(I just felt like continuing this theme of reminiscing on old posts. Here’s one more.)
This may be hard to communicate what I'm actually thinking, but I must try anyways.
Something that has kind of been on my mind/bothering me is:
As Christians, what are our defaults?
For instance:
Is our default to be rich/middle class and minister to that group of people OR be poor and minister to that group of people?
Take the birth control pill OR natural family planning OR condoms OR absolutely nothing?
Live in a nice, safe neighborhood OR not (aka. inner city, in a rural area, the ghetto, etc)?
Send kids to public school OR home school?
Vote republican OR not (aka. democratic, third party, not vote, etc)?
Stay in America because that is where you are and it makes sense OR go somewhere else?
Make money or just don't (just enough to live)?
Buy stuff from the grocery store or make my own food, clothing, etc?
Have al biological babies or adopt?
Go to college or don’t?
I am not saying what is the right choice in ANY of these. In fact, I think all of these options can be the right choice at any given time.
My question is about our default.
There are certain options we choose automatically as our "default.”
It’s our gut instinct. We automatically go there. Every single person as defaults. It is human nature.
After we go to our default, THEN we stop, question, pray, and say, should we be doing something different?
And I am just wondering if our default options look a whole lot more like our society's defaults rather than Jesus' teachings.
I wonder if we can make our defaults look more like a culture of Jesus followers, and THEN we stop, question, pray about if we should do something more like our society.
I’m not saying our society’s defaults are somehow always wrong. But I just wonder if we could flip our defaults and the way we function. Just a little flip. Nothing crazy.
Just some examples I’ve thought about.... which can all be debated about whether or not they should be defaults. But i guess it is how I see it, as of now....
Birth control:
Obviously, I've come to no affirmative conclusion on this given that I am nowhere near making that decision. My thought: Why does it seem to be default that Christian couples just take the pill? Why isn't the thought process more like, 'we're getting married, knowing that we are to fill the earth. That children are a gift from God. And we trust Him to give us that gift whenever--even if we think we're not ready. We trust Him more than our own plans. He knows us better than we know ourselves so let’s let him decide the timing....Okay maybe we have extreme circumstances, so we can't have babies right now and God has made that clear, but we're not going to take something that could possibly abort a baby and/or can mess up my body....Okay we have extreme circumstances, and we've really prayed about it. And we've done a lot of research and we think it works for us to take the pill...."
I'm not saying that 'taking the pill' means you’re not trusting God. Please don't hear me say that. But I just wonder why our default seems to be “just to take it.” Why isn't our default to trust God more and His ways in family, in children, and just in our own personal relationship with him? I guess I just don't think we should be so quick to do things that "everyone else" just does.
Home schooling:
Why is our default just to send our kids away to public school system that raises our kids instead of thinking about how we can train up our kids ourselves in a more full way? How do we think that parents will be able to influence their kids more than the world if the world gets to spend waaaaay more time with them than the parents?
Again, not saying home schooling is for everyone. But I wonder if our default should be for parents to raise and teach their children as much as possible and THEN if it’s just not gonna work for the parents to do that, through lots of praying and thinking, then of course whatever the Lord says goes.
Adopting:
Okay it’s just straight up a command from God to take care of the orphans. I don't know how much more "default"ish you can get from that. Sure, have you own children. But why not follow God's very direct command to take care of the orphans. Not saying everyone is suppose to adopt, but I am saying WAY more Christians should be doing so than they are now. Adopting should be a default, unless God makes it very clear that you shouldn't--through LOTS of prayer and community counsel.
How we consume:
I probably could go off on this one way too long. So I'll just say: we put very, VERY little thought into what we buy, where it came from, what soul made it, how they were treated, how much they were paid, what it took to get that item here, how that item will affect our lives, what that item portrays us as. I think the way Christians buy things and the food they eat should look way different than the rest of society. And that is far from true right now it seems. Maybe our default should be to just consume less unless we know where all our stuff is coming from. Crazy. I know.
Where we live:
What if our default was to practically live like Jesus did (with very little, with the poor, with the outcasts, with the sinners)?
Should my default be to live in a nice, safe neighborhood with people who are just like me? Or should our default be to live with the poor or with the outcasts? Like should we just automatically do that? AND THEN, through lots of prayer and community counsel, if God makes it clear to us to live somewhere else and minister to another group, THEN we go there.
I’m not saying we SHOULD just automatically do it like that. But I really, really contemplate it.
Why not???
I think I want that to be default for my kids. I don't want them to think their default is to live in a perfect, safe, surburbia ministering to upper-middle class white folks. That is totally wonderful if that's what God calls them to. Really, I promise. But I don't want that to be their default.
This does not come as a surprise to any of you that know me, so I don’t feel like I need to clarify too much. I’ll just end it now. =)
Just some thoughts.
This may be hard to communicate what I'm actually thinking, but I must try anyways.
