5/04/2010

Relationships: The Context for Living the Coherent Christian Life

But is it really possible? Sometimes I wonder...

Steve Garber, in his book, The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior (p. 173) wrote,
__“Those who keep on pursuing the vision of a coherent life—one that meaningfully connects the disparate strands of one’s existence—are people who have made the choice to live their lives out among folk who share their vision of the good life.

__“On the other hand, those who seek a self apart from social content and social context, in the end, find themselves disenchanted, disenfranchised, disconnected, disgruntled. This is true to the way the world is: premodern, modern, and postmodern, north, south, east, and west.”

I agree with this statement. It is proven time and time again.

And yet…

It is easier said than done.

In a culture of selfish desires, rugged individualism, the false and insidious gospel of prosperity, and a fear of vulnerability, real social connection with people who share a vision for justice and peace and radical obedience to Christ are hard to come by.

I’ve found it only in small ways. More often than not, I feel disenchanted, disenfranchised, disconnected, and disgruntled. People are just not willing to go that far.

And, truth be told, maybe I am not either.

How can I, along with my wife and kids, become connected with people who share our hearts’ desire to live a coherent Christian life?

2 comments:

Contemplation and Resistance said...

Hello,

I was navigating through your blog and noticed that you have a resources section with helpful links. I wanted to know if you would be willing to place a link to ChristianVolunteering.org and/or UrbanMinistry.org in the resources section of your website. Also I wanted to know if you would allow us to syndicate your blog feed. UrbanMinisty.org receives over 100,000 page views per month. Your new blog entries would be fed into homepage. I would encourage you to create a free profile on our site ChristianVolunteering.org to take advantage of the networking and recruitment capabilities of the site. Keep up the great work.


Cesar Espinoza
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TechMission, 31 Torrey St., Boston, MA 02124

cesar@techmission.org
p: 617-282-9798 ext. 109
f: 617-825-0313

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Unknown said...

I'm in, Bob. We're trying to do this the best we can with our own kids and community. Not all in the community define the content the same, but we're working toward a coherent Christ-centered life nonetheless.