underzeal

after typing out a heartfelt salvation message in Icarus' comment line, ezekiel decided to start a blog of his own. to ezekiel's first post, icarus replied:
I for one hope you do try to convert me and others, as you said, it would really be wrong of you not to.

nice comment. it appears as though there are two things that irk (?) people about believers:
1) those being overzealous and underthinking...
2) those being (you guessed it) underzealous and overthinking...

the message and the mission must travel together as equal partners the way faith and reason must.

those being overzealous and underthinking are often pointed out and pointed at. no point going on about that here- plenty of blogs already chronicle the mistakes made in God's name.

but as to the problem of 'underzeal', i think that it begins to take root when the recipients of grace become so used to that gift of God's mercy that they lose their edge. instead of preaching the gospel (which is supposed to be, by the way, GOOD news but that is also a whole nother blog) of grace to those who have not yet freely received it, Jesus' beloved start preaching a gospel of permission. the fear of disagreement and the resulting apologetics that will ensue is just too great a risk, so the rescue mission that Jesus died to launch never leaves the training compound. it remains simply another good idea which can be taken up in discussion and debate, like a right-thinking foreign policy with no actual action or support.

so we end up with this passive-aggressive gospel that says 'well, i would have preached, but he didn't ask and i didn't want to force my views upon him. he had every opportunity to hear the gospel- i was ready to share, but didn't want to jeopardize the relationship we have by getting into religion stuff too soon...'

yet, when a person like icarus asks a heavy question, believers can find themselves in over their head because comfy sunday-school answers don't deliver the goods to someone who has already heard the rhetoric and is looking for something beyond that. people like icarus can be tough and intimidating, not because of anything malicious on their part, but because they ask questions which challenge the things that believers mightn't have ever questioned.

in my view, walking the faith journey side by side strengthens everyone involved in that journey in some way- if they let it happen.