I've come to realize that some of you might be uncertain of the meaning behind the name of this blog. Admittedly its a bit abstract, but it was the only name I could find that suitably reflected the circumstances surrounding the blogs origins. Two months before we took our trip to Mozambique I was reading through C.S. Lewis' Perelandra for the second or third time. It was in that season as we were preparing to step into something entirely new and embracing the realization that we would be drastically altering the course of our lives that I fell upon the following line from old Clive's timeless book.
"Since our Beloved became a man, how should Reason in any world take on another form? Do you not understand? That is all over. Among times there is a time that turns a corner and everything this side of it is new. Times do not go backward"
My understanding of this is that in time, in history, there are lines that once crossed bring about a level of change so total that things can not return to the way they were. The Christ event, the incarnation, death and resurrection, was such a line. A fallen world has been redeemed and it cannot be un-redeemed. The course of time has been changed and nothing can slow the momentum of Gods salvific plan.
So why choose such a monumental analogy for the title of a small personal account of a new direction in life? Like much in the Kingdom the macro parallels the micro, the big is found in the small. For us the decision to leave what we knew and follow Holy Spirit was crossing such a line. In our hearts we burned the bridges back to the life we had. We are learning to persevere seeing him who is invisible. There is no going back to Egypt.
Hebrews says this of the heroes of faith:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
I believe that Jesus calls all believers to live with such reckless abandon. It doesn't mean that all are called to go overseas or quit their jobs, however I do believe that it Jesus wants to so posses our hearts that every decision of substance is in submission to the path He has laid before us. That we are so captivated by Him and the hope of His calling that we are heedless to the perceived consequences of obedience, and run with endurance the race that is set before us.
This blog is an account of us learning what all this means, learning how to follow Jesus. Learning about faith, hope and love. Learning about the Kingdom of Heaven. We've reached the point where going back is harder then going forward. We can no longer go backward.
-kyle
