forgotten...

i think i might be one of the most forgetful people in the world. i've been told that i could destroy the world with my clumsiness and forgetfulness...and i don't doubt it.

i say that to say this...things are forgotten (on purpose or not) and sometimes it can destroy part of something very beautiful. say da vinci forgot to pain the eyes or nose of the "mona lisa"...it would lose its beauty. things have are beautiful are only so if they have everything they were intended to.

i feel that we as christians have forgotten an essential part of what salvation is, of what all is to take place at the foot of the cross. sure, we as christians are leading others to the foot of the cross, and we are explaining to them that it is there that we are able to lay everything down. every bit of that is beautiful and it has changed many people lives, but there is more and without it the picture isn't half as beautiful. salvation is not just laying your life down and embracing a 'happily-ever-after-with-jesus" mentality, but laying your life down and picking up the task of living a new one. amazing and wonderful things happen at the feet of jesus, but i feel that an essential part of what happens at the cross has been left out.

we have spent so much time getting people to repent and lay their lives at the foot of the cross, that we have forgotten to tell them that their is an entirely new life to pick up and live. we have made sure to inform them of all the don'ts and what they can't do anymore, that they don't know what they are supposed to do!

we have forgotten to let those at the foot of the cross know that it doesn't stop there, that there is more, and that they have a purpose in life now. we have failed to mention that christ died AND went through the other side into a new life. and now he is offering us the chance to begin that life. he is offering us a life of liberty, freedom, love, and justice. jesus is offering us the chance to forget about what matters to us and embrace the chance to spread the love that christ has given to us.

i would say that there is nothing christ-like about sitting at the foot of the cross smiling up at jesus. we were never meant to let things end at the cross, but to venture away from it, imitating christ so that others may find him. i believe that the way of christ is the best way for me to live my life, not becuase i think it will gain me favor with christ, but so that others may get a glimpse of christ...through me...

let this not be...forgotten...