Sei bem que este não é um bom momento para se gostar do Mark Driscoll. Este é um pastor com a ficha manchada por acusações sérias e provas dadas em público das suas dificuldades enquanto homem pecaminoso. Não obstante, não me contenho: dou graças a Deus por este homem e gosto muitíssimo de o ouvir pregar. Esta série de pregações sobre Efésios tem abanado o meu mundo, literalmente. Descobrir que tudo o que à partida me explica (nacionalidade, género, idade, gostos, personalidade, trabalho, área de estudos) é perfeitamente acessório tem sido uma coisa revolucionária. A minha definição está em Cristo. Acima de tudo, eu sou de Cristo, sou uma pessoa em Cristo. "If you know who you are then you know what to do", diz ele vezes e vezes sem conta. Ó Senhor, obrigada!
Outro senhor que aprecio sobremaneira é o Ed Motta, e este álbum de 2013 tem embalado o findar do meu 2014. É um disco de puro melaço, que só tem canções de sol, mar e romance. Já sei, já sei que nada disto é novo, que sou do mel desde pequenina e que aparento viver num constante mundo de encantamento. Quem caminha comigo por dentro sabe que não é assim tão linear... estas poesias musicadas têm trazido um sabor renovado ao meu mel característico, e isso também é um motivo de dar graças a Deus.
A fechar esta lista de senhores, Donald Miller e o seu livro "Blue like Jazz". Já foi há mais de 10 anos que ele o escreveu, mas só agora é que o estou a ter o privilégio de saborear esta obra. Gosto da forma como me conta a sua história de caminhada cristã, descomprometidamente. Não há peneiras nem máscaras no auto-retrato deste cristão, e as suas reflexões desafiam-me a continuar a perseguir um coração puro e humilde na minha caminhada com Cristo. Deixo aqui apenas um dos muitos excertos que têm feito o meu coração ressoar (como dizem aqui nesta terra nova):
"My friend Andrew the Protester believes things. Andrew goes to protests where he gets pepper-spray, and he does it because he beieves in being a voice of change. My Republican friends get frustrated when I paint Andrew as a hero, but I like Andrew becasue he actually believes things that cost him something. Even if I desagree with Andrew, I love that his beliefs are about social causes.
Andrew says it is not enough to be politically active. He says legislation will never save the world. On Saturday mornings Andrew feeds the homeless. He sets up a makeshift kitchen on a sidewalk and makes breakfast for people who live on the street. He serves coffee and sits with his homeless friends and talks and laughs, and if they want to pray he will pray with them. He's a flaming liberal, really. The thing about it is, though, Andrew believes this is what Jesus wants him to do. Andrew does not believe in empty compassion.
All great Christian leaders are simple thinkers. Andrew doesn't cloak his altruism within a trickle-down economic theory that allows him to spend fifty dollars on a round of golf to feed the economy and provide jobs for the poor. He actually believes that when Jesus says feed the poor, He means you should do this directly.
Andrew is the one who taught me that what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.
I used to say that I believed it was important to tell people about Jesus, but I never did. Andrew very kindly explained that if I do not introduce people to Jesus, then I don't believe Jesus is an important person. It doesn't matter what I say. Andrew said I should not live like a politician, but like a Christiann. Like I said, Andrew is a simple thinker.
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A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the face of church in America - about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.
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Tony asked me one time if there was anything I would die for. I had to think about it for a long time, and even after thinking about it for a couple of days I had a short list. In the end there weren't very many principles I would die for. I would die for the gospel because I think it is the only revolucionary idea known to man. I would die for Penny, for Laura and Tony. I would die for Rick. Andrew would say that dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something, Andrew would say, is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe, Andrew would say.
If Andrew the Protester is right, if I live what I believe, then I don't believe very many noble things. My life testifies that the first thing I believe is that I am the most important person in the world. My life testifies to this because I care more about my food and shelter and happiness than about anybody else.
I am learning to believe better things. I am learning to believe that other people exist, that fashion is not truth; rather, Jesus is the most important figure in history, the gospel is the most powerful force in the universe. I am learning not be passionate about empty things, but to cultivate passion for justice, grace, truth, and communicate the idea that Jesus likes people and even loves them" (pp. 110-112).