|
The world is big. That's just one of the things The Panic Squad has learned in our travels. Though cool tech advances have seemingly made our world smaller and easier to access, there is still so much out there we are clueless about. We think it's a good idea to be informed about the world outside our everyday bubble. The Hall of Justice highlights issues that The Panic Squad thinks about, cares about, and would like to let you in on. Let us know what you think. Pop over to our myspace page (see link below) and post a comment on our blog with the same title as this current entry. Looking forward to hearing from you.
| |
EXPERIMENTS IN TRUTH |
|
|
|
I was reading an article a few weeks ago in GEEZ Magazine and one line stuck out to me. It read, "The notion of experimenting lowers the stakes a bit. It opens up some welcome space between all or nothing." The writer was referring to Mohandas Gandhi and the title of his autobiography The Story of My Experiments With Truth. "From death defying fasts and mass civil disobedience, to spinning his own nifty little loincloths, he was experimenting with meaning. Freely adapting, trying whacky stuff, mediating, changing his mind. Always drawn by the possibility of a gracious, some what faltering movement in the general direction of truthful living." For many in the church the phrase "experimenting with truth" seems incongruous with our belief in the One True God. But if you read the phrase again, I don't believe the challenge is to universalize truth. Rather the challenge is to test that which we hold to be true. If we honestly believe in a God of grace, peace and reconciliation how does that truth manifest itself in our daily living? If God's promise are true (I am always with you - Matt 28:20, Joshua 1:5; My sheep hear my voice John 10:14, 27; Call on me and I will answer, Jeremiah 33:3) what might our prayer lives look like? If we are the hands and feet of Jesus himself, where is justice in the world? The Panic Squad boys and I often talk about how our faith plays itself out both in our personal lives and in our Panic Squad world. And though we find each other encouraging, we can often find ourselves rehashing the same bit of CDTSIBCOBDAAAHOTGA (Cultural Details That Seem Important But Can Often Be Divisive And Aren't Always Heart Of The Gospel Anyhow). Perhaps I need to experiment with truth a bit more (and my ability to create acronyms); sort through what is central and what is peripheral and then act accordingly. Perhaps you might try experiments in truth as well. Here are a few ideas, experiments that might undermine the polarity with which we often live out our faith and open up some room for truthful living. 1. Is there something I can give up for the sake of standing against sweatshops, oil consumption, financial debt? 2. Is there a lifestyle change that I can make that reminds me of our brothers and sisters in developing nations? 3. What if prayer became a practice of listening and believing what I heard, rather than asking and moving forward as though God has no real influence in my day? 4. What if I looked for and acted on the things that I have in common with other believers rather than the things that are different? 5. What if I gave up on devotions and actually studied the bible so I understood God's story? 6. What else?
~ Scott Campbell.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
