Fixin' what ain't "broke".

The longer I am a follower of Jesus, the more I understand that Jesus continually invites us into his "space". When I use the word space, it is defined as the ministry in which Jesus himself is doing. The word "doing ministry" is thrown about in Christian circles, as if somehow, we are called to "do ministry" like I am fixing a car. "If anything is broke, we fix what is broke", whether it is people, churches, whatever. I have to confess that I have fallen into this paradigm, whereby I think that I "fix" whatever I need to fix.

This causes Christians to insert and assert themselves into the space of others, but never invite others into their own "space". I think that this happens because we have objectified the subjective, meaning those things which truly feel, think, change, reason, and love are not invited into our lives, but in some ways are objectified, things which we can control and attempt to fix. I think we should also use different language in Christianity in terms of our language of "brokenness". Human are created in the image of God, so maybe we should start there, (Genesis 1 &2) instead of Genesis 3. It also happens because we are shaped by our surrounding culture of the nuclear family and suburban living, this is the reason that it is so hard to communicate effectively to people we don't know, meaning make friends with people we don't know. (This is why so many people go to college, for the social networks)

Take for example the story in Exodus of Mt. Sinai, when Moses was on the Mountain receiving commandments from God, the Israelites, instead of focusing on the "subjective", Yhwh himself, they focused on an "object" which could be controlled, i.e. the golden calf. (Exodus 32)

The reason that I have been thinking about this concept is because I sometimes keep people at distances, because it is safe for me to do that, an invitation implicitly involves vulnerability, the possibility of rejection, so a lot of times we do not invite others to participate with us. Maybe if we started with this understanding, "Humans are going to hurt one another, whether on purpose or accidentally." Our churches have in many ways dulled our senses, they have created us in their image, which is an image of complacency, and image that says, "If there is no conflict, then I am becoming more like Christ."

I am also a person who continuously invites others into my space, so I continually have conflict. Sometimes I convince myself that the conflict is because of my sin or anothers sin, but then I think, "Jesus had so much conflict it is unbelievable, and I can be relieved." I still believe that these invitations into my space need to go further into the depth of God's care, love, forgiveness, and reconciliation though. Anyways, these are simply thoughts about what following Jesus should maybe look like.