There are seasons in our lives when we are thrown down on the ground and have to come to terms with whom we really are. It may be the break-up of our marriage, forced unemployment by the corporation that we gave our best talents to, or the beak-down of our health.
When we are thrown down by the unexpected turns in life, we will only get up by taking hold of who we actually are. This is a painful season of life, but it most often the means a re-birth of the direction our life needs to move into.
We are living in a cultural shift that has become so individualistic. What actually counts is “what I say is important.’ The self becomes the standard of all action and values. Very little attention is given to the common values that we all must share in order that our society and families may thrive.
Religion is being thrown down on the ground as people feel comfortable in their ‘own’ belief in God and being good. They feel very comfortable in the walk away from organized religion and religious tradition.
In this suffering as we are thrown down on the ground, all believers are being challenged to rediscover that call of Jesus Christ and our call to conversion. The situation of being ignored by a large part of the culture is also the challenge to once again discover what it means to have faith in God’s plan of salvation.
Authentic religious faith is not located in getting religious rituals done. It is all about saying yes with our body and soul to the call of Jesus to become part of God’s great work of salvation. We are being called to share in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The life of each believer must become a living extension of Jesus Christ.
The beautiful gift of our Christian faith is that this can happen in the life of every single believer. There may be a female worker in a chicken processing plant who might relegate herself to being unimportant. We must tell her the truth. ‘You have been given the spirit and the energy of the risen Christ. You are sent by Christ to make present the love and mercy of God among your fellow workers and your family. How you live your life is crucial to the salvation of the world. You may appear insigificant in the society but you are crucial in God’s work of bringing the world to salvation.’
Our Christian life is a journey with and through Jesus Christ. This is a life of turning toward and giving ourselves to the work of the risen Jesus among us, 2022. The work of our worker above may be to help her fellow workers learn to speak English in this new country; it may be supporting a fellow employee who is terribly confused by the addicted life-style of his adult son and it may mean bringing simple basic human respect to all our fellow employees. In all of these, be the very face of Jesus in your work situation.
It is a life-time to conversion and cooperation with the risen Jesus.
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