rubbed raw

I just finished watching a documentary called "When Shall They Ask". My grandpa recommended it to me as it tells the story of the Mennonites in Russia during the early part of the 20th century. This is where my family comes from, better said, where they fled from.
Our family roots lie in religious persecution. My great grandfather and his sister fled the vicious Bolshevik outrage at anything that smelled like religion and prosperity...both of which were found in the Mennonite communities. Great-Grandpa Neufeld fled after watching his family massacred.

He never talked about what happened. Ever. Not to his wife. Not to his kids. Not to his friends. What we know has been pieced together for 90 years.

It has started me thinking about the cause of the unrest and revolution amongst the peasants in Russia. They were starving and the rich were getting richer. And someone saw the pain and anguish...and acted.

The old Marxist slogan was “Rub raw the sense of discontent”. It motivated a people who had given up life to "this is just the way it is" to acting towards change...acting at all costs. Note: *This is not something I am writing in support of Marxist ideology but rather a reflection on what motivates people to act with such passion that entire nations shift? Early Marxists knew how to create the environment of unrest, of revolution, of passionate movement.

How do we become provokers of this sense of discontent and so awaken a hunger to move hearts towards what could be?

Holy unrest.
Unsettling dissatisfaction.
Passionate inquest.
Insatiable desire.

What keeps us in the 'system' of what is? Fear.
Fear that we will not be loved.
Fear that we will be rejected.
Fear that we will be refused the relationships we so desperately want...and need.
Fear of being unpopular, of being criticized, of being seen as trouble.

And just a note: how many of us have been reading this in from the perspective of the church vs. the world?

We must look our discontentment, and that of so many of our brothers and sisters who have walked away from what we have called 'the church', in the face and rub it raw.
And maybe find some salt and rub it in the wounds...not in anger or rage or vengence or selfish frustration...but simply to bring truth to what seems overwhelmingly real. We have to stop settling for what is as though we are powerless and without hope. Love pushes us to ask hard questions...and pushes us to ask them in a way that honours Jesus.

Could lots of this come down to self preservation? I just don't want to risk me. I think the word is selfishness.

Think about it like this (to take a step away from the personal nature of trying to grapple with the church as it is):
Why do I (personally) do very little or nothing about the great injustices of our day?
Poverty
Abuse
Child Prostitution
Widows
Orphans
Disregard for our bodies, our planet, and our fellow man
Shall I continue?

"But what can I do?" Well now...that is the question. Maybe Jesus knows.

I am realizing in my own heart, that the hinge of my future is 'when will I live as though I had nothing left to loose'? Could it be that the future swings on the hinges of :When will I stop living for me...and live for Him, and those He loves.

Greater love has no man than this...
This is how they will know you are my disciples...

Love.

Maybe then...the ‘church’ we so highly criticize will be the place where miracles happen.

Thoughts?
j

good thoughts.
i think i've said this to you before...
several years ago i was wallowing in dark clouds of frustration/disillusionment with 'church'. surprise surprise. :)
i was sitting in a gathering that had nothing to do with any of that, and i sensed the Holy Spirit gently prod my mind: 'Scott, remember...YOU are the church.'
all of sudden, the source of my 'discontent' came clearly into focus. it was all clearly 'reflected' from what i projected as the 'church's shortcomings' back onto my own lack and inconsistency. i'd been projecting problems as the "organization's"...when most of them were part of a large log-jam hanging out of my own eye. the 'church' can't have issues without me having issues.
sometimes i wonder how to rub raw the spots where 'we' have fallen short...
because, if i'm not honest, i loose perspective on how it's not really about 'the church'...
And it comes down to me.
sw