Background:
I recently moved to Southern California from Boston. I went about trying to find a church to be involved in. I was hoping to find the right church very quickly. This after all is California and there are so very many. I visited almost 3 churches a weekend (with their Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday evening services). I did not find a church that had everything I was looking for - something that fit me right now and provided a pathway to where I wanted to go.
Through my journey, I realized I was looking for the right church packaging. I wanted someone else (through the packaging) to help me find the Jesus my heart was longing for. I went to a lot of different churches, and pondered the possibilities. I came realize that I met Jesus in all those churches. When I took apart the package, I was able to encounter Jesus in subtle and different ways.
How often do we look for the right packaging and miss the content. We get disappointed when that packaging does not look like what we want. But do we stop and open the package to encounter the content. I found in my earlier years, I missed a lot of opportunity to encounter the content because I was so focused on the packaging.
What am I really after?
Am I after the packing or the content?
I have made a new commitment to myself. I am in complete passionate pursuit of the content, being mindful of the packaging but not letting it stop me from my real pursuit.
The content I am after is the person of Jesus. He comes wrapped in many packagings such as churches/denominations/expressions. I am more familiar and have easier access to Jesus in a particular type of church/expression. This familiarity and ease can also be a drawback - because Jesus is much more than the familiar expression I see through my favorite packaging. He is much broader and deeper than any one expression of him.
There is great treasure to be gained by pursuing the content in unfamiliar packing.
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3 comments:
Hey Araz, it's Brian from Boston. Great post. I have been struggling with the same question for the past year, how can I strip away the packaging of church and get to Jesus. God luck, I'll keep an eye out for more blog posts.
Hey Araz, Great to hear from you and see you resurface. You are on our hearts. A very good post - it seems to be very timely for many of us in this season. God bless you, and drop us a line sometime soon! Love, Elliott & Cheryl
Hey Araz, It's great to hear from you again. I didn't realize you were living in my hood now. That's so cool! Your post is great, especially as I'm think about moving abroad and the fact that there will be no packaging at all. When I have thought about it before, it feels like a terrible situation because I am so used to the great packaging opportunities like here in Boston. And I am really blessed to have that, but in the end, it's so not about that. It's about pursing Jesus with all that I am and all that I have and knowing that when all that stuff is stripped away, I can find him and and find great joy in any packaging since he is the content. I can't wait to hear more about what you're up to. Email me sometime! Sheila
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