Movements

"Sorry I can't check you in right now. I have to leave and go demonstrate at the Capital." Just previously I heard on the local radio in my delivery van that there was a national anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC, with coinciding protests around the country. It shouldn't have surprised me to find half the staff gone from the vegetarian outpost which is the last stop on my bread route. This place rivals the life of a church in such uncanny ways. Promise Keepers is one comparison to the anti-war march the klerk was anxious to attend. Someone rallies support for a cause, a tipping point is reached and soon you have a movement. Excitement abounds. "This is it!" you think to yourself. "We are on the verge of an answer!" But of course it doesn't turn out to be the answer, and people lose interest and go home, leaving one to wonder what that was all about. People lose interest because there is no power. I can't speak for the anti-war folk since I don't know their agenda, but I did find myself at a couple of PK rallys. It was based on 7 promises, 7 really grand and noble claims that I could never keep, regardless of my best intentions. Those 7 promises, like much in my life, didn't really factor in a need of the power of God to transform. I yearn to see that power. For I believe it is this that separated Jesus from all the other teachers, and it will be this that separates the Church from all the other co-ops and non-profit groups that want to do some kind of good. Without it, the Church is just like the United Way or Red Cross. They raise money, have a following and try to do good in the community. Without power, I might as well just pay my membership fees at Open Harvest and hang out with them. They are, after all, very nice people.