Buzz word...

Thanks to some outside influences, and maybe some inner ones too, I have adopted a new buzz word for the month. Or as long as it sticks with me. I'm hoping for a life time.

The word is reconciliation.

The concept is not new to me, but the way that I recently had it etched into my being is new and mind/heart altering. There is this idea floating in my head that more than anything else that I need to learn from the Bible I (and we) need to learn the capacities that Jesus speaks in the realm of reconciliation. I know it's not a new idea to other people out there, but it's shaking my life up well enough to warrant an inward self scan - and quite possibly an obsession. So onto the meaty stuff.

Here is why I am labeling reconciliation as my new "buzz word." I have been on a search for a while for a vision of what kind of role I am supposed to be playing in the body - the church. (not a church, the church... yes H Bonham a shout out for you) I found a vision and it kind of rocked me a little more than I was expecting. My heart, my soul, my everything is shouting at my self to get up and restore.

That's the beauty of reconciliation. It has this hint of, "at one time we were whole - good." Often times I feel that we overlook this little fact. Reconciliation finds its way into things like race, but we overlook this idea that in the past this is not the way it was. We are trying to move forward without looking to the past. This is particularly a problem concerning racial issues.

What did it used to look like?

We have lost something.

If it's restoring something then that means we are bringing it back to how it was, but even more than that. We are bringing it back to a state that it was good, whole, not broken.

When was there a time in history when we were not separated by the racial lines that stare us in the face everyday, even in diverse cities like Chicago?

What if we took this idea of repair and said that we are trying to restore the peace, harmony, community that God designed for us in Genesis?

Then what? Would it make sense then?

I think it does.

Reconciliation isn't just about forgiveness. It's about restoring things to the way they were. The way it was when God told us that we were created perfect.