A Beautiful and Perplexing Witness
The way early disciples lived with mystified people around them because the disciples seemed to live in another world. The principles that guided them clearly differed from those that guided others. They practiced a way of life both beautiful and mysterious. Their lives made sense only if one knew that they were living by the power and guidance of God.
Their lives were governed by the reign of God and not by the press of politics or the call of culture because they chose to live their lives in obedience to and in the presence of God. Their radical love for God and neighbor resulted in dramatic actions that perplexed all who observed them.
When we move securely into the reign and presence of God, our lives also take on a beautiful and mysterious quality because God’s presence and principles are being expressed in all that we are and in all that we do. Our actions prompt sometimes gratitude and sometimes perplexity in others. They prompt sometimes joy and gratitude within our lives and sometimes weariness when our radical actions are misunderstood.
But we are not alone. The first-generation Christians lived this radical faith every day. Their actions caught the world’s attention both positively and negatively, but their actions like ours were not calculated to bring a response; rather, their actions and ours are a response.
A response to God’s amazing grace that has apprehended us in Jesus Christ. An amazing grace that accepts us, assures us, sustains us, and always holds us close in the embrace of divine love. Such radical grace prompts a radical response.
—Reuben P. Job, A Guide to Prayer
The early disciples weren’t trying to stand out—they just lived so fully under God’s reign that their lives couldn’t help but appear mysterious and beautiful to those around them. Their love didn’t follow the rules of politics or culture. It came from somewhere else—from Someone else. And because of that, their lives only made sense in light of God’s presence.
When we live as they did—rooted in grace, obedient to love—our actions may confuse others. Sometimes we’ll be misunderstood. But like them, our lives aren’t meant to win applause; they’re meant to be a response to the radical grace that has claimed us. That grace still holds us, still sends us. May we live so closely with Christ that the world can’t help but ask why. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics