It has been a busy time and a long blog-think pause—I don’t imagine I have had an original thought in over three weeks and can’t remember the last book I read. But life is like that sometimes.

Meanwhile, my friend David is burning the midnight oil over at Spirit of the wild wood blog and coming to some interesting conclusions. Check it out.

It is the Saturday before Christmas and the big project at work is finally put to bed and sent to the printer. It will need a little more attention come January—but in the meantime I will finally be able to catch a breath and maybe express a few thoughts that are rolling around in my head.

It seems like the really big question these days is what is Christianity supposed to look like in the the world we find ourselves living in. There are literally thousands of blogs posting provocative insights into this very self-same question daily. There is no lack of information net-wise on most anything a person might want to explore. Yet the very core of the Christian walk seems almost as elusive as ever—at least to me and my somewhat worn-out mind.

Today I stopped by a local shop I frequent when I need what they have to sell (I am being vague on purpose). I guess I felt a little push inside to explore my relationship with the clerk—or maybe it was that I felt great after a half-hour workout in the pool. Who knows?

I recalled in passing having my guitar fixed many years ago by a fine repairman who happened to be a Jehovah’s Witness. He was a really nice guy and I always looked forward to our meetings so that I could mess with his mind just a little about Jesus. The clerk then began to tell me how bad she felt about all the Muslims and Buddists that according to fundamental (read radical) Christians are going to hell.

I then tried to explain to her as gently as I could that it wasn’t her that was passing judgment on these people but God. Since I was on a roll (or so I thought), I went on to explain that I felt that a lot of harm had been done in the world by Christians who thought they were “doing” something for God.

As I read the scripture I am confronted by the fact that vengeance is the Lord’s and that He will repay. I don’t remember reading where we are to take the law into our own hands and dole out the wrath of God for Him. David was even repentant for cutting off a portion of Saul’s cloak even though God had told him he was going to be the next King of Israel.

In other words—how are we to display the fact that we are Christians to the rest of the world?

Years ago I worked for a printer in the town I live in. During slow times I had the press man make some many colored postcards for me. He worked on a one-color-at-a-time-press and it took several press jobs to get the postcards done. The postcard—which I still have several of—says: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” and is from Galatians 5:6b.

Today that scripture was once again brought home to me. In light of what I have read on many blogs and what I am currently feeling—this may indeed be a key to moving on in the Christian life.

It is not our job to make sure that God is represented in a legislative way in the earth—but rather in a relational way. Either we represent a God who through His Son Jesus can heal and make lives whole or we don’t.

If we do—our only job is to let Him do His and we do ours.

I am aware that this simple statement doesn’t answer all the questions that are out there at this very moment—troops in Iraq and starving children in almost every nation. But what I do believe is that at some point we need to begin to inhabit the kingdom of God which we are told is neigh unto us.

What do you think?