Homecoming

It is, “Homecoming Week,” 2022 in the inaugural year of the soon-to-be best school ever founded this side of Heaven. I cannot begin to express how proud (good version), thankful, and honored I am to see and get to be a small part of this Kingdom ministry. These self-less and precious servants who are, “working,” there… I say working in quotes because it is much more of a volunteer position then a profit position… have been tested to the limits. They have withstood massive negativity and criticism from the public and from even Christians… they have worked countless hours for little or no pay… they are doing something that has never quite been done like this before… they have left better jobs to be a part of this adventure… they have been mostly un-rewarded, un-thanked, un-appreciated, un-rested, un-noticed, and did it all with grace and a divine attitude.

As a person who has started many facets and types of ministries, I cannot say that I have done as well as them with my attitude in similar hardships. When we started this church, it was like plowing concrete for the first eight years… and Kay can attest to the fact that I did not always keep a, “stiff upper lip.” I had some pretty flamboyant flesh-flashes about stuff-n-things… and even towards a few people. I know, y’all are totally shocked at my confessions of carnality…

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken. But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:14-17 BSB

In this, “Homecoming Week,” they have reminded me of our Kingdom dwelling… our real home, “the hope that is in us.” In the real place that we are to live in, the problems that we are plagued or assaulted with are temporal and earthy. When we live in our Kingdom place, we do not let the naysayers and the critics affect our calling. We do not let the lack or tiredness wear on us. When we are not living in our Kingdom place, it is easy to have a, “woe-is-me,” self-centered mindset where we focus on all the things that are wrong and become bitter with the people who are not doing or seeing things our way. Once bitterness takes root, only a supernatural force can pull it out.

• “But respond with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience…” – It is not the suffering that actually causes the suffering, it is our response to the suffering that makes us suffer. Life is hard… can I get an amen? But, what makes it insufferable is when our hearts get hard from the hardness of life. What keeps our conscience clear and, therefore, our hearts soft towards our divine purpose is doing things for God to maintain a clear conscience. This is why when we retaliate in word or deed it makes things worse. Sure, it may, “feel,” good in the moment to give that person a, “piece of your mind,” but, over time, you will give all the pieces of your mind away and you will have nothing left but emptiness and loneliness.
• “So that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.” – Please notice that the best, “revenge,” for the negative people and circumstances that have come to make you suffer is Christ-like-ness. The Greek word for behavior here is a compound word where the first part means, “from down to up,” and the second part means, “to turn.” So you could say that it is implying that when these life problems and folks come at you to press you down, you determine to turn up and therefore change the situation. This word (anastrophé) is defined as: “dealing with other people, conduct, life, behavior, manner of life.” It speaks to changing your way of life for the good because of the suffering instead of the suffering making you conform to its pressure. This causes the very people who have brought pain to you to have shame and guilt over their actions BECAUSE of your Godly response.
• “For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” – This last sentence here is almost a bit sarcastic. Let me say it is the New Amplified Cassell Revised Version: “You are gonna suffer in life no matter what you do or how well you do it… make sure that your suffering is because you are living all-in for Christ instead of suffering for self-inflicted injuries from ungodliness.”

Jesus prayed for us in John chapter seventeen (v. 15-16), and there is a really powerful part that always made me turn my head a bit sideways when I would read it. Look at it: “I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” Jesus literally prayed that the Father would NOT take us out of the world, but rather that He would keep (detain, with-hold) us from the evil one. Then, He declared our unity of power and purpose equal to His by saying we are, “just as,” He is in our origin. “Homecoming Week”… and Wednesday was, “Hero Day.” Our real Home is inside, and the real Hero is living there. God wanted us to stay HERE, in this broken world, so that we could bring Heaven here and be the heroes that the world is desperate for.

On, “Hero Day,” I saw kid heroes… I saw ARC worker heroes… I saw parent heroes… I saw the beauty of a people, a community, a culture of folks who were not from here, but were doing great things here. They were not suffering in their suffering, they were rising above their suffering and choosing to do heroic things and cultivate more heroes around them.

In this Great Awakening, I see these small glimmers of divine light cracking through the darkness of this darkly clouded culture, and it reminded me, ever so quietly, that the best is yet to come…

It was, “Hero Day,” and I saw heroes… it is, “Homecoming Week,” and I saw the beauty of our real home in the hearts of our Beloved children, church, and family. What do you see when you look… really look at the inside, heart of who you really are?

I love you greatly!
Steve