Why are you here?

Why are you here?

Conversation is important (see past blog!).  However the content of the conversation is just as important, if not more so.  The same is true of the church.  Church is important, but the content of the church is more so.  What do we talk about in church?   Words like core values, mission, and vision fly around like bats in a cave.  Goals, planning, circles, potlucks socialsmeetingscommitteesdiscussionsprayergroups…….

 We gather on Sundays to discuss these things corporately.  We write brochures and create advertising to let the community know who we are.  We build new services to invite people into our building and to engage culture.  We write, preach, teach, and serve coffee. Why?  We say that our mission is why, but why is our mission our mission?  Why are we here at all?  Why are you here, in this community?  Why am I here?

Today, feeling melodramatic and a bit depressed, I stuck a sign on the wall in front of my computer with this question: “Why am I here?”  The implication is not physical presence, but spiritual.  Why am I in Christian community, in ministry, in faith?  It is not a question we would (or should) print in brochures  (how would a visitor feel reading that!)  But the question is not for them.  The question is for us – for me.  It is a question that I/we once knew the answer to in my/our heart but have forgotten because we stopped asking.

So, even though it’s an uncomfortable question, I ask myself - Why are you here?

Silence.

I am here because I believe that the Love of God is drawing me (and the whole world) into a relationship with Him.  I believe this because I am convinced that Jesus of Nazareth, who lived over 2000 years ago, was (and is) the physical presence of God; that He came to physically touch humanity, showing us God’s unconditional love in touchable ways; that he offered a self-sacrificing love to all, even me; that he invited everyone he met into this love and that the invitation extends to every generation, even ours, through the story of His life.

I am here because the unconditional Love that I find in Christ compels me to love others unconditionally- to offer a radical hospitality, which is love in action.  It is proactive (instead of passive), living (as opposed to remembered), outward focused (rather than bellybutton gazing), hands on (not hands off), seeing (as opposed to turning a blind eye), and open to all (not exclusive).  “Theology is auto-biography.”

I am here because it is completely and utterly impossible to live this radical life of faith alone.  As I am, I cannot offer unconditional love on my own and need to experience the unconditional love of others.  I believe that when I interact with God and with other people of faith that I will be changed – become a better human being and in essence more like God.  As I am changed, more of me is saved from self-destruction – more of who I am and was meant to be emerges - the part that will last into an eternity that I can’t completely understand.

I am here because God made me to be a creating creation, invited to join with him in His beautiful art work both in the earth and in humanity.  I believe this invitation is inseparably linked to the invitiation to Love and so I am compelled to care for the earth in the same manor that I care for my neighbor; so I seek to find and offer justice to both humanity and the environment.

I am here…

This may be more about me than you, but all the same, don’t forget.  Don’t forget why you’re here.  If you have - every meeting, every plan, every activity, every committee, is as Shakespeare said, “sound and fury signifying nothing.”

Why are you here?