It’s been a while since we have posted anything here. It’s not that nothing has been happening, just not a lot that is deeply newsworthy. But it feels like time to check in as we are heading to Christmas and enjoying the company of Julia’s mum, who has come for a visit. And in less than a week (next Thursday, to be exact) I will be heading to Turing for a few days to spend some time with a couple of house church networks that are meeting there. We’ve been contemplating what our future ministry in Italy is going to look like, so we are both pretty excited to see if it is anything in this direction. Italy doesn’t seem to respond all that well to the more traditional (read: American) approaches to church, so it is at least worth a look to see if the simple church approach is part of the answer. Of course, rearranging the furniture isn’t going to solve every problem and overcome every obstacle. But I think it is more than incidental. I believe I am quoting Alan Hirsch when I say, “The medium is the message,” and I tend to agree. How we structure our life together says something powerful-for good or ill-about who we are and what is important. It makes sense that we should take care to say the right thing.
Thinking again about Italy, I suppose that many or most of you will have been hearing something about the upheaval going on in Europe at this time. As I write this, the EU leadership is in talks aimed at saving the Euro, as well as the Union as a whole. This matters deeply to us because so much of our plan is linked to the freedom that the EU gives us. Our evolving plan stands as this: gain UK citizenship for the whole family (already having this myself) and using this to help us skirt all kinds of legal issues as we establish an English as a Second Language school in a beautiful but spiritually needy Italian city. But if the EU disintegrates, or if the Italian economy collapses as everyone seems to fear, our plan-brilliant as it may be-heads in the direction of obsolete. At this point, I think that I’ve read every article written on the subject, twice. It is a bit of a big deal for us.
But then again, maybe not.
We have all these competing interests that seek to lay claim to our lives, to our faith, to our lordship. For our future, will we trust the nation-state, the free market-or the enduring faithfulness of God? Is God in charge, or are the global market forces? Does God make the decisions that will guide our future, or do Sarkozy, Merkel, and Cameron?
We are constantly getting pulled in so many different directions, whether to freak out when the newspaper says the sky is falling, to listen to the siren song of the shopping mall and its promise of wholeness standing just one purchase away, or any number or other forces tugging at our attention. And then there is Jesus, promising that if we seek the kingdom first, everything else will be taken care of.
It’s not that those other things aren’t important, or that we should disengage from the world around us. But it does mean that we don’t have to live or die based on the latest news report or what the stock market is doing. Behind it all, God is at work, always at work, and he isn’t the least bit concerned.
If you are wondering about the work going on in Italy, check out this blog post from Tony Hedrick, with encouraging news from Parma and one of the groups we have been linked to: http://4euroinformation.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/more-inspiring-news-from-acci-and-progetto-archippo-in-italy/.
Good post Brad. I agree that it brings such a peace that we can focus on today and let God take care of the future He has planned for us. He is in control.