Euclidean Theology (Living at the Intersection)

Well, it's been a while! I admit, I've been slacking on the old blog-front.

I have experienced some pretty cool conversations with a bunch of different people since returning from Honduras . It always amazes me how, as we relate the things that we have been learning along the way, we all intersect at certain points along the journey. As I have been relating some of my experiences in Central America, I have had so many comments from different people who identify and who are encouraged in their own journey as my story intersects with theirs. And it is at that intersection point where I think God is asking all of us to live.

After I shared some of my experiences in my sermon on Sunday, I had someone come up to me and talk about how it would be great if we could all live on that plane. The world seems to drag us down to a plane that is at a lower level, but God is calling us to live our lives on a higher plane. It's true, God calls us to a different type of living. And the life that God desires for us is on a different level than any of us really experience.

But as I've been thinking of this planar (Euclidean) geometry view of spirituality, the dust gets blown off of the old math lessons from college (yes, I was a math-geek until the Lord delivered me! He healed me from math-geekiness and now I'm not a math-geek anymore; just a regular geek). See, in Euclidean geometry, planes (like lines) can be parallel or they can intersect. Spiritually, I think we often view the spiritual plane as parallel and above the physical plane. And following Jesus means porting over from the lower plane to the higher plane. The more I think about this, the less I feel it. The story of Jesus is the story of intersection. Jesus lived his life at the intersection of the divine and the human. At the intersection of justice and mercy. At the intersection of spiritual and physical.

What I think is that, because of God's grace, the "spiritual" plane and the "physical" plane intersect. If I am a follower of Christ, then my job isn't to try to jump to another plane so that I can look down on those who aren't spiritual enough to make it. Rather, like Jesus, I find the place where those planes intersect and I run along that line. When my journey takes me along the line of intersection, then that line will also take me through the planes where others are living and God will use that point of intersection to encourage them to walk along their journey.

That might sound weird (or technical; or weird AND technical) but the bottom line is this: following Christ isn't about trying to bump it up a level (Christ brings life to another level without me trying). Rather, following Christ is about living life in that place where His purpose for our lives intersects with the reality of the place where he has put us. It's about finding ways to love the people he has placed in our lives. It's about serving others and showing compassion in his name.

Jesus is calling me, and all of us who live in him, to live at the intersection.

Because Jesus himself is at the intersection.