I recently got done reading a book that really messed me up and is still making my mind race! I definitely recommend you reading This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley (the pastor of Imago Dei church in Portland, OR). The book is all about the kingdom of God, which if you’re like me…doesn’t really get your blood pumping from the get go. However, I soon realized it was because I’ve reduced the kingdom of God to a small, comfortable portion that fits my current lifestyle and environment. But, this book blew that all to smithereens. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
“The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he…sold all he had and bought that field.”- Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of God is the living, breathing presence and purpose and reign of God on our planet. It’s beautiful and irreducible. To reduce it to a seven-point outline might help you on the quiz, but it won’t get you any closer to the experience. It would be like cutting up a corpse to figure out what it means to be human…
What if God broke into our world back then with a revolutionary message of truth, life, and freedom that His followers today have parted out, like an old ‘57 Chevy up on blocks, keeping just a few of the shinier parts?
What if you started praying for the things around you that break His heart–even if they don’t break yours yet?
…followers of Jesus are sent out to be signposts pointing to the reality of his eternal kingdom…Paradoxically, signposts of the kingdom radiate the most beauty when they’re planted in the middle of the most mess.
…relevance is a consequence of kingdom living, not a cause. We become relevant when we are committed to being that signpost of heaven in some part of the world. When we study Scripture, we find that relevance happens naturally when we choose to be real people caring for other real people. Even the real people who are not like us. Even the real people who don’t hesitate to hate us.
What would happen if hundreds of people descended onto the town or city where you live to redeem creation with the love of the King? What would happen if people who did not follow Jesus were invited on the journey? What if they tasted the kingdom in creation, in the sweat of redemption, and when it was all over you could explain why it moved their soul–because the King loves them more than the flowers they planted and He proved it with His own death? What would it look like if we practiced the kingdom by creating sacred space all over our cities and towns by simply redeeming the mess of creation with the beauty of restoration?
