I am currently reading Eugene Peterson’s study on Jeremiah ‘Run With The Horses’ and in that book came across a sentiment that perfectly summarises my series on ‘Everyday Church’ (to be continued this Sunday evening!) The sentiment is ’embrace the everyday, but don’t become absorbed in it.’
Jeremy Camp expresses a similar sentiment in his song ‘Paradise’, which looks ahead to the glorious future with Christ that awaits believers: ‘Don’t let this life take hold of my desires.’ We live with the constant tension of the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet.‘ We live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:17), but this requires skill and commitment, for life can easily beguile us and keep us rooted on this earth. Jesus warned us ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.‘ (Matt 6:19-20) It’s so easy to fix our eyes on what is seen, rather than on what is unseen (2 Cor 4:18), so easy to become absorbed in the everyday to the extent that we no longer look up with anticipation.
In the same book, Eugene Peterson says ‘life is not an inevitable decline into dullness; for some it is ascent into excellence.’ (P 25) We can only ‘ascend into excellence’ if we keep God at the centre of our vision; if we embrace Him in the everyday but refuse to become absorbed in it, if we allow God to shape our dreams and fuel our lives. The 2009 Pixar film ‘Up’ shows 79-year-old Carl Fredricksen tying thousands of balloons to his home in order to fulfil his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America and to complete a promise made to his lifelong love. This may well be impossible in real life, but the sentiment it expresses reflects God’s desire for us to live with our hearts and minds fixed on Him: ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is yourlife, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.‘ (Col 3:1-4)