subversive soul
(disruptive, subverting an established system)
Our subversive Savior used a brilliant weapon against the status quo:
Love.
On Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday, maundy – Latin for mandate = commandment) the night before his death, Jesus gave a new commandment. (John 13:34,35) Following that command to love one another would become what distinguished His people from others. The next day Love cut piercingly through the spit-filled mockery and wrenching injustice. It threw His enemies off. They never saw that coming. Love is subversive at times.
Up is down. Giving is receiving. Life is death. Being is becoming.
So many paradoxes in this life of faith! So, we too have to be subversive. The established system we seek to subvert is our propensity to self-centeredness; the idea that, life is about us, all about how I think it should be. When full life really comes from the One who designed us. So, subverting that mindset means looking honestly at me and my status quo.
I think we’d all agree that sin is a problem for us. And more so when we think it’s not. We’ve seen way too many leaders living as if they were above the ways of God and losing their way. How easily we can lose our way. In the book of Hebrews it’s referred to as hardness of heart, or dullness of ears, immature, untrained and unaccustomed to God’s Word.
“The moment we formulate our doctrines, draw up our moral codes and throw ourselves into a life of ministry apart from a continuous re-immersion in the [gospel] story itself, we walk right out of the presence and activity of God and set up our own shop.” E Peterson Subversive Spirituality
We’re talking about inner work here, matters of the invisible. Often, we’re too content with just the outward things in our lives:
“…we must draw boundaries where they will help us. But it’s dangerous to imagine they will reform us, protect us from moral decay, or eradicate the true source of sin. We can’t let down our guard. Sin begins in our own hearts and minds, and the most effective protections are the ministry of the Holy Spirit and equal, open relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ.” Amy Simpson
What in your soul needs that subversive love?
RH Barton speaking of R Mulholland’s Invitation to a Journey says the soul’s “journey toward Christlikeness and abandonment to God begins by exposing conscious sins and omissions and culminates in a greater awareness of the deep-seated attitudes and inner orientations of our being out of which our behavior patterns flow. Here God deals primarily with our “trust structures” especially those deep inner postures…that do not rely on God but on self for our well-being.”
