Living in the Tension

Friends in Formation

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To submit a question for James, Richella, and Nate to consider discussing on Friends in Formation, email [e-mail].
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In this episode, Nate, James, and Richella answer listener questions about reconciling Jesus' “easy yoke” with Paul's “beating his body to make it his slave,” remaining healthy while carrying other’s burdens, and Bishop Desmond Tutu’s “seamless robe” between religion and politics.

[:50] How do you reconcile the gentleness of the easy yoke that Jesus talks about regarding our efforts toward our spiritual formation (Matthew 11:28-30) with the more brutal approach that Paul talks about when he says he "beats his body" ("punish" NRSV) to make it his slave (1 Corinthians 9:27)?

[16:42] What are the practices you engage in to remain healthy in the midst of heavy burdens you're helping carry for others?

[30:06] Bishop Desmond Tutu once said that religion and politics are a seamless robe. I think I agree with him, but I’m really troubled by the way churches and Christians in North America have become so bitterly divided by politics over the past decade or two. How should churches, as well as Christians individually, handle political issues? Should we remain silent on them in order to maintain the unity of the Spirit? Or do we need to lovingly speak out about how our spiritual values should affect our political priorities and then just love each other despite our sometimes major differences? If it’s the latter, I’d appreciate any advice you can give on doing that, as it’s especially hard now that both sides equally fear that our country’s entire future is at stake.

Resources

• Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard (chapter 9)
• The Journal of John Woolman, edited by Phillips P. Moulton
• Streams of Living Water, by Richard Foster
• Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis
• Culture Care, by Makoto Fujimura