Unrelenting Pressure

In an age when we are constantly bombarded with advertising, vision statements, and goal-oriented living, wouldn’t it be nice to find maybe one or two hours a week when you could gather together with other people without these pressures?

I think so.

One thing I do as a pastor is allow space that is totally free of these constant unrelenting pressures. Even such noble pressures as spiritual ones are just as deadly, if not deadlier. I would meditate on grace and love, believing that the power of these two very real realities would do any of the work that needed to be done.

Not everyone believes this. Most people believe that we need to be driving, pushing, pulling and prodding ourselves for the kingdom in order to improve ourselves and this world. Most people believe they need to make themselves and others worthy of this grace, and that once it is received they need to live worthily of it. Grace has only become the new law. Which isn’t really grace.

Churches seem to be the most frenetic, hyperactive, and taut places around. Even though many people would say that we are a Sabbath people and that God does the work, most don’t really believe it.