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    Now for the Not-Yet: and Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship
    Now for the Not-Yet: and Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship
    Now for the Not-Yet: and Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship
    Ebook101 pages1 hour

    Now for the Not-Yet: and Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship

    By Rachel Starr Thomson

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    About this ebook

    "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ..." Matthew 28:19

     

    Now for the Not-Yet is a book for disciples: for students of the Master, apprenticing to live life Jesus's way.

     

    This collection of heartfelt essays on following Jesus in everyday life explores lessons learned and things sought after: The power of choice. The necessity of conviction. The necessity of full engagement with truth. Practical and inspiring, they offer both feet and wings to those who endeavor to express Jesus in the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLittle Dozen Press
    Release dateDec 11, 2015
    ISBN9781927658116
    Now for the Not-Yet: and Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship
    Author

    Rachel Starr Thomson

    Rachel Starr Thomson is in love with Jesus and convinced the gospel will change the world. Rachel is a woman of many talents and even more interests: she’s a writer, editor, indie publisher, singer, speaker, Bible study teacher, and world traveler. The author of the Seventh World Trilogy, The Oneness Cycle, and many other books, she also tours North America and other parts of the world as a speaker and spoken-word artist with 1:11 Ministries. Adventures in the Kingdom launched in 2015 as a way to bring together Rachel’s explorations, in fiction and nonfiction, of what it means to live all of life in the kingdom of God. Rachel lives in the beautiful Niagara Region of southern Ontario, just down the river from the Falls. She drinks far too much coffee and tea, daydreams of visiting Florida all winter, and hikes the Bruce Trail when she gets a few minutes. A homeschool graduate from a highly creative and entrepreneurial family, she believes we’d all be much better off if we pitched our television sets out the nearest window. LIFE AND WORK (BRIEFLY) Rachel began writing on scrap paper sometime around grade 1. Her stories revolved around jungle animals and sometimes pirates (they were actual rats . . . she doesn’t remember if the pun was intended). Back then she also illustrated her own work, a habit she left behind with the scrap paper. Rachel’s first novel, a humorous romp called Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, was written when she was 13, followed within a year by the more serious adventure story Reap the Whirlwind. Around that time, she had a life-changing encounter with God. The next several years were spent getting to know God, developing a new love for the Scriptures, and discovering a passion for ministry through working with a local ministry with international reach, Sommer Haven Ranch International. Although Rachel was raised in a strong Christian home, where discipleship was as much a part of homeschooling as academics, these years were pivotal in making her faith her own. At age 17, Rachel started writing again, this time penning the essays that became Letters to a Samuel Generation and Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer. In 2001, Rachel returned to fiction, writing what would become her bestselling novel and then a bestselling series–Worlds Unseen, book 1 of The Seventh World Trilogy. A classic fantasy adventure marked by Rachel’s lyrical style, Worlds Unseen encapsulates much of what makes Rachel’s writing unique: fantasy settings with one foot in the real world; adventure stories that explore depths of spiritual truth; and a knack for opening readers’ eyes anew to the beauty of their own world–and of themselves. In 2003, Rachel began freelance editing, a side job that soon blossomed into a full-time career. Four years later, in 2007, she co-founded Soli Deo Gloria Ballet with Carolyn Currey, an arts ministry that in 2015 would be renamed as 1:11 Ministries. To a team of dancers and singers, Rachel brought the power of words, writing and delivering original narrations, spoken-word poetry, and songs for over a dozen productions. The team has ministered coast-to-coast in Canada as well as in the United States and internationally. Rachel began publishing her own work under the auspices of Little Dozen Press in 2007, but it was in 2011, with the e-book revolution in full swing, that writing became a true priority again. Since that time Rachel has published many of her older never-published titles and written two new fiction series, The Oneness Cycle and The Prophet Trilogy. Over 30 of Rachel’s novels, short stories, and nonfiction works are now available in digital editions. Many are available in paperback as well, with more released regularly. The God she fell in love with as a teenager has remained the focus of Rachel’s life, work, and speaking.

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      Book preview

      Now for the Not-Yet - Rachel Starr Thomson

      Conviction Life

      I HAVE A CONVICTION about living by conviction: I’m convinced that I ought to do it.

      Every day, I’m faced with choices that will put me in one of three streams: life by default, in reaction, or by conviction. And though living by default is easy and reaction feels good in the heat of the moment, I realize more and more that only a life of conviction is consistent with my faith. It is the life God is calling me to embrace.

      I was born in the strong and comfortable flow of a defaulter’s life. As a child I simply fell in line with the culture and expectations around me, allowing myself to be carried along. Sometimes the flow caused discomfort, scraping as it did through shallow waters or taking me in over my head, but it is easier to go with the flow than to fight it. Such a life is peaceful, though it lacks depth; it is a life of tradition, of security and happiness in the world as we find it, of avoiding difficult questions.

