(Excuse me if my use of terminology is imprecise.)
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My guess is that incarnational living that produces fruit for the Kingdom has two major components:
1. Genuine, heart felt belief in the concept of living the life in the world as a follower of Jesus.
2. A gift mix that empowers a believer to live in the world as a follower of Jesus in a way that bears positive fruit.
A few years ago, I began to believe in the lifestyle with strong conviction.
And, honestly, often to my surprise, my life in the world as a Jesus follower seems to be productive.
The very title of this blog suggests that my belief is very strong...and honestly, it is.
I have a job in which living as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God is what I do, no matter what my bosses pay me for.
But, something has developed in my life recently that boggles my mind.
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For nearly 20 years, I have participated in an online discussion forum. I come and go as I please as do the other participants.
You probably know how those things can go. People can be belligerent and obnoxious on those boards, and I probably have been guilty of that myself to some degree.
Though, I'm almost certainly more forthright about my opinions on my own CGGC blogs, than I am on that forum.
I've gotten to know about some of the other longtime participants on the forum over the years.
One pair has a very unusual story.
They are in a same sex marriage as women. Both, however, were born male.
About six months ago, one of the two sent me a private message on the forum asking if I wanted to be Facebook friends. And, we became Facebook friends.
Sheri is very progressive politically and very political on Facebook so I rarely respond to her there but she is constantly liking and commenting on my Facebook posts, which are normally centered on family and work. She's a very faithful Facebook friend.
Her, uh, well, wife? always seemed to be a more prickly person. In fact, recently, on the forum, I called her an "evangophobe," i.e., someone prejudiced against evangelicals. And, honestly, I think she is.
Much to my surprise, though, a few weeks ago, she also sent me a Facebook friend request, which I accepted.
They know me pretty well from the forum. They know that I'm a Christian and of my strong opposition to same sex marriage. I'm pretty sure that they know that I've been a parish priest in a fairly conservative Protestant denomination. They also know my politics very well, something that never comes up here.
Just how we've become so friendly baffles me. We share genuine affection for each other.
We live about 3,000 miles apart so it's unlikely that we'll ever meet face to face.
But, we are invested in each other's lives in a way that I am, at the very least, planting seeds that others could water.
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There's no real message to this post. More than anything else, I wanted to write about this because writing sometimes clarifies my thinking and because I wanted to create a journal entry of sorts.
I do think that when a follower of Jesus puts themself out there in the world, there's no telling what will happen.
The challenge, once one is out there, is to be faithful. Knowing exactly how to be faithful can be its own challenge.
One thing is for certain, the incarnational life is not a boring one.
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