Journey to The Journey

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Have you ever made a promise that you failed to keep? How often do you listen to the concerns of a friend from church and commit to pray for them, only to forget and fail to keep your commitment? If you've been there, fear not, you're not alone. In fact, I suspect I am safe in saying that everyone, as one point or another, has failed in this area. Despite even our best intentions, we as human beings are often far from reliable. We've all let down and been let down by others. It's a normal part of life.

This week as we dove back into in our sub-series over 1 Peter, we encountered a difficult, yet aptly timed passage about submission to rulers and authorities. Opinions, when it comes to social and political issues, are like snowflakes...no two are the same. To say that we, as a culture and a nation, are deeply divided over a number of important issues is a huge understatement. The gap between blue and red is often as far as the east is from the west. This often leads to ineffective stalemates where neither side is willing to budge and progress grinds to a screeching halt. Yet, this is the system in which we live, and like it or not, we must play the hand we've been dealt. At the end of the day, I still believe America is the greatest nation in the world and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but that doesn't mean there aren't some serious problems facing our country.

The Christian argument over faith and works is much like the chicken and the egg paradox. Of course we know that for there to be an egg, there must be a mother hen. And yet, a hen cannot exist without hatching from an egg. The question for the ancient Greek philosophers who first pondered the problem is which one comes first. So it is with the argument of faith vs. works. What we can all agree on is that neither can exist in a bubble. Both are required. But in what measure? Which comes first or is of greatest importance? Therein lies the disagreement.