Normal Christianity #1

One retreat that impacted me like none other was Bethel's winter retreat in 2009, titled, "Christianity A to Z." Pastor Hank blew open my mind, and soon after my heart, to the way God revealed the person of Jesus in every story of the Bible, from Abraham to Moses to David. This supposedly basic Christian teaching was a hard thing to swallow, in large part because of its peculiar absence in my initial Christian years when I would ostensibly be learning the "basics."

And so it is with all "basic" Christian teachings. We never stray too far from our baby "spiritual milk" (1 Corinthians 3:2) because sin is never too far in grounding us (Genesis 4:7).

All that was to really preface this first reflection in how I am attempting to live out normal Christianity in my maturation to full independence. I mean "independence" in the sense that the student environment provided many guards and brackets that shielded worldly temptations I now face, and "normal" in the sense of a "basic" Christian walk.

The first basic principle I must remind myself overandoverandover again is that every individual -- of the thousands that surround me everyday -- is in part a reflection of the eternal God (Genesis 1:27). Let's start with that. The implications are as such:

    There is a beauty about every individual because of God's own beauty.
    There is a respect due unto every individual because of God's own authority.
    There is an infinite value ascribed to each individual because of God's sovereign purposes.

This principle has been most effective in my everyday relational attitude. How can I disrespect any individual if God himself is imaged in him? How can I not have compassion on any individual if God sacrificed his son to bring him close? Innate human dignity is an epic level-setter that vertically silences my righteous heart and molds it into a vessel of grace for its daily horizontal transactions.