The Noble Heart - Feb

(Gary Barkalow's newsletter)

God is quite the artist and choreographer in the way He speaks to us.   Since my last eLetter I read a book that caught my eye as I past my book shelf - The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus.  It's a small book with a big idea.   McManus describes the true heart of the follower of Jesus and what has happened to Western Christianity.  
 
"Christianity over the past 2000 years has moved from a tribe of renegades (barbarians) to a religion of conformists.  Those who choose to follow Jesus become participants in an insurrection...to fight for the heart of humanity... Barbarians can be counted as worthless when all is safe and secure, but dangerous times suddenly make them invaluable.  We live in such times.  And we are not ready for the great challenges set before us.  We have not been prepared to take on any great quest, to battle any great enemy, or even to pursue a great dream for which we have been born.  Instead, Christianity has become our Shawshank, and our redemption will only come if we find the courage to escape the prison we have created for ourselves.  Risking everything to live free is our only hope -- humanity's only hope... it is time to hear the barbarian call, to form a barbarian tribe, and to unleash the barbarian revolt."
 
After reading this book, God drew me to Matthew 5:13-16: "You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
 
It's fascinating that salt, sodium chloride, is extremely stable and cannot lose its saltiness.  What causes it to "lose its saltiness" is when it's not extracted properly, it's not pure, it's mixed or contaminated.  You and I are salt of the earth people.  But we don't flavor or enhance anything when we are mixed - when we are a combination of who we truly are and what we believe the world want us to be.
 
Brent Curtis wrote, "We try to make ourselves into something that we hope the world will like better than it apparently did the selves we originally were. That is the story of all our lives, needless to say, and in the process of living out that story, the original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us hardly end up living out of it at all."
 
We are light in the darkness.  But we will not illuminate "the heart of humanity" in our hesitancy, our hiding or our withdrawal.   
 
Jesus started this passage with "you are" and ended with "let your".  You are salt and light, an enhancer and illuminator.  You must let the world experience the splendor, the abundance, the weightiness of your life.  You do see, you do know, you can and must offer.
 
McManus, "God steers us in the direction of his kingdom, his purpose, his passions.  His desire is not to conform us, but to transform us.  Not to make us compliant, but to make us creative.  His intent is never to domesticate us, but to liberate us...God is not a sedative that keeps you calm and under control by dulling your senses.  He does quite the opposite.  He awakens your spirit to be truly alive."
 
Let us hear and return to the barbarian call...together.
 
Gary