So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 2 Corinthians 4:12 (NIV)

World Repair Starts Within Each of Us – The Journey Series – Part 3

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

Death and life.
At work.
In you and me.

My salvation experience (all of them) happened in a moment. I can remember the days, places, even what I was wearing, when they occurred. The tears that fell, the hope and the comfort I felt… They were moments of transaction between the Divine and me.

But salvation is more than a singular moment of exchange. It’s a way of life.

“The moment” is an invitation to continue living into your salvation. To be saved is to be brought into a new way of thinking and living and being in the world. Christ brings us into harmony with God. And it's an ongoing process.

To be honest, I think we over capitalize on the moment of salvation and significantly undermine the process, or journey, of it.

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, which is much like chronic fatigue. As with most health conditions, there was no one pill or trick or practice to instantly bring my body healing. I had to learn (still learning) to live a new way to bring new health to my body. And it's been frustrating. There have been days when I would give ANYTHING to feel well and vital and energized and strong again. But in those moments, the “anything I would give” came down to all my discipline and control, giving up things of comfort, rejecting temptation and embracing change.

The miracle for me is not in the instant cure; it's in the endurance to walk out my healing and to learn how to treat my body better. It's changing my life day-by-day. Things I once held dear (hello milk chocolate and dairy), I now count as a loss (that sounds familiar) so that I may obtain a more healthy and healed body, soul, and spirit.

I dare say that if there were a pill that would take away adrenal fatigue and restore my body back to health in an instant, eventually (if not quickly) I would find myself doing the same things that brought about the same brokenness in my body that I am now experiencing.

I saw this quote on Twitter the other day and wrote it down, but neglected to include who said it. (if you know who wrote it, please let me know!). They were speaking in regards reconciliation, but I think it relates here too:

“If we move too quickly, we skip justice, and what we get is cheap grace.”

Lessons not learned. Grace not received.

We can go to the supermarket and buy the food we need for dinner, even produce that's out of season. We can go to the shops and buy new clothes. We can access our money on our smartphones. We can get emails from halfway across the world and reply in an instant…

We love instant results.

But we forget that the food we eat takes time to grow. Clothes take time to sew (and are often made by people who are paid treated and unjustly), the material takes time to make. Communication is not just a matter of a push of a button or a double tap on a screen.

Our salvation is not a ticket to get us into heaven. It's the pathway to healing, restoration, redemption: new life bursting forth right here in the middle of this one. It's a lifetime of uncovering truth and experiencing grace as we move through different seasons and are confronted with different situations in our lives. It’s the ongoing journey of wakefulness.

Jesus didn’t die so he could forgive us.

It's about restoration. Jesus gave his body over as a gift for the healing and restoration of the world. The Jews knew that the world needed healing, they called it “Tikkun Olam” which literally means: “world repair.” And the kind of repair that the world needs is not something that comes in a box, or can be plugged in and charged up, or bought down at the local store. Or you can put your hand up in a service and secure yourself a ticket to heaven. World repair starts within each of us, in our deepest darkest parts.

It’s the death of some things and the rebirth of other things. Life and death doing its best work within us simultaneously. On the way.

Go to A Lifetime of Transformation – The Journey Series – Part 4 »

Written by Liz Milani

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