today. Jeremy has said before: “Jesus is Lord over all our lives. He is King of our finances, our places of employment, our families, our education. Today I realized just how much control he can have over my schooling and classes if only I’d let him. God gives us so many opportunities and circumstances to use for his glory and good news. As I sat there with Danilo, talking, laughing, sharing perspectives about matters like business, money, religion, tolerance, intolerance, ingrained institutions, emerging technologies, food and energy…..I realized the great similarities and dissimilarities between the two of us. I laughed at his suggestion that all people are good, contesting that instead we (complete with a hand gesture indicting the whole library) are not only bad, but actually inherently evil. His skeptical look invited further explanation and discussion, yet we both knew that would have to be postponed for another time. We have a lot to talk about. And I see Jesus using this occasion to study ecology as just such a mechanism. I love how we talked more about things like the ignorance of white, Midwestern Americans and the supposed existence of aliens than questions like “How does scale affect the study of ecology?” or “How is evolution important in ecological change?”

Jesus just shows up wherever he wants to. I think that’s flipping hilarious and awesome. I also like how he can even talk through nonbelievers sometimes. I swear, when Danilo was voicing his concerns about the future of America and his own personal investigation into various religions, he said and asked so many questions that could be answered and understood through the lens of Jesus himself. I’m really happy to see him thinking critically about the complex issues and systems that plague this world. I’m even more ecstatic that he admits to being a dreamer and closet idealist. Whoo-hoo! A partner in crime! I dream every day of a world that is just and mended from its rampant brokenness. I fanaticize relentlessly of a world where the way things “should be and should always have been” becomes a beautiful reality. Where the idealists of every nation not only look at the problems and unmaterialized solutions, but dream, obsess, crave even, through their own innovation and ingenuity, a way to challenge the inequality of the status quo. Not only that, though. Because if that were the end we had in mind, some kind of humanistic salvation, we are truly doomed forever.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” – Ephesians 2:4-5.

We not only need idealists with hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow, we need aspiring influencers who have been touched by the hand of God and who share their intimate knowledge of him with others. Who do not just critique the world around them, but offer insights into its restoration. The love and grace and kindness of Jesus finding real, tangible, alive expression through his people is my persistent hope and dream….and it can all start with something as simple as a conversation.