Some Thoughts 003

On My Mind

I recently completed my fourth move in the past five years. Each time I pack my things and cart them to my next residence, I’m left with a mild sense of being unrooted—as if I’ve lost, in some small part, connection to community and place.

I remember sitting alone in my empty college apartment in 2021, about to move on to the next stage of life after graduating. My roommates had moved out, and many of my friends were already headed to their next destination. All of us were entering a new era of life post-undergrad. As I sat there alone on the floor, waiting for the property manager to bring the closing paperwork, I couldn’t ignore a sense of ungroundedness. I was floating through a liminal space present between saying goodbye to familiar friends, familiar sights, and a familiar life on one side and the vast unknown of life ahead on the other side.

In my most recent move, I had a similar experience though not as pronounced as during my move out of my college apartment. This time though, I considered the feeling in relation to being a Christian. Fundamental to my existence is that I am in Christ, united to him. I am anchored to Jesus, my unchanging foundation who transcends the fluctuating existence I inhabit.

Nonbelievers lack this grounding. More so than ever, the people around us are floating through an endless liminal space where morality is constantly in flux, where truth is malleable, where all of history is irrelevant when compared to the present truths of this moment, where all that matters is how one defines oneself. Our culture does not encourage finding a stable place to land intellectually, morally, or spiritually. Instead, it favors an endless sequence of self-recreation, whether concerning one’s gender, sexuality, career, self-perception, or political life.

I am convinced that reformational Christianity can offer people the solid ground they subconsciously crave. Firstly, those of us who are inheritors of the Reformation find rootedness in a rich creedal and confessional heritage. By joining a community that confesses the ecumenical creeds and a reformation confession, we are no longer mere individuals sorting through life’s questions on our own. Instead, we consciously enter the communion of saints, the one holy catholic church, and 2000 years of believers who have confessed Jesus as Lord.

Secondly, we root ourselves in time and space by joining a local body of believers. Through the weekly rhythms of Lord’s Day worship where we meet together in the presence of fellow saints to worship Jesus, we find a grounded existence in both the spiritual and the physical. Christianity is not a religion of mere abstract doctrine to be pondered. Rather, it is a religion of doctrine to be lived out among others.

Thirdly, we find rootedness in the resurrected Christ. The thrust of the Reformation was to break down the barriers between believers and Christ put in place by the medieval church. People no longer needed a priest to mediate their access to the resurrected Jesus. Instead, the Reformation presented Christ for us through word, sacrament, and prayer. We have confidence in a historical fact—that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended on high. And we have confidence that we are buried with Christ by baptism into death and have been raised to newness of life in Him. Thus, all of our life is lived in union with Jesus. Though we change every moment, Jesus remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

All around us, people yearn for stability in their life, yearn to find some solid reality to plant their feet on. Our culture isn’t providing that. Christianity does. We have the opportunity to present Christianity as the solid ground they’ve been looking for.

What I’ve Been Listening Too

I enjoyed listening to the conversation linked below between two Presbyterians and an Anglican on the state of Anglicanism.

The State of Anglicanism with Miles Smith IV