Where do you go in a dust storm?

If life were a field, image all the dust our culture must kick up with all the action and doings and business and noise. It may be said that we live our lives in a middle of the dust storm and this is why we are perplexed as to how to live. It is difficult to see and breathe when we are in the middle of the dust storm.

Many gurus out there talk about how to quell the storm, thinking that if we are able to act in a way that does not kick up dust then we can live in a better place. It is a wonderful idea, but it seems like it is a red herring. While we may be able to control our own actions and kick up little dust, the reality is life happens and dust is thrown in our face even without our permission. When the medication diagnosis is given or when your co-workers bring their tension into your life, dust is kicked in your face.

The @@Christian life is not about avoiding or calming storms, but learning to live with them.@@ 

One of the ways Christianity teaches about storms is knowing where to stand. The role of the church is to be a place that invites people to step away from the dust storm so that we are able to see and breathe deeply. This is why churches sometimes act slowly. Sometimes it is not fear that keeps the church from moving but it is the desire to have a place where one can see and breathe.

Christian Life is not Weather Control

Too often the religious life is seen as a superstitious life. The religious person prays to a deity in order to affect the world around. The individual, through a series of rituals or incantations, entices the gods to sway the fortunes and manipulate an outcome to the desires of the individual. The mature follower of Jesus knows that prayer is less about changing God and more about changing the self, but nonetheless prayer is seen by some as nothing more than vain attempts to change the future. 

Christianity teaches a way of life that is aware we cannot control the storms around us. We cannot control much in the world and there are so many things that are beyond our influence. Christianity knows that storms will come, no matter what we do, and we cannot control them. We cannot make it stop raining. We can only learn to live through the storm. 

Christianity teaches a way of life that does not seek to control the storms but to give people a solid foundation to stand on when the storms come. Christianity is a way of life that weathers the storms not eliminates them. Eliminating the storms is a dream of utopians, weathering storms is the hope of Christians. 

Perhaps this is why many are disinterested in Christianity. Christianity has been taught as a way to eliminate the storms by just doing the right things (the right prayer, right profession, etc.). Additionally, people have tried weather-controlling Christianity and seen that it does not work - the storms still come. Can we build churches less focused on controlling and more on standing firm when the rains begin to fall.