I'm reading Sex God by Rob Bell. Rob Bell is a savant at naming stuff and expressing stuff with spare, simple phrases and words. He's like a fighter who can deliver sharp, effective jabs that always land. His writing is peppered with simple but profound stuff.
As I'm reading along, I hear him (I'm reading but when I read I hear his voice coming through) say,
One of the marks of someone who has experienced significant growth in their soul is their ability to live in the midst of tension.
That is profound. The ability to live with the tension of reality v. ideal is a large segment of maturity. Holding on to the ideal with love in the face of the painful failures of the reality around you gives you the ability to press for more of the ideal in the real world. The immature response is to give up the fight, call it hopeless and hate the tension.
Maturity is tough. Reality is tough. Ideals are tough. I am convinced that Jesus enables people to keep the tension between "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done..." and "there is none righteous, no not one..."
Funny,
This past Sunday, while talking with Pastor Paco at my home, I shared with him that Men need an element of tension in their lives in order to reach their full spiritual potential as Men.
Jesus always had nay sayers (tension) and yet always glorified the Father in their midsts.
Posted by: Steve Fuentes | July 18, 2007 at 04:13 AM
Funny timing, Steve--thanks for passing along...
Posted by: Kevin | July 18, 2007 at 12:40 PM