When I was 13, a friend and I rode our bikes from our neighborhood to the nearby store for some snacks. We were rounding the corner back after crossing a bridge and I had just finished downing my 20oz. Mountain Dew. Having no where to put the bottle and seeing no need to hold an empty container, I tossed it into the woods. Seconds later, a park ranger and his truck cut me off and pulled me over. After giving me a short lecture on littering, he had me hunt down the green plastic symbol of my foolishness.
For years, that’s how I saw God. Watching always. Jumping into the scene to mess with us. Then disappearing for days and years upon end. That view of God was nightmarish. It’s oddly petty and diminutive. It’s a picture of God who occupies occasional moments and not a forever-captivating, unstoppable, engaged, personal force.
The God we meet in Scripture…and the God I have known since I was 15, is not satisfied with a pie-charted slice of my heart. No, he wants more than a corner. He wants followers who chase down his restorative peace (shalom), who stand up for those who are too weak to stand themselves, to sit at his feet and be his, and through every part of life proclaim his unique and powerful Name to the world.
This is the dream he has for us. This is what the Church could be.
Not Just a Corner 