Revisited: The call to a counterintuitive life in our century

To leave the comfort of your boat and walk on water, it was counterintuitive. 

And remember that guy who left his family in Ur Kaśdim for an unknown destination; it was counterintuitive. 

To die for the people who betrayed you in the first place, that was major counterintuitive. 

That was only You, God, and those biblical heroes could do such things. I don't think many of Your teachings are applicable in this day and age, I oftentimes argue. Or they are, but it's just too hard, barely possible to implement. 

The faceless culture of corporate world.  The profit-oriented nature of businesses.  The competitiveness that aims to see your competitor(s) as an enemy to eliminate. Value people in high places.  Evaluate one's worth of our attention based on how they look, speak.

If you come to think of it, how could one cope with the 2 forces of abiding with His teachings and remaining to make sense in this current world we live in.


In a dog-eat-dog world: human nature
 

We're on the third session of Christ in Synoptic Gospels class with the family I've been attending and last week we touched on His teachings. 

It was made clear to us that, not only He knew how to be relevant to His audience -- a prostitute, a group of knowledgeable religious leaders, widows, you name it -- in His 100% man and 100% God nature, Christ has the perfect understanding of our human nature. 

I was thinking, if our fallen human nature has robbed from us the joy of living a counterintuitive calling, then perhaps it doesn't really matter whether you live in this century, or 10 centuries ago, or decades in the future, putting into practice the counterintuitive teachings of Christ would always have its own challenges.

We may have different distractions, different cultural biases, now in this lifetime.  It doesn't necessarily mean that the people in Jesus' era and environment were in a better situation.  This counterintuitive life we are called to remains challenging across generations.  Hence, in the same breath His counterintuitive teachings should remain relevant and applicable to any audience in any given era.

What do You think my heart is made of?

If my heart could ache so much striving to live a counterintuitive life amidst the distorted perspectives, selfish ambitions, fallen systems in a fallen world, all the more His missional heart... who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).