I was given the responsibility yet again of delivering the call to worship before the service began. But this time, I was asked to choose the scripture and decide the emphatic point that would call us to worship. I chose a piece of Isaiah 49, one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture, and drove home God's faithfulness as our motivation for worship. Justin taped a video that I will post at the end of this entry. After the sermon finished, then came the slow and difficult task of saying goodbyes. Really, it was an entire day full of them. It began at church, continued at Harambe, began to conclude at my going away party that evening, and finished with the Blisses just before going to bed. That was not a fun thing to do, but it showed me how many amazing people I had the opportunity to meet over the course of the summer and how much I truly valued my time with them. I did a lot of reading this summer and listened to a lot of sermons, but no book or podcast struck me more profoundly than my time with people and the experiences that came from them.
A lot of those moments happened with my Omaha family and the time that I spent at home with them. Nathan and Shelby Bliss are incredibly gifted with one of my poorest traits - hospitality. They opened up their home to a random guy from Texas, a Longhorn no less, let me play with their son, eat their food, use their washer and dryer, and take up their time in conversation and responded with joy rather than begrudging duty. I applaud them for that. Nathan and I are polar opposites. I think you can even see that by looking at my blog and his blog. He's an extrovert and I'm an introvert. We don't talk the same, react the same, or project the same. And our conversations reflected this. But I gained a lot of wisdom from my time venting and reflecting with Nathan and both his and Shelby's obedience in hospitality was a big conviction for me that I need to be more faithful in welcoming others into my life.
The last three weeks of my time in Omaha were spent studying the book of Colossians. When I reached chapter 3, Will Walker and I discussed how to approach the Bible by looking at the difference between imperatives and indicatives. Far too often, complaints in reference to the Bible come from the fact that people don't want to be told what to do. But the Gospel's imperative commands change when we read them in light of the indicatives. The imperatives of the Bible are not simply rules ("do this and don't do this"). They are God's character being revealed. Sin cannot exist in the presence of the perfect and holy God and the Scriptural imperatives are what we need to embrace. A fundamental truth for all of humanity is that we were created in God's own image (Genesis 1:27). He created us with His emotions and His truth. Our most profound happiness comes from a pursuit of the rhythms of the Gospel. This is an important perspective to have because it changes the focus we have on the commands of the Bible. For example, the imperatives of Colossians 3 are followed by an indicative reasoning for obedience. Wives should submit to their husbands (imperative) because it is fitting to the Lord (indicative). Children should obey their parents (imperative) because it pleases the Lord (indicative). This also applies to difficult passages like Ephesians 5. Wives should submit to their husbands (imperative) because husbands are models of the leadership of Christ (indicative). Similarly, husbands should love their wives (imperative) as Christ loved the church (indicative) - which means die to yourself for them. Even Leviticus models this. Chapter 26 commands that we shall not erect any idols for worship (imperative) because God is the only true God (indicative). This is also important to remember in our approach to people. Always approach bad behavior with the understanding that the Bible is not a book of rules. These commands are God revealing himself to us so that we would have a clear and instructive path to becoming the most joyful beings of all Creation - a true pursuit of our Lord and the reflection of our Savior Jesus in all of our lives. The imperatives of the Bible are meant to teach us the personal indicative truth that we are made in the image of God and to renew us in how we are to live in light of that.
The other really big lesson I want to highlight from this summer was what I learned from the woman who gave me a check through the church for a large amount of money. When I found out about it, my first instinct was to find an outlet to give it away, either by sponsoring a child in Africa, donating to the church, or giving by some other charitable act. But one of the pastors challenged me on my motive and made me reconsider that this gift was an opportunity for me to receive something that I did not deserve and experience the Gospel as a response. This moment revealed a lot to me about how I had approached the Gospel and convicted me of sin in my own life. I was not resting in the free gift of grace that was Christ's death on the cross. Rather, I was trying to be a good person by committing to what I perceived to be the most holy and pure acts in order to make myself feel better about my standing in life. But being good is never enough. Luke 18:9-14 is a stark example of this. Our righteousness does not justify us before the Lord. It is by understanding that we are hopeless outside of the grace of God in sending his son Jesus to die for us in the midst of our sins so that we might be counted righteous in light of his wrath by believing in his forgiveness in response to the confessing of our sins. Plenty of people do good things like fight poverty, feed the hungry, give charitably, but if it is not done for the glory of God then it means nothing eternally. Mark Driscoll says,
"At the root of all sin is the confusion, or inversion, of creator and creation. The worship of created things can be either the worship of things God has made, such as the environment or the human body, or the worship of things we have made, such as the television (which usually sits in the middle of the living room with all of the seats facing it so that hours can be paid in homage to the glowing deity that demands sacrifices not unlike the little shrines present in Buddhist and Hindu homes that are eerily familiar minus the remote control). The result of this error is that a good thing becomes inordinately elevated to a god thing and therefore a bad thing. Often times the god we worship is simply the one we see in the mirror every morning as we brush our teeth." (Vintage Jesus, pg. 168)
With all that I would like to say in regards to this summer, I could probably write an entire book containing all of my thoughts and highlights. But I know one thing is evident: this summer challenged me in ways I have never felt and helped me to become a sharper and more confident leader in my faith. I was not sure exactly what God's purpose for me was in Omaha, but he opened my heart to Truth through many providential relationships and I have seen the fruits of that Truth in my prayers, in my decisions, and in my interactions with others. It also revealed to me just how passionate I am about the city of Austin and how much I want to get back and invest in people through love and grace. Thank you all for being a part of this journey, for your prayers, and for your consistent reading of my usually long and drawn out blogs. Thank you to my new friends in Omaha for stepping out in faith and giving me a place to stay (Bliss family), a job (Cory), and plenty of time to dig into the Word and discover who I am as a child of God. I am planning on starting a blog when I get back to Austin in order to continually update people about what is happening in my life there and hopefully I will be able to be a guest author on Nathan Bliss' blog from time to time! I am home now, but I am not ready to rest. Though this summer has come to a close, nothing has come to an end. I have finished a new chapter, but I am nowhere near the conclusion.
This is only the beginning.
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23
