Thin

“It’s time! The kingdom of God is near! Seek forgiveness, change your actions, and believe this good news!”  

Jesus of Nazareth

Early Celtic Christians talk about a “thin place” where heaven and earth seem to meet.  Where present life and eternity seem to blur into one single reality.  You know what that feels like, right?

When you’ve been in beautiful places on vacation.

When you first fell in love.

When you held your newborn child.

Sharing a meal and a beautiful evening with true friends.

I spent 4 days in that kind of a place recently.  I found it at the end of a dirt road that seemed to magically appear as I gained elevation above the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs.  A collection of log structures nestled in the pines and aspens at about 9,100 feet elevation.  

The abundance of God and the promise of his intentions were thick and unmistakable.  There were two categories of men there:

• Young warriors of the Kingdom (30-somethings)
• Older kings and sages of the Kingdom (50, 60, & 70 somethings)

I have neither the runway in front of me of the younger crowd or the wisdom and experience of some of the older ones.  I was incredibly humbled and even a little embarrassed to be counted in their company.

I felt both a little too late and not quite ready.

The picture I was given was that of a campfire, hidden and protected by a crowding forest, but very near the front of enemy lines.  The flickering light was on the faces of the most seasoned and concentric circles extending out to the subsequent generations.

This was no tips and techniques conversation.  This was not the exposition of knowledge and information.  The experiential knowledge of those that had fought well and suffered deeply was on full display.  

Rather than a New Testament that told stories of how others lived the life of God as redeemed, these men made a newer testament.  This one contained the book of Sam, the book of Rande, the book of Bart, and many others. 

The truest thing is not about how others lived life with God 2,000 years ago, but how you have.

I hear a lot of complaining about the younger generations behind mine.  Of their unwillingness to listen, acknowledge the experience of others, or wait their turn.  But these young men were committing to a decade of excavation.  To walk the narrow path and learn the ancient ways so that they will be ready to become the kind of men that God can entrust his power.

They scribbled furiously and hung on every word.  They defied every caricature of those in their generation.

A thought rose in me throughout the weekend:  I really can’t change the posture and heart of subsequent generations.  But there is something I can do.

I can live the kind of life that they would desire to know more about.

I can live a story worth telling.

I want to write the kind of story with my life that those I love and lead (and maybe an increasing number of the next generation) want to know more about.  I want the book of Brian to be the kind of thing that others read, see the hope of a new and better life, and gain the courage to find that life for themselves.

• How is the testament of your life reading?
• Are the subsequent generations in your life (kids, employees, etc.) seeking your counsel?
• Would the life you live make others want to change theirs?
• Are you seeking and finding thin places where heaven and earth collide?