For some reason I was born as a kid who loved to ask ‘why?’

 I remember regularly annoying my maths teacher with questions about the relevance of quadratic equations to everyday life, (and she never did deliver satisfactory answers so I was perpetually undermotivated in maths…)

But seriously I am convinced the ability to ask ‘why?’ or to see things from a completely different perspective is vastly undervalued by a world that just wants you to shut up and tow the line. I don’t know too many dissenting thinkers who are loved by the society / communities they are a part of because those dissenting voices cause discomfort for others or discomfort for the ‘system’ they are a part of. They challenge the status quo and seem to enjoy exploring an imagination that is different to the norm.

Obviously I have done a lot of thinking about church and mission in this regard but it’s defintely not confined to that subject. I was chatting with a good mate last week and we realized we share some similar ‘divergent’ views when it comes to life.

On the issue of ‘retirement’ neither of us have any desire to stop doing what we love when we turn 55 or 60. Who really wants to spend the last 20 or 30 years in self indulgent living away from the things of life that give us the most energy. And where is the biblical framing of that idea? The whole notion of retirement is part of a specific worldview that we don’t need to buy into if we don’t want to.

Then there’s superannuation… Most super plans assume that when you retire you will need (or want) to live on the same amount of money as you are currently earning. I don’t know about you but I reckon that if the house is paid off and the kids are gone then we can live very simply and comfortably. An income (in today terms) of $30k would probably be quite livable – but the dominant thinking is that we need to be able to live it up in the retirement years… Really? And at what cost to the life we live today?

Then there’s how we live day to day. No surprises that we all have been convinced of our need for many apparent necessities, that in reality are very unessential. For the last few days we have been living in a caravan park in Warilla (I reckon it has the highest bogans’ population in Oz!) where there is a high resident population and we found ourselves saying ‘what a mission field!’ We live in a comfortable 4 x 2 in suburbia but there is no reason why we couldn’t buy into a caravan park and live there. In fact there is much to be said for that kind of life, but it isn’t promoted as an option in our western worldview where home ownership is our salvation. Why not? And why don’t Christians see the opportunity for instant community?

Even taking this holiday was a result of saying ‘why not?’ So many people we meet say ‘we’d love to do that but it’s just too hard…’ and part of the reason it’s too hard is simply because the imagination is stuck in a groove that doesn’t give permission. I was playing scrabble on facebook the other day (and getting my butt seriously kicked) with a woman who had dreamt of doing a similar trip but had given it up as too tricky. We ‘chatted’ as we played and I explained how we were doing it. I’m not sure all of what transpired for her, but today her status read ‘ WOO HOO! we’re going!’ fantastic I reckon… And why not?…

I could go on, but you get the idea. I am a complete believer that just because something ‘is’ doesn’t mean it ‘has to be’. In fact if we apply this kind of thinking to all of life then chances are we will live richer more invigorating lives, and might even inspire others to do similar.

Of course you can’t bring that kind of thnking into the church and not expect some heat. When our much loved cultural practices  (erroneously given theological foundations) are questioned or critiqued then we discover that questioning comes at a price.

Of course the pay-off in seeing people freed to live outside of man made rules is worth every cent in my humble opinion!