“The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence--congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it. It is what we admire in an athlete whose body is accurately and gracefully responsive and totally submissive to the conditions of the event: Michael Jordan, for instance, at one with the court, the game, the basketball, and his fellow players. Or a musical performance in which Mozart, a Stradivarius, and Yitzak Perlman fuse and are inextinguishable from one another in the music. But it also occurs often enough in more modest venues: a child unselfconsciously at play, a conversation in which words become movements in a ballet revealing all manner of beauty and truth and goodness, a meal bringing friends into a quiet awareness of affection and celebration in a mingling of senses and spirits that brings something like a eucharistic dimension to the evening.”    (Peterson, Eugene. Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005, p. 333).

What one of my mentors, Chuck Miller, has taught over the years about the Bible as not only our Message book (“the end” in Peterson’s language), but also our Method book (“the means” as Peterson puts it) is a critical and often overlooked dynamic in our evangelical churches and ministries. We seem very interested in having the right answers, but seem less aware of the treasure and beauty of a “right life.” Does my life recommend my message, resonate with my message, even embody my message? Isn’t there something of simple and profound authority in the life of one whose way of life and whose life message harmonize with one another? And we intuitively recognize it when we see it. Isn’t there at least as much beauty in a well-prepared and well-formed life as in a well-prepared and well-formed sermon or talk or presentation?

And, of course, this doesn’t just apply to those who have vocational ministry jobs like pastors, missionaries or seminary professors. Our lives can increasingly be shaped by the Christ we proclaim in our beliefs and in our witness. There is a credibility that comes when what we say about Jesus is at work in how we live in Jesus at home, in our neighborhoods or in the workplace.

Lord, I welcome Your Spirit’s work within me to shape how I live, relate, speak, and behave by the reality of Who You are and how You work. I realize I probably don’t even know all that I’m asking, but I’m grateful for Your trustworthiness and Your immeasurable commitment to me in Christ. Thanks for how You are at work. Amen.

Discuss!