Cameron,
When we spoke about leading your life in a more radical way, I mentioned that it was in Romans 12 but what I meant was 1 Corinthians 12. Honest mistake. It says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you…” and Paul begins to list the spiritual gifts. Paul is reminding his readers that they led their entire lives by wooden and stone idols. If you remember Exodus, they worshipped idols that really were just symbolic representations of lifestyles. Lifestyles of Comfort, Convenience, Financial security, Health, etc. These were all idols, meaning that the worshiper’s life focus was wrapped up in these things. You can always tell that convenience is an idol when your’e in a traffic jam. You can always tell Comfort is an idol when there is a sense of entitlement. When something comes in-between someone and their idol, they get upset.
Anyway, these Corinthians led their lives by these dumb idols and the lifestyles attributed to them. Paul says, there is another way for you to lead your lives. Find out what gifts the Holy Spirit has given you and then let your life be led by the best opportunities to maximize the use of those gifts. A case could be made that the entire reason that God has given people in the church these different spiritual gifts is so that they would know how to live, to know what their purpose in life is. That means not living my life based on what job offers the most financial benefits, or is located near the best schools, or allows me the swankiest house, benefits… whatever. It means that even if I live in a shack and my life doesn’t become the stuff of rock legends, it doesn’t matter because my life is dominated by the Holy Spirit.
Well, that case could be made. Please don’t feel like I am condemning you for not going into ——- to build the underground church plant with ——–. But you know that we moved here because of this very scripture, so obviously I believe it’s fruitful. Time will tell. This is just a biblical substantiation of what we were talking about. And also its Corinthians, not Romans.
Blessing, Leep