sunday morning at trinity the sermon talked about finding our inner rhythm. this statement really bothered me - "we are searching for an inner rhythm, a balance that will safeguard us from the extremes we see all around us." he went on to talk about how we see the signs of personal dissonance in family discord, substance abuse, divorce, depression, suicide, purposelessness, fatigue, unrest, discontent, obsessive attention to work or to personal appearance all around us and how to find the "safe place" from these things. why are we constantly told we should stay in a safe place? how do you grow if you stay in your "safeguard"? are we afraid to get out hands dirty? what if someone stayed in their "safeguard" and didn't reach out to us? what if stefanie didn't come down to my level and into my life when i was angry and bitter and didn't want anything to do with the church and God? where would i be? what if that person didn't walk into your life? where would you be? what about elisabeth elliot who went back to the very tribe that killed her husband? she left her "safeguard," she got her hands dirty, she risked everything, her very life but she made a difference. people were saved. are we too afraid to risk ourselves to gain another soul for heaven? are we going to leave others in darkness just so we can be "safe" from the situations around us?

"Jesus did not suffer and die so that we could build havens for ourselves, but so that we might expand the kingdom of His love... our redemption will only come if we find the courage to escape the prison we have created for ourselves. risking everything to live free is our only hope... we have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God... His purpose was to save us NOT from pain and suffering but from meaningless... the barbarian way is about love expressed through SACRIFICE and servanthood... instead of finding confidence to live as we should regardless of our circumstances, we have used it as justification to choose the path of least resistance, least difficulty, least sacrifice... is it possible that the transforming power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to step into the comfort, safety, and security of Jesus Christ?... we need to stop wasting our time and stop being afraid of what we cannot see and do not know... freedom is a return NOT to paradise lost but to a promised land we must win... A WORLD WITHOUT GOD CANNOT WAIT FOR US TO CHOOSE THE SAFE PATH." - the barbarian way

isn't that what life should be about? isn't that what we've been called to do? so why are we told to find a "safeguard"? why are we told to find that "inner rhythm" and told to keep ourselves safe from the problems of a hurting world around us? and why is it the church, Christ's body, that's telling us to keep safe and not get our hands dirty?

"the choice is yours. do you really want to get dirty and get in the gutter, or do you want to play it safe and keep clean?"