Real People by Linden Malki

I am constantly reminded, in reading the Bible, how little people have changed over millenia. It is refreshingly honest about the ups and downs, triumphs and flubs, and just plain real these folks are. But I am also becoming more and more aware that we are created with potentials for both good and bad that are beyond our human abilities to handle. One answer is to accept our human limitations, and just ride with "I'm only human.." as an excuse for (sorry) laziness. Another is to work really really really hard to reach goals beyond ourselves, which can leave us tired and frustrated, or finding that we can achieve only at the cost of losing other parts of our lives. Or we can look for help in all the wrong places--chemicals, or unhealthy relationships, or sources of power that are not in our best interest. Or we can recognize the power that we were created to have, but as a race have lost, ironically. in reaching for power on our own terms.

The Bible is not just a rulebook; it is a storybook of people who have been called into a relationship that changes their lives and we see them doing amazing things; and also of people who will not submit to this relationship and are used by forces that do not have humanity's best interest in their playbook.

We are all in one of these places. I have found that following Jesus has led me places I could not have imagined, and taken care of me in ways that are way off the probability curve. And this is what we have to offer our Oikos, the folks that see us as we really are: more than just run-of-the-mill human beings. A friend who lives in one of the assisted living facilities where our Choir Team did a recent gospel music program told me that this music is different than the music that we usually hear around us; there is an additional spiritual dimension when it is offered and received for the glory of God. Our lives as His followers have this aura. We are not called to "sell" God through our own brilliant reasoning or canned logic, or even bribery--God is not our personal shopping channel--but to live in this dimension.  One of my business associates walked away from what was presented to him as God at some point in his life, and I have watched well-meaning Christians--one of whom is a professional evangelist--preach themselves out against his defenses. I am realizing that I, and others in our oikos, are called to be Christians who do not fit the template that he has rejected. We sometimes feel as if we're crashing through the wilderness, when we are really called to follow where He has already broken the trail.