I read this today in a piece entitled "Furrowed Brows" on the Christianity Today site (I've abridged it just a little bit).
"Not long ago I attended a strategy session on the culture war. Participants examined the decline of marriage, the cheapening and flattening of human sexuality into contextless pleasure, the exploitation and destruction of unborn human beings. Speeches were given. Brows were furrowed. Resolutions were made. All were earnestly committed to the cause, and most, to be blunt, were not having a very good time ... it is hard to believe someone who speaks of love through clenched teeth.
"Jesus was hardly shy about confronting the patterns of sin in his culture - though he was consistently harder on the pious than he was on the pagans."
Now this is the part that leapt off the page and grabbed me by the heart:
"But everywhere Jesus went, life blossomed. The sick were healed, lepers were touched, daughters and sons were plucked from the mouth of the grave. Jesus left behind him a trail of tears and laughter, reunited families, and terrific wine, as well as dumbfounded synagogue leaders, uneasy monarchs, and sleepless procurators. His witness against violence, amidst a culture in rebellion against the good, was neither withdrawal nor war. It was simply life: abundant, just, generous life. And, ultimately, a willingness to let the enemies of life do their worst, confident that even death could not extinguish the abundant life of God."
Make it your mission to plant goodness, and watch life blossom. 'Nuff said.
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