Letting Go

In September of 2009, I made a trip to London with the Agents of Future crew from The Bridge in Portland and walked away with God asking me to let go of what he’s given me. Robert and Vickie Schellert are two American missionaries in London who are living out a vision for a community that loves God and loves people. They call their community of people “The Bridge” (www.thebridgecollective.com) and are located right off of Brick Lane in London. Our crew was blessed to be hosted by these Jesus freaks. Robert and I had a chance to talk about human nature’s broken condition. Some people call it sin – for the sake of conversation and to gain a better understanding of it, we referred to sin as selfishness.

Some people enjoy the temporary satisfaction (at its best) that selfishness offers. Of course this temporary satisfaction is only experienced by the one who commits the selfish act not the one being violated. Whether you believe in the Bible or not, at some point, its obvious that humans started looking around for ways to get more out of life than they’ve been given. We believed the lie that there was no consequence for our selfish actions and that we would actually be better off by putting ourselves above other people and considering ourselves equals with God. If God is good and selfishness not good, then we are literally pushed away from good when we choose to act in a selfish manner.

If you’ve ever given something away for free (time, money, possessions…etc) you know how good it feels. Only when we give freely are we freed from our possessions possessing us. Robert, Vickie, Anna, all members of the Bridge community freely gave us their time, care, resources, people opened up their homes to us (Thanks Jo!), we lived and ate food that was provided for by loving people from all over the US, and we were not required to give anything back in return. People gave up what they “owned.” We also broke our bank accounts in faith to offer this world an invitation into what we experience living in as community of people who love and follow Jesus – The Christ.

All we need to live has already been given to us – even life itself has been given to us! All this other “stuff” that we possess is not ours – we came into this world with nothing, we’ll leave with the same. Acts Chapter 4 of the Bible describes what a community centered around Christ looked like in the first century AD and reads like this in the Message version:

32-33The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.

34-35And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need.

This community is a beautiful thing to imagine. One must look hard to find a group of people living the life described above. This doesn’t mean that early Christ-following communities didn’t have some of the same problems that we do today, but this paints a picture to how things could be. This is the alternative to protecting an identity found in our earthly possessions.

What do I hold onto as part of my identity…as if it actually belongs to me?

Tags: Agents of future, Bridge, God, London, possessions, selfishness, sin, Theology