      Many seem to stay in the default stream all their lives. Others break away—often in the teenage years—and begin to live in reaction. I did this too, for a while: I thought about life according to that which pushed against me. I never rebelled against God or my parents, but I made decisions and set standards by responding to triggers and emotional hot buttons.

      Reactionary living can feel very good, as most of us know; we feel alive when we live this way. But ultimately it is just as shallow as default living. As a reactionary, if life stops pushing me, I stop responding. My passion does not live apart from its impetus.

      Both streams are very human—both may even be necessary for growth into adulthood. But neither was meant to be a permanent way of life. The more I grow, the more I live with the uncomfortable realization that God wants me to step out of the flow, to lay down my reactions, and to live by conviction.

      Merriam-Webster defines conviction as the state of being convinced of error or compelled to admit the truth; a strong persuasion or belief; the state of being convinced. Conviction is not based on stimulus, rebellion, or going with the flow. It requires thorough exploration of a matter, concentrated thought, and committed practice. Living by conviction means living in accordance with what I believe to be true—according to what I’ve been convinced is true.

      I took my first step into a life of conviction when I first put my faith in Christ. Convinced that I couldn’t save myself, that I needed to be reconciled to God, and that Jesus alone could save me, I deliberately placed my trust in him.

      But conviction, I’m coming to realize, shouldn’t stop there. It ought to permeate my life as I seek to live in God’s reality. In Romans 14, Paul speaks of Christians who were divided over issues of diet and date keeping. He defends their right to hold differing beliefs, but doesn’t defend slack thinking: Let each man, he says, be fully persuaded in his own mind (Romans 14:5).

      That Scripture shook me one day as I read it—it showed me how many things I had let slide, not bothering to examine them or seek out the truth. In the core issues of life—in morals, personal standards, lifestyle choices, spirituality, family, faith—I should seek to live deliberately. Rather than living as a habitual conformer or rebel, I should do things because they line up with what I believe; I should believe because I have sought out the issues, wrestled with the questions, and been convinced of the truth.

      As I spend time in the four gospels, I see how radically Jesus lived by conviction. A default life could never have led to the cross; a reactionary life could never have saved others. Jesus lived first with the conviction of his own identity, choosing to lay aside social mores and expectations for the sake of following God’s path. His moral standards were absolute, neither in conformance to the culture nor in reaction to it. Jesus’s convictions were so strong that he could not be swayed, baited, or tricked, no matter how hard his enemies tried. To his followers, he promised many things—but chief among them is the understanding needed to walk a well-lit path. I am the light of the world, he said in John 8:13. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

      To live by conviction requires several things of me.

      First, it requires a recognition of authority. My personal preferences and opinions are not convictions. To live by conviction requires that I recognize truth as God defines it. If I want to live by conviction, I must regularly seek out the ultimate authority on all of life’s issues—I must learn Scripture and apply it soundly to my life; I must learn of the Spirit. If I wish to be fully persuaded in anything, I must put time and effort into studying the Bible and learning to truly hear its words.

      Second, a life of conviction requires a commitment to thought. As Gary Thomas wrote in his article Ignorant Christians, published on Boundless.org, The Christian church has thrived for more than 2,000 years because it has largely out-thought its opponents. Christians should be people who think. Believing that all truth is God’s truth, I should have the freedom and curiosity to ask questions, of God and of life, tracking down answers wherever I can. As one who is committed first to God’s reality, I should question my culture, my education, and most especially my own assumptions.

      And, I remind myself as I begin to be carried away by the grandness of it all, I should ask questions not out of rebellion, pride, or love of debate, but out of a sincere desire for truth—especially when it challenges me.

      Finally, conviction is not conviction until I live it. I am fully capable of forming strong thoughts on all sorts of matters, even expressing them freely—and all the while stopping short of putting my conviction into action. Ultimately, that’s not conviction; it’s just talk. Faith without works is dead, as James reminds us; what we do not live, we do not really believe.

      Bringing my convictions into the realm of action also provides me with a good litmus test: If I find that my convictions cannot be practised, I may need to reexamine my thinking. God’s truth corresponds to reality—if my convictions do not, they may not correspond to God’s truth!

      Living by conviction, I find, is hard. It bruises my pride, challenges my brain, requires work. It’s an ongoing process of reexamination and deliberation that stands in opposition to the ways I used to live. But ultimately, I know that true conviction will infuse my life with power and purpose.

      When I’m committed to seeking out truth and living it, to being fully persuaded in my own mind on all matters of life and conduct, I’ll find myself living life in a way I could not when I was content to be pushed or carried. By cultivating conviction, I will discover what matters and what doesn’t, will begin to live out my faith, will find the heart of God in many areas I didn’t think to look before. I’ll sharpen my mind and my spirit. I’ll become a woman of God amidst men and women of God, adult in my thinking, no longer a child, tossed to and fro by every sleight of

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