When I think about being grounded, I think about assessing the situation in which I happen to find myself. I think about people who are grounded, I think about those who seem to know what is going on in their context and they understand the way in which they are needed; to interact, to guide, to lend a helping hand etc. Seldom do I think about all the struggles they had to face on their way to becoming grounded.

I want to be grounded in this world, but when I look at the overwhelming nature of the struggles that face our world; poverty, hunger, war, genocide, corruption, slavery, racism loneliness, I feel so utterly defeated. I feel as though I am paralyzed, as if I cannot act because I do not know where to begin. My hands are so small and the work so large. Where is my grounding? What would make me grounded so that I know what I to do in my context?

These issues that plague our world are caused complex and varied circumstances that can be difficult to understand and interpret. Yet beneath all the layers of speculation, description and explanation for their causes I see primarily the violence of apathy, and the churches hands are not clean. I have seen the inaction of many and the non-action of myself, the action of a few, which I wish included me more. I don’t want to be heroic, I just want to help, I know that nothing I can bring about swift or magnificent change in the situation of world poverty. But God isn’t asking me to change the world, simply to change my world in any way I can. If we are grounded in the God of the resurrection then I think the church can help to ground us in reality. Being grounded in the resurrection is to be grounded in the means toward transformation and the strength of action. I want to be part of the church that speaks prophetically, I want to love God and my neighbors but as the fella once said, ‘Your in a big pile of shit, and you don’t have the shoes for it’.

The Church, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, is the prophetic voice of God to this world. As She attempts to speak prophetically to a culture that is already saturated with prophets, her cries go unnoticed. Perhaps the time for a new strategy of silence has come. But what I really mean to say is that the new strategy of silently speaking to the needs of the world is not new at all, it is being practiced by many folks all over our world. With the silent goodness of a forgiving and gentle open door that welcomes and blesses all who enter. Communities with food to share, where trust of the stranger, the love of neighbor and the enemy love of Jesus are practiced as well as preached.

I see many within the Church that are not grounded solely in theological statements that tell us who is in and who is out, nor a people that are grounded in budgets for things they don’t need. People who realize that doing all the good they can to all the people they can as long as they can is not found in special buildings with ornate decorations or magnificent crosses but in the very lives of the members of the church. There is a church grounded not in an evacuation theology, where the real action of God is somewhere else, but grounded in prophetic embodiment where co-creating participation is present. And most importantly where Christ is present among them .

Despite this hope that I see, often I feel like the cross is just something we are supposed to look at when we sing songs, rather than something that we are supposed to long after. Do we long to worship the God who created and ordered the cosmos? Or do we only wish we longed to worship the God who is repairing and restoring the world?

Sometimes I pray that as God made a way for Moses that God would do the same for me. I wish I were changing faster, I wish I were helping more, I wish God would just talk to me like a human so I could figure out how to help more. If we hope to be prophetic we must understand that Jesus is much more than capable of simply forgiving us? Does Jesus simply get rid of a problem, or is it the case that Jesus interested in restoring shalom? Does God only tell us what we are not, that we are not good enough, or holy enough or sanctified enough, or is God telling us much more?

If your frustrated with the church, or with people in the church whom have hurt you, like they have hurt me, there is still hope. There is always hope. To be grounded in that hope, grounded in the God of the resurrection can allow us to transform ourselves and our worlds.

About JoshuaDbauIII

Joshua David Bau is a Doctor of Ministry Student in social and economic innovation at Bethel Seminary in collusion with Trans4m University in Geneva, Switzerland. He lives in St. Paul with his beautiful wife Gracie. He enjoys long walks on the street, painting and cooking.