kingdom living

The past few months have been a journey for me as I began to truly realize what it means to live as a Kingdom citizen, particularly as it relates to ministry to the "least of these."  As I shared a couple weeks ago, I noticed a disconnect, a gap, between what I believed and how I was living.  This gap led to some tension, tension that I wanted to explore and learn more about.

While on this journey I invited my youth group to come along with me.  We learned about the Kingdom of Heaven as a present-future reality.  We learned about our Nazarene heritage in ministry to the "least of these."  We had a couple guest speakers come talk about social ministry and mission trips, as well as how to be a "missionary" in your very own community.

In the midst of this our church did a work day at a Compassionate Ministries Center/Church in downtown Cincinnati.  There was an overwhelming response by our teens to participate in this!  I was excited, and am proud of them!

But then our schedules got busy...

It isn't about doing occasional projects.  It isn't about doing my one good thing and then marking it off a list.  But why has my "unrest" disappeared?  If it is still there I must just be ignoring it because I haven't noticed it for a couple weeks.

As I think about being a Kingdom citizen, it is not just about ministry to the least of these.  I obviously can't do that all of the time.  I can, however, use my time in God-honoring, Kingdom-furthering ways.  As Paul writes in Philippians 3, our citizenship is in heaven (our commonwealth is heaven).  We are not to live as people in the world live - our kingdom is not this material world.  Yet Christians find themselves living as members of the worldly kingdom!  It is hard to avoid it...

I don't think I've been choosing to ignore the gap, at least not directly.  I did not sit down one day and say, "I am going to ignore this."  I think this goes to show that being aware of the gap is not enough, it is not enough to just "know the gap."  We must give attention to it, do something about it, be intentional.  When we are intentional about minding the gap we find ourselves closing that gap. Gaps don't close by themselves - but by God's grace we can be all that he desire for us. 

God help me to live a live that has eternal impact for your Kingdom's cause.  I want to live as part of your kingdom, not the kingdoms of this world.