We can recognise those people who are fellow kingdom travellers not by how they talk, but by how they walk

I am preparing myself for a journey to the U.K. this week. It is a strange feeling knowing that I am heading over for the launch of my book and that lots of people will be reading the thoughts I have written down sitting here at my desk in Poatina.

A joy for me in it all is that I am able to take my son Daniel. We made an agreement with our kids a number of years ago that I would not go away for more than two weeks without taking one of them with me. We knew it was right for me to go, but even making that happen seemed impossible, but in the end everything has fallen into place and we leave Launceston airport at 6 a.m. on Friday.

As I prepare myself to do seminars about the book, I was struck today with why the book is important. It is called 6 Radical Decisions and is focussed not on what you do with your time, or any particular method, but who you are as a person.

In the 7 Habits of Highly effective People, Stephen R. Covey, pointed out the difference in leadership/management type books. He discovered that:

The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.

But shortly after world war I the basic view of success shifted from the Character Ethic to what we might call the Personality Ethic. Success became more a function personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviours, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction..

It was helpful to realise again how easy it is to slip into the trap of trying to discover the magic recipe for life, but it doesn’t work that way.

Jesus said in the Message paraphrase of Matthew 10:9:

“Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.

Paul encouraged the Thessalonians by saying in 1 Thessalonians 1:7 (The Message again):

Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message!

The reason I wrote the book was that I wanted to wrestle with what it meant to live Christianity with integrity. I know though, that the temptation for me now will to start mouthing words and trying to sound clever. That is not my job. My job is to be me, but the me that has made choices to live in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus made it clear that our decisions were critical at the end of the sermon on the mount when he said in Matthew 7:24-27:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

How we live our lives matters. I will be doing some training with Christians who want to know how to effectively engage their communities. One of the scary things I know I need to tell them is that the question really isn’t about what they do, it is about who they are.

Just before the bit about the house and sand Jesus gave the clear message that we can recognise those people who are fellow kingdom travellers not by how they talk, but by how they walk:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
(Matthew 7:15-20)

There is a real danger for people in ministry, that we get seduced into doing stuff and we forget the basis of our ministry is not the stuff but who we are as people. Its a scary thought, but New Testament theologian and historian N.T. Wright believes that was Jesus’s plan all along:

The evidence points, I suggest, towards Jesus intending to establish, and indeed succeeded in establishing, what we might call cells of followers, mostly continuing to live in their towns and villages, who by their adoption of his praxis, his way of being Israel, would be distinctive in their local communities.
N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God

I know the danger is that as I get ready to get on a plane to go and do stuff, even good stuff, I can easily start to focus on the stuff and not living my life in a way that is actually distinctive in the way that N.T. Wright describes.

It’s a relief to know that there isn’t a big agenda of stuff I need to do in order to be okay, its just a little daunting to realise though that who I am is what actually matters.