JR. Forasteros - July 7, 2013
Be Prepared
We who follow Jesus are anxiously awaiting his return. But how do we wait well? What does healthy waiting look like? Jesus tells a story about 10 bridesmaids waiting for a wedding - 5 who prepare to wait and 5 who don't. Those who don't prepare, who aren't stocked up on oil, miss the wedding. With this story, Jesus invites us to wait well by spending regular time making ourselves available to the Holy Spirit. That preparedness looks like reading scripture, prayer and other spiritual practices.
From Series: "Waiting for the Kingdom"
Jesus' disciples often asked him when his Kingdom would come in full, when this new life he always talked about would arrive. In response, Jesus told several parables that illustrated the tension we feel as we wait for his kingdom to come on Earth as it is in Heaven. Waiting in Jesus' new reality isn't passive. It's an active, intentional patience. So how do we wait well?
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
