Summit – the vision quest


I love the Arthurian legend! When I was 10, my mom and I watched the classic Excalibur on TBS one Sunday afternoon and ever since I’ve been hooked! That movie was/is so good – I mean Captain Picard before he was famous and Liam Neeson prior to just being awesome! Anyway, I love the movie because of the relationships within the movie, but also because of the quest that Arthur takes up. He’s a man of a goal. In later renditions (like King Arthur with Clive Owen) the quest is a united Briton and the quest shatters assumptions and prejudices that Arthur has long lived with. I love that.

Some time ago, I read a book by this author John Eldridge and he was saying that we all long for a quest. He was focusing this on men, but I think as creations of a wildly imaginative God, we all share this desire to make a dent – to make a difference – to have a quest or goal to our life. Early on in my ministry, I remember verbalizing my deepest fear in s
erving the Bride of Christ – indifference or ineffectiveness in the Kingdom! At some points, my “fear” even got in the way of moving forward – being so afraid to not move forward that I actually didn’t move forward (that’s wordy – sorry).
That’s why Vision is so important. Proverbs 29:18 is a pretty well known passage (without a vision the people perish) but I read it recently in a different translation and I was shocked. Check this out:
If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,they are most blessed.
Isn’t that cool? The point of this translation/paraphrase isn’t on a Vision that you or I have to develop! The pressure ain’t on us! It’s God’s work – we just get to jump in and our job then is to make sure we open our eyes to see it. That realization sure helps a fear like mine! I don’t have to worry about failing at something or not making a difference – I just need to keep my eyes open to what God is revealing and then step into it.
That’s a quest I can get behind. And opening our eyes to what God is doing isn’t hard – we even know God’s mission: to make the world right again! We also know how God is doing it: Jesus! Jesus is the vision – Jesus is the way to moving forward – Jesus is the focus of our open eyes – Jesus is the revelation of the Godhead and that’s the quest.
That’s a quest worthy of an Arthurian Poem!
Before destruction was wholeness! It was all good!
But it was interrupted with the sharp reality of brokeness and death.
The creator viewed the hurt in the creation and was heart sick with what had happened to His beloved. Something must be done – something was already occurring!
The Word of God – the voice that created and upheld and sustains all of the order was already moving and speaking. The Godhead who wrote the book was inserting into the story. The Godhead, full of glory and holiness and beauty, was going to be born in filth and disgust. The Godhead left all that was good and entered the stained world of creation. Holiness, purity, glory, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence was located within the story. The Word became flesh as part of the quest to restore the world from brokenness to Good. The Word walked, talked, breathed and served the creation. The world took out it’s pain, it’s hurt, it’s brokenness on the Word. The Word, one of such beauty that the stars left their orbit for the reason of worship of this ONE. The word was lifted up and declared dead – yet the quest was not complete.
The Word, in that act of being lifted up destroyed brokenness – the Word spoke out with a shout that shook the foundations of the world and declared that once again Good had returned. The defeat of death was finalized that Sunday morning when the Word broke forth! But the quest was not finished.

The creation was still entrenched in a foe that had been defeated – the Word must continue to be shouted and Good must continue to take it’s rightful place.
This quest was laid upon those who are called the bride – the redeemed ones of the Word.
Will we be that incarnation – will we continue the quest?

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