Fuge

FUGE

May 7, 2014

Disillusioned.

Disillusioned.

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Today’s post comes from Rachel Trammell. Rachel has worked with FUGE as an SLA, staffer, camp director, intern, and a full-time office staff. Currently, Rachel lives in Nashville, TN where she works for Justice & Mercy International, a faith-based organization that aims to make justice personal for the poor, orphaned, and forgotten of the world. Rachel loves being outside, the Georgia Bulldawgs, traveling new places, and, maybe most of all, CAMP.

The town I grew up in had a vast, magical place called Dixieland Fun Park. Once in a while, I would get to visit Dixieland for a friend’s birthday party, an end-of-the-softball-season celebration, and the like. The fun at Dixieland seemed unending: a putt-putt course, water raft races, a zip line, a huge arcade. I couldn’t imagine more fun in one place.

Sometime in high school, I went with a few friends to the Fun Park with the intentions of playing putt-putt. It had been years since I’d been to Dixieland, but I definitely had a pretty clear picture of what I remembered the Park to be.  When we arrived, I was stunned. “What HAPPENED? This place is a dump,” I thought. I soon found out, though, nothing had happened. Dixieland had always been like this. A tiny mini-golf course, a few arcade machines, and a murky pool.  Here I was, totally disillusioned by what I had once thought to be so true.

The very best news of our lives is this: Jesus is NOT disillusioned by who we really are. He did not go to the cross thinking He was sacrificing His life for some pretty good people. He knew then, and knows now, the depths of our sinful hearts. He was fully aware of the ways we would fail, dishonor, and ignore Him. Yet “for the joy set before Him, He endured the Cross” (Hebrews 12:2). This, friends, is news worth banking everything on; that the all-knowing Savior would know us deeply, and still choose to call us His beloved. Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City, puts it this way, “But to be fully known and truly loved, is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything.” It’s true. We have a Creator who knows us better than anyone ever will, while loving us more then anyone ever could.

How different would our lives be if we daily remembered we are truly loved by Love Himself? What freedom is found for those who live in this truth!

October 28, 2013

Rearranging Death

Rearranging Death

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“Too often we settle for rearranging death, while Christ is offering abundant life.”  – Jaime George

The cruise control on my car is broken. In fact, it hasn’t worked since I got the car. At first, this felt very inconvenient. Every few days, I would click the cruise button just in case it suddenly started operating correctly again. But now, after having my car for several years, I don’t even think about cruise control– I’ve gotten accustomed to not relying on it.

I wish the same was true in my spiritual life.

Switching  into cruise mode with Jesus is often easy for me: I spend time with Him only when it’s convenient, I don’t take the time to acknowledge his grace, and my prayer-life is practically non-existent. And as a result, I am less considerate of others, more selfish with my time, and content with stagnancy.  This, friends, is not why Jesus came.

Jesus stepped down from the right hand of the Father NOT so we could casually follow Him. Jesus took on flesh NOT so we could make idols out of cheap imitations. Jesus became sin itself NOT so we could chase the American dream.

Jesus became the defeated to meet the defeated. Jesus became poor to be with the poor. Jesus laid aside his rights to be with the ones who have lost their rights.  Jesus came to raise the dead to life – a life that is abundant.

Like the prodigal son in Luke 15 who squanders his father’s fortune, we often settle for much less than we were created for.  The Savior of the world is calling us to something more; He’s asking us to leave behind our small ideas of what our life should be like and embrace his extravagant plan. Rather than settling for rearranging death, let’s embrace life abundant. It will require great sacrifice, and daily denial of self, but there is no better ambition in life than to follow hard after Jesus.