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Daily News Sheet Feature Stories
Complete Archive

At Following Christ 2002, we offered a short feature story in each of our Daily News Sheets. Here they are once again:

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" ·  "God's Kingdom Calculus"  ·  "Full-Service Faith"  ·  "Play It Forward"

Mary Had a Little Lamb
December 29, 2002

by Ann & Jon Boyd

"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son..." (Luke 1:30-31).

Mary conceived Jesus in her womb — so did he have half her genes? Did he look like her, with her eyes or her frame? And then at his parents' dinner table, did he pick up Mary's gestures or adopt Joseph's turns of phrase?

Mary had the courage to accept God's invitation into creative partnership. Despite the whispers, questions, and self-doubt that we can imagine, she yielded to God's plan. But her yielding was far from passive. Mary joined with God in an active, creative enterprise: the conceiving and raising of a boy to be King. Her body and her home would form the life of the child conceived with the Holy Spirit.

God wanted Adam and Eve to work the Garden, and it seems he also wanted Mary's handiwork for the New Adam. To accept such creative engagement requires courage — to undertake a calling in which our uniqueness will be displayed and where our contribution matters. Frightening as it may be, this is God's way with us. Whether through writing, teaching, healing, or strategizing, God hopes that you will be true to whom he made you to be. In this way, his purposes will be accomplished, because your true self will be in partnership with the Living God. And that is most certainly good news for both Creation and the cultures we make. 

God's Kingdom Calculus
December 30, 2002

by Dan Clendenin

Listen up, over-achiever — grad students, faculty, business executives, health-care professionals, law students. You are gifted and overly responsible, and usually that's a good thing, because that is one way to steward God's call. Further, this is how your university, your family, your friends, or your competitors will judge you: based upon a metric of merit.

But never forget that God's kingdom calculus is far different. Your call to the university, law firm, hospital, or executive suite is important. We are here this week to explore the dynamics of God's call to those arenas. But far more important is God's primary call to accept his care, to experience his grace, and to receive his love. This is a calculus not of merit but of mercy.

God is a tender Father who speaks comfort. He repays double for your sin (Isaiah 40:2). Instead of shaming you with disgrace, he gives you a double portion (Isaiah 61:7). He announces that he will "restore twice as much" to devastated Israel (Zechariah 9:12).

So, as you contemplate God's call and kingdom, think merit and hard work, because those are good — but never forget mercy and undeserved double blessing. The former is the calculus of the world, the latter God's kingdom calculus. 

Full-Service Faith
December 31, 2002

by Dan Clendenin

Have you met Ken Elzinga? If not, we hope you will. Ken is a longtime friend of InterVarsity, a professor of economics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and an author of mystery novels. Indicative of Ken's sense of service, he is a presenter for the Social Sciences track here at Following Christ 2002.

When Ken spoke to our faculty group at Stanford not long ago, he asked us some probing questions: Do you know the name of the janitor who empties your trashcan at night? Have you ever spoken to that person, or perhaps thanked them for their service? Have you ever considered that having students over for brownies at exam time (as Ken himself does) might be more important than finishing that journal article on time? I think most of us had to answer these questions in the negative.

Ken's questions remind us that life and service in God's kingdom must express itself in tangible, concrete ways. Unlike the internet, it is not an oxymoronically "virtual life"; it is a real life with dirty fingernails, tired eyes, and sore backs. In living that life of service — and in appreciating those who serve us, as well — we follow Christ. 

Play It Forward
January 1, 2003

by Dan Clendenin

The new year is upon us, which reminds me of a favorite Irish proverb: "To hell with the future, we live in the past." I think it was Faulkner who said that the past is not dead, and that for many of us it is not even past.

The new year reminds us that following Jesus is fundamentally a forward-looking prospect. There is a proper gratitude for the past. To be sure, it would be folly to deny the past. But we should never be trapped by the past — by poor choices, missed opportunities, dysfunctional friendships, broken homes, and so on.

The God who loves us tells us to "forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!" (Isa. 43:18-19). The apostle Paul freely admitted that he fell far short of knowing Christ and his resurrection power. But he did not get trapped in the past: "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal" (Phil. 3:12-14).

So, as you follow Jesus this new year, play it forward. In the words of the hymn we sung earlier in the conference, "ponder anew what the Almighty can do, if with his love he befriend thee." Happy New Year!