Thirst

Been meditating on John's letters... and these verses kind of jumped out at me ::

Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

1 John 2: 15-17 [The Message]

This passage really challenges me... I have just finished No Logo by Naomi Klein and am reading Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren and my concept of the world is changing.

The world is about taking... about selfish desire and endless consumption... its about "me" with no thought for others... whoever those others are: the folk making the stuff or the folk living with the waste resulting from production and/or distribution.

The world is about the abstracts it uses: more... better... bigger... its about the next best thing. its about "look at me"... its about "keeping up with the Joneses"... its about competition: me winning, you losing... its about injustice... its about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer...

There is hope, however...

The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

This isn't a purely religious statement... you can do what God wants without necessarily believing in Him. I suppose this is a controversial statement from a card carrying follower of God in the Way of Jesus. Thing is... there are plenty of folk who believe in him who are part of the problem... it would be hypocritical for me to say anything other than to say I am part of the problem too... but am working towards the solution.

So anyway... what does God want? People who seek... who thirst... for justice... for what is right:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5: 6 [NIV]

People seeking justice are not limited to the church... and this needs to change. Not in the sense that we want all the justice-lovers to be part of the church (although that would be sweet) - its more that we need everyone within the church to become active justice-lovers. All of us... without exception... have to change our thinking... stop thinking about "me" and "my needs"... and start thinking about "us" and "our" actions.

Think about it...