what world you livin in

it's late, so this may not make sense, but i've been thinking about this all day...

every morning at work, when i'm the only one there, i listen to podcasts; the thundering herd, bs report, mars hill (grand rapids), epiphany fellowship, or sanctuary covenant church.  this morning i listened to a sermon from mars hill and skye jethani was the speaker and his topic was an eye for an eye from the sermon on the mount (click to download).  he spoke of how anyone who reads this exhortation to turn the other cheek for the first time is thinking, 'what world did this guy live in? in this world living like that will get ya killed.'  and yeah it got jesus crucified.  but using an illustration from Dr. Martin Luther King's life, Skye began to share that in a world where we understand that God is with us, it causes this statement to make sense.  if God is with us, if God is with me, then what shall i fear?  it was the reassurance that God would be with MLK that gave him the strength to continue forward no matter the threats made on his life and family.  skye even took it to the next level of if God is with us, then how we live would change...rather than seeking our own safety, we would begin to think of and live for the other person...even the one persecuting us...

as i continued picking up trash from around the neighborhood, i was forced to reflect on this type of world, one in which God was fully present. after this sermon, Lauryn Hill's song 'To Zion' came on...and while my mind was still fully digesting the words in the sermon, the song caused my mind to drift into the matrix...the movie, not the actual matrix.  in the matrix movies, 'zion' was their place of safety, their home, the place they retreated to when the machine's would attack (which the machine's made it there anyway)...

...what if we came to the realization that the world we live in could be our 'zion'...our place of safety, because in our world, God is present...we live in a 'God with us' world (not in the 'with us, not you' sense...cause that's just silly)...the incarnation shows us that this is the world we now reside in.  what if we fully allowed that realization to shape our interactions with the rest of the world, how do they change?  is there anything to fear?  anything that could cause anxiety? worry?  what would we have to retreat from?  would we have to retreat to anywhere?

take a moment, ask yourself, do you live in a 'God-with-us' world....