My honor grad and I just got back from Kosovo. Heidi and I had the great job of the last three days of hanging with our Albanian language team and talking about the world we live in today and what the missional response to that world should be. These last three posts have been about themes that missional futurists see as key elements of society that all ministers/christians have to come to grips with, but these things are especially challenging for missions.
Of course when I speak about unlimited indulgences, I am not talking about the middle ages and Catholic indulgences, but rather unrestrained pampering and wish-fulfillment. It seems that most modern cultures face this challenge. Sacrifice, denial, commitment to others appear to have lost their salty significance according to the world's point of view. The world's infinitely changing contexts seem to have displaced self-discipline, hard work and surrender to a greater cause.
In a world that is all of the above, yet hungry for integrity, God is (as He always has been) calling us out to be the people of God and a royal priesthood. Now before you think I have gone self-righteous and devotional on you - I am neither - this conversation is more about erroneous Western assumptions, than classic theology. It is more about the fact that human enthusiasm for unexamined change has no moral compass.
The challenge is that I too wish for ME to be the center of everything. It is the idea of unlimited indulgence. Not only is this bad for my marriage, my parenting and my job; but at the beginning and at the end, God simply will not tolerate such behavior on my part. Col. 3:6 states that it is because of such behavior that, "God is about to explode in anger." (The Message). He is not going to put up with His children (even perhaps not anyone!) living a life that is all about me . . . or you.
My hope is this . . . that I will continue to pursue God in the face of overwhelming unlimited indulgence temptations. But many days I don't. I need to take a few days and think more about this.
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