Thoughts a long time coming...

As much as I would like to deny some realities, there are those that remain despite my best thoughts on the matter. One of which regards a preconception of the difference between believers and nonbelievers. I believe that we have been taught and found easy to reconcile that there exists an "us" and a "them," and whether or not we would actually state that "they" are inferior either in behavior or morality or values or appearance, we have been found to act as though there is something drastically different and even superior to the way "we" think or act or feel or approach. That might be a run on sentence ;0). I too have fallen prey to this, maybe not to the extent of some of our college peers who appeared afraid to interact with "them." My struggle lies in secret, in that still in my thoughts I find myself striving to understand how it is that my values and sense of justice and willingness to sacrifice differ from "theirs." Despite my introversion, I love people; interactions, dynamics of relationship, the give and take, the perspective of each one, the joy in getting to know someone else's story and the goodness of making each one a part of who I am becoming. Despite the unpleasantness of my caseload parents' choices, I can say that I truly enjoy my parents.

Despite previous thoughts that there is truly no "us" and "them," only "all of us," I've once again come back to a conclusion that there lies in every person a distinct imprint of the image of God, another person with the same struggles as I in respect to the core issues not necessarily the specific outcome, another person with a strong desire for justice and grace and truth, another person who thinks they know better than everyone else, including God. And what makes me different is that I have chosen to surrender my life to Christ...and maybe only to a certain extent. Therein lies the difference, as obscure as it seems. For some unknown reason and seemingly only attributable to grace, I have chosen to place my trust and life in the hands of the Lord, whereas my unsaved sister has chosen to keep her trust and life in her own hands. There is no question in my mind that there is both a distinct choice to declare Christ as the Son of God who died for my sins and be my Lord...and then following a journey of distinct choices as to whether or not I will surrender to him. There are a host of individuals who have decidedly rejected both. And then there are a host who gravitate between "yes and yes" and "yes and no"---that being part of being a human being but the real question being does one fall more into the former or latter when gravitating?

And then how do we reconcile making lightly the matter of salvation aeb "them" and "us" when we continue to make deliberate choices to not surrender. If we continue along this line of logic, where then do we draw the line of difference between "their" lack of recognition of Christ for who he is presalvation and "our" lack of recognition of Christ for who he is postsalvation. And then how do we begin a discussion on evangelism? How do you then approach discussions on salvation when it comes down to a choice you are daily unwilling to make?

Continuing along this line of logic, as it relates to surrender, what that looks like along the journey. We all have a conception of what people think that looks like. My intention is more to discuss that as surrender to Christ is something that those who aren't believers don't understand---consequently post salvation surrender seems to be something that won't make sense either. So what is the "greatest" surrender, that which makes least sense....seems to me that my surrender that is either private and/or others won't notice...I'm most surrendered when I choose even when no one else will ever know or can see. So then why do I gravitate toward focusing on my public surrender? Well, I know why ;0) Just a few thoughts for you, eager to have discussion.

Addendum: I feel like I need to clarify that I'm not negating the need for the "first choice" ie salvation. Just wanting to challenge how we feel like we can ask so much of others so easily when we need to ask it of ourselves in our daily journey.