Reflections? Where have we been?

Reflections…

In reflecting over the past four years, I have come to realize that we (or at least I) had entertained the fantasy that perhaps we could create an environment on this earth where parents didn’t have to go through the horrendous pain associated with raising children in a fallen world.

I think we (at least I) had hoped we could pass along the wisdom so painfully learned by our mistakes as parents to each other and create a  safe place for families. And for a while… it really seemed to work.

But alas, until He returns to completely rule this wicked earth, though we might taste for a while the powers of the age to come... they cannot last. To taste something is not the same as having a steady diet. All too soon there was nowhere to hide from this adulterous world and we once again found out the only safe place is to continually find His will… and stay in it.

All of us can look back and see the terrible mistakes we made, but even if those mistakes could be rectified, our children like us, would still have to choose the life of Christ for themselves. No amount of ‘raising them up in the way they should go’… will alter that fact… no matter how hard we try.

Yet; I believe that the seeds of the Divine has been placed in their hearts, and however dormant those seeds may presently appear, will one day awaken to bear the fruit of salvation. Till then we must hold them and the pain that comes from their and our mistakes close to our hearts. We must continue to pray knowing that the presence of that terrible pain in our hearts is also the evidence that there is still hope for their souls.

Listening to my emails it sounds like the Village is doing well, though walking through a different phase of our journey. For all the problems and challenges our ‘non-normalness’ brought us while walking in the newness of our Life together, I’m not sure any of them are  as tough or dangerous as the challenges we are presently facing while being more... 'normal'.

Yet we are in no way .... normal!  Those of us who walked together have been forever changed. Our seemingly surface abnormalities have simply gone from being external differences to becoming internal changes of heart and mind  ...  and thank God for it being so!

Yet, it is the present and not the past we find ourselves living in and sometimes it makes us feel lost. Not that we are lost … but sometimes we acutely… feel lost. Which the scriptures tells us  happens to all who walk the true path from crawling to running.

We have been stripped of our fantasies, false hopes, and unreal expectations, not feeling so special anymore and having to face the same difficulties all our fellow humans face each and every day.

I only hope that the vision we received through living that 'non-normal' Life doesn't fade or diminish among us. It seems that the two dangers we currently face concerning that vision are; first... growing old and constantly looking back on what was, and or second, losing the reality of the vision and with it the possibility of living that Eternal Life together in the here and now.  Either way I wonder… are we still ready to pay the cost of being made spiritual?

What it does seem we must do is take what we found to be true during those 'heady' days of living in community and keep moving ahead to see what they (those truths) will do to those who are not able to be blessed by living in a physical community? How do we bring spiritual community to them without losing the reality of being close? That will not be easy.

I've been recently watching some DVDs from the Village. It is such a delight to see what Christ did among us… right in the middle of good ole complacent, materialistic America. We got to live in and advance the Kingdom of God and we tasted the powers of the age to come. Like the song so aptly declares "Those were the days my friend ... we thought they'd never end...." but alas…they did.

It wasn’t just what was accomplished together; Villagefest, Windance, Kula, homeschool, home birth, home everything and all the other amazing feats that below poverty people who lived in old school busses accomplished in the face of impossible conditions. It was the extraordinary togetherness and joy we experienced. All of it working together to train us to love as He loves.  

I do think we confused the training that the vision was bringing us  with the actual mission it was training us for. The Life we lived was not just for us.

We were not always meant to have, homemade clothes, long beards, head coverings, or even to be so different from our neighbors. That’s not hard to see, but that not all of us would be living together on the same beautiful one hundred acres… is.

Yet, we were not given that beautiful picture of heaven to fence it in, attempting to protect and preserve it from leaving. And as soon as we did so, the effects of the heavenly vision began to disappear from among us.

The truths His vision brought us were made to be seeded among all mankind. "Leave the intoxicating temporal effects of this heavenly vision you’re living, go out and share it with the world" our brother Daniel from India cried out. In doing so we would discover the only way for that blessed life-giving raging spiritual river to keep from transforming into a tepid pond.

Yet ... all things work together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That we do love God and were most certainly called to His purpose is not now nor ever has it been called into question.

Yet somehow we became caught up with being safe and secure. That should have never become our first ambition… or even our last.

 We were fashioned by Christ to risk everything we acquired from that vision over and over again. Thus having to prove over and over again that He alone is our life and not the vision (or the wonderful effects of that vision… ie. our living together). When we did ‘risk it all’ we moved forward in His Life… and when we began to hold it too tightly the effects of the vision (ie. our living together) we began to grow apart.

So in reflection… I think we should let the Divine winds (the breath of God) blow us where it will. Whether it be on your side of the world, ours or anywhere in between.

I also know that wherever we land, even if we land in the slums of Africa, if we hold fast the truths the heavenly vision showed us we will continue to bring it’s ‘wonderful effects’ to ourselves and more importantly … others.

Yesu ni Bwana!   David Noah and Cynthia