Advent House
I’m at the Mockingbird Ministries Fall conference in Birmingham AL. I’m staying at the Advent house near the church where the conference is being held, and it sure is nice. I’m feeling very blessed indeed, they couldn’t have been more hospitable here. I’ve never been to Birmingham and it is a wonderful city.
Here’s a link to the conference site if you’re interested:
Grace, Rest, and the End of Scorekeeping
From the event site, here is a description:
The great theologian Robert Capon once wrote, “Grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralizing is out of the game…, until our fatal love affair with the law is over — until, finally and for good, our lifelong certainty that someone is keeping score has run out of steam and collapsed.”
A bold sentiment, perhaps, but also a true one. Keeping score is what we do, either consciously or not: in our work, in our friendships, in our marriages, yes, even in our spiritual lives. Who’s winning and who’s losing? Who’s pulling ahead? Who’s falling behind? Who owes us and to whom are we indebted? Where does it all end?! Scorekeeping in life is as exhausting as it is prevalent. But the Gospel is Good News to people who aren’t measuring up, a word of relief for those in need of one.
I will endeavor to keep some good notes and pass along the best nuggets to my friends and readers on thereforenow.com, along with my own thoughts and reactions.
Of course I’ve been studying Hebrews with the men in Everson WA, and I have been deeply pondering the idea of rest, and how we can be diligent (not restful?!) to enter rest. I am looking for insight and conversation along these lines here.