Our New Home Is What We Offer, What I Carry Is A Blue Backpack (part 1 of 8)

I can’t think of anything  more important than Good News. And I’ve learned to tell myself this Good News simply:

That Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. That He is Lord and Savior. That the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit has now been offered in His Name.  

The Death and Resurrection of Christ is the only thing that makes things right . The atoning work of Christ’s own life. 

That is the Good News, as I understand it. There’s more to say, but to say less— to not have at least said this—is to not have said much. 

That is the Good News as I understand it. And we share in the atoning work of Christs own life by this Good News. 

Because we share in the atoning work of Christ by this Good News, I have come to understand that the Good News of the atoning work of Christ not just as information, or as not just  information, but  the Light that reveals Him, and the Bread by which He gives Himself to us.   And it becomes this by the power of the Holy Spirit and for the building of His Fellowship.  

Because we share in the atoning work of Christ by this Good News, because this Good News is Bread and Light, it does something to us: giving us that New Heart of Faith, Hope, and Love. That means the atoning work of Christ has work to do as we share in it by this Good News:  to rescue my trust, shepherd my attention, and present me as a gift to the world as it is. Now that I have this Good News, now that I have the Bread and Light of this Good News, I can trust in Him by His Gospel, trust Him with things through His Spirit, and entrust myself to others in His Name. Or at least I can  learn to.  That slow growth in faith, hope and love over time.  

The Good News  deepens and strengthens the New Heart  it gives to us,  giving us not only a New Heart but  also  Safe Passage: out of pride and lies, through trouble and loss, toward meaning and rest. The atoning work of Christ’s own life—that we share in by this Good News— is Safe Passage out of bad things, through hard things, toward good things, if only because Christ Himself is the way out of bad things, the way through hard things, and all the good things we’re headed toward.  

Because Good News  is Bread and Light deepening and strengthening this New Heart and giving us Safe Passage, I often say Good News is our only shepherd. By this Good News we share in the atoning work of Christ’s own life. By this Good News we don’t make things right, but we share in the Life of the One who has. That is what I mean when I say Good News  is the only way forward, that Good News carries us even as we carry this Good News. 

That’s what I’ve come to know: that Good News is our only shepherd. And, coming to understand this Good News as my  only shepherd, I’ve come to understand–these last 7 years–that what I’m really looking for is a simple life with this Good News, a working out what it would even look like to have a simple life with this Good News. 

A way to receive this Good News, that is, to trust in Him by His Gospel, 

A  way to stay with this Good News, that is, to trust  Him with things through His Spirit. 

A way to work with this Good News, that is,  to entrust myself to others in His Name and for the building of His Fellowship. 

And what  I’ve found out–as far as I can tell–is that a simple life with this Good News is a simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends.  Receiving Good News, staying with Good News, working with Good News, through that simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends.  A New Heart deepened and strengthened by that simple rhythm.

When Good News is our only shepherd. When we share in the atoning work of Christ’s own life by this Good News. When simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends is our life with this Good News

Because a simple rhythm of scripture, prayer and friends is our life with this Good News, this  simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends is–as far as I can tell–the only way to not be swallowed whole by pride and lies.  And I’ve asked this simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends–this simple life with this Good News–to deepen and strengthen that New Heart of Faith, Hope, and Love, to rescue my trust, shepherd my attention, and present me as a gift to the world as it is.  To give me Safe Passage: out of bad things, through hard things, toward all the good things Christ Himself is and the small good things we offer in His Name. To carry me even as I carry it.  In those moments when we come to know, again and again, we are not our own way forward. That Good News carries us even as we carry this Good News.

My first book, if it was about anything, was about this  trust He rescues. That is, it felt like a book about faith, particularly about trusting in Christ by His Gospel when you have a debilitating mental illness. The second book, if it was about anything, was about the gift of ourselves to the world as it is. That is, it felt like a book about loving the world as it is and people as they are. 

This, the third, if it is about anything is about the stunning operation of hope. It is about the attention He gradually frees and leads, standing as I feel it does between the trust He rescues and this gift of ourselves to the world as it is. That is what I understand hope to be: the attention He gradually frees and the attention He leads. That’s what hope has felt like–hope, more than anything, has felt  like gradually being able to pay attention.

What we trust gradually changes what we pay attention to.  The trust He rescues gradually becomes the attention He leads. 

It has taken me a while to understand, with all I have going on inside and out me–that I am not a monster but I am  pilgrim in the land of sin, death, and the devil. A pilgrim  in a nightmare. 

But more and more  it seems like  my attention itself is the pilgrim in the nightmare, the pilgrim  in the land of sin, death, and the devil.  

My attention is, itself, a wild animal, a scattered stranger.  And something so scattered, sad and wild as our attention must be gently yoked and harnessed to this Good News  by His own Spirit, to be led out of pride and lies, through trouble and loss, toward all the good things Christ Himself is and and the small good things we offer in His Name.

And I feel like my attention is that pilgrim, is on that  journey each day, gently yoked and harnessed to this Good News by His own Spirit, led out of bad things, through hard things, toward all the good things Christ Himself is and the small good things offered in His Name. And it never feels done, it always feels like the trust He rescues gradually becomes the attention He leads. Day by day and day by day. 

When our attention is a pilgrim in a nightmare. And Good News is our only shepherd. When the pilgrim of our attention  must be gently yoked and harnessed to this Good News by His own Spirit, led out of bad things through hard things, toward all the good things Christ Himself is, and the small good things we offer in His Name. 

When we share in the atoning work of Christ’s own life by this Good News. When simple rhythm of scripture, prayer, and friends is our life with this Good News. Receiving this Good News, staying with this Good News, working with this Good News. Trusting in by His Gospel, trusting Him with things through His Spirit, entrusting myself to others  in His Name and for His Fellowship. 

Because, somehow, to hear His Word is to die with Him,

 To be led by His Spirit is to rise with Him. 

To serve one another in His Name is to share in the joy of His Return.