This is #7 in Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                   Journey

We live in a divided world. The sacred secular split goes deeper than just dividing what is sacred from what is secular. The split has divided heaven from earth, time from eternity, body from soul, and Christ from His church. God never intended for his world to be bifurcated (that means forked like a serpent’s tongue) that came from another source.

The end result is that the secular world lost the truth. They lost the one true God and his large story. Interestingly enough they retained a love for story, for narrative, the language of the heart. Look where everyone wants to go these days….the movies. If they cannot afford to actually go to the movies they will buy a large screen television and bring the movies home. Why? For most it is their moment of transcendence. For a couple of hours they can be caught up in something larger than themselves. Having lost God’s metanarrative there is little hope for something epic to be a part of. Movies will have to suffice and very subtlety becomes a form of worship.

The Church retained the truth but lost the story. Having confined the beauty, intimacy, and adventure with God to the past or future they have nothing to capture their hearts in the present. Reading the Bible like a scientific text book filled with doctrinal truth and biblical principles does nothing to quench the emptiness of the heart. Like the secular world they too live in a small story albeit a religious one, and they often watch the movies the secular world produces to give themselves a fleeting moment of transcendence. Indeed both sides want out of the mundane ordinary world because in their heart they know they were created for more.

In order to find this “more” we must go on a journey. First we need to enter the secular realm and dive into the story that captures everyone’s heart and imagination. When we have a good grasp of that story we will step over into the sacred realm and discover perhaps for the first time what God’s real intention was for his people. Finally we will weave the two realms back together. Our diagram of history (it was headless after the split) will finally be complete because it will at last have its Head.

So let’s begin where all stories do …..”Once upon a time there was a hero”