Something that has kind of been on my mind/bothering me is:
As Christians, what are our defaults?
For instance:
Is our default to be rich/middle class and minister to that group of people OR be poor and minister to that group of people?
Take the birth control pill OR natural family planning OR condoms OR absolutely nothing?
Live in a nice, safe neighborhood OR not (aka. inner city, in a rural area, the ghetto, etc)?
Send kids to public school OR home school?
Vote republican OR not (aka. democratic, third party, not vote, etc)?
Stay in America because that is where you are and it makes sense OR go somewhere else?
Make money or just don't (just enough to live)?
Buy stuff from the grocery store or make my own food, clothing, etc?
Have al biological babies or adopt?
Go to college or don’t?
I am not saying what is the right choice in ANY of these. In fact, I think all of these options can be the right choice at any given time.
My question is about our default.
There are certain options we choose automatically as our "default.”
It’s our gut instinct. We automatically go there. Every single person as defaults. It is human nature.
After we go to our default, THEN we stop, question, pray, and say, should we be doing something different?
And I am just wondering if our default options look a whole lot more like our society's defaults rather than Jesus' teachings.
I wonder if we can make our defaults look more like a culture of Jesus followers, and THEN we stop, question, pray about if we should do something more like our society.
I’m not saying our society’s defaults are somehow always wrong. But I just wonder if we could flip our defaults and the way we function. Just a little flip. Nothing crazy.
Just some examples I’ve thought about.... which can all be debated about whether or not they should be defaults. But i guess it is how I see it, as of now....
Birth control:
Obviously, I've come to no affirmative conclusion on this given that I am nowhere near making that decision. My thought: Why does it seem to be default that Christian couples just take the pill? Why isn't the thought process more like, 'we're getting married, knowing that we are to fill the earth. That children are a gift from God. And we trust Him to give us that gift whenever--even if we think we're not ready. We trust Him more than our own plans. He knows us better than we know ourselves so let’s let him decide the timing....Okay maybe we have extreme circumstances, so we can't have babies right now and God has made that clear, but we're not going to take something that could possibly abort a baby and/or can mess up my body....Okay we have extreme circumstances, and we've really prayed about it. And we've done a lot of research and we think it works for us to take the pill...."
I'm not saying that 'taking the pill' means you’re not trusting God. Please don't hear me say that. But I just wonder why our default seems to be “just to take it.” Why isn't our default to trust God more and His ways in family, in children, and just in our own personal relationship with him? I guess I just don't think we should be so quick to do things that "everyone else" just does.
Home schooling:
Why is our default just to send our kids away to public school system that raises our kids instead of thinking about how we can train up our kids ourselves in a more full way? How do we think that parents will be able to influence their kids more than the world if the world gets to spend waaaaay more time with them than the parents?
Again, not saying home schooling is for everyone. But I wonder if our default should be for parents to raise and teach their children as much as possible and THEN if it’s just not gonna work for the parents to do that, through lots of praying and thinking, then of course whatever the Lord says goes.
Adopting:
Okay it’s just straight up a command from God to take care of the orphans. I don't know how much more "default"ish you can get from that. Sure, have you own children. But why not follow God's very direct command to take care of the orphans. Not saying everyone is suppose to adopt, but I am saying WAY more Christians should be doing so than they are now. Adopting should be a default, unless God makes it very clear that you shouldn't--through LOTS of prayer and community counsel.
How we consume:
I probably could go off on this one way too long. So I'll just say: we put very, VERY little thought into what we buy, where it came from, what soul made it, how they were treated, how much they were paid, what it took to get that item here, how that item will affect our lives, what that item portrays us as. I think the way Christians buy things and the food they eat should look way different than the rest of society. And that is far from true right now it seems. Maybe our default should be to just consume less unless we know where all our stuff is coming from. Crazy. I know.
Where we live:
What if our default was to practically live like Jesus did (with very little, with the poor, with the outcasts, with the sinners)?
Should my default be to live in a nice, safe neighborhood with people who are just like me? Or should our default be to live with the poor or with the outcasts? Like should we just automatically do that? AND THEN, through lots of prayer and community counsel, if God makes it clear to us to live somewhere else and minister to another group, THEN we go there.
I’m not saying we SHOULD just automatically do it like that. But I really, really contemplate it.
Why not???
I think I want that to be default for my kids. I don't want them to think their default is to live in a perfect, safe, surburbia ministering to upper-middle class white folks. That is totally wonderful if that's what God calls them to. Really, I promise. But I don't want that to be their default.
This does not come as a surprise to any of you that know me, so I don’t feel like I need to clarify too much. I’ll just end it now. =)
Just some thoughts.
1 comment:
how have i not known you have a blog? anyway, good one. for some reason, this kind of talk can be really offensive and off-putting for people. which honestly just means that it's probably good for us. either way, good thoughts.
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