ReAlignment
In the beginning of his chapter on responding to Jesus’ message, Brian McLaren includes a very important and, to me, a clear calling the speaks to the way my faith is being shaped right now. I thought it would be important to share this snippet.
"The first move is to hear from the heart and to think deeply about what you hear. ‘All who have ears to hear,’ Jesus said, ‘let them hear.’ Hearing in this deep way means more than listening: it means thinking, and more than thinking. It means rethinking everything in light of the secret message. As we’ve seen, this profound rethinking is what the word repent means. It means that you begin looking at every facet of your life again in this new light — from the way you think about God to the way your treat your spouse, from your political affiliations to your spending habits, from what makes you angry to what makes you happy. It doesn’t mean everything changes all at once, but it means you open up the possibility that everything may change over time. It involves a deep sense that you may be wrong, wrong about so much, along with the sincere desire to realign around what is good and true."
- The Secret Message of Jesus, pg. 105
I feel like I am in that realignment phase in my life, and I have been for a few years. Like McLaren says, it doesn’t happen all at once, but slowly Jesus’ message begins to change the way we approach all our decisions, long term and short term, and requires us to reevaluate the way our lives look.
