rejected: 2 Cor 6

I wrote this for another blog and the girl decided that a tale of lovelorn woe was a better fit. So, I like this piece and wanted it to have a home. It's rather apropos for a piece on this passage to get rejected, eh?

Jon Krakauer chose Pat Tillman as the subject of his new book, Where Men Win Glory. As the author of Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, Krakauer has a nose for adventure gone awry. As Paul wrote earlier, we are made in the image of a beautiful and adventurous God, and heaven is the adventure for which we are preparing. But, the practice and endurance workouts we’re doing are both excruciating and tedious similar to the crisises Krakauer's subjects face.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574406732146520274.html

Paul addresses our preparation for heaven in 2 Corinthians 6: 4-10 with a complex, compound sentence both grammatically and theologically.
People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

As daunting as this sentence is, it is anything but boring. This sentence tells of a passion far greater than any desire to climb a mountain or win a war.

“Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!” (v 11-13The Message)

This passage is reminiscent of a scene in Mark’s Gospel:

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!”

He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. (Mark 9: 28-30 The Message)

These passages are calls to a life of adventure not comfort, safety or ease. Like the risk-takers that Krakauer chronicles, we have license to enter this wide-open spacious life… to open up our lives and live openly and expansively. Our lives are not determined by our circumstances but by the mystery of our new creation through Jesus.