"Now they must be what they really are-otherwise they are not followers of Jesus. The followers are a visible community; their discipleship visible in action which lifts them out of the world-otherwise it would not be discipleship. And of course the following is as visible to the world as a light in the darkness or a mountain rising from a plain.
Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him. 'Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but the stand.' Once again we are confronted with an alternative; the light may be covered of its own choice; it may be extinguished under a bushel, and the call may be denied. The bushel may be the fear of men, or perhaps deliberate conformity to the world for some ulterior motive, a missionary purpose for example, or a sentimental humanitarianism. But the motive may be more sinister than that; it may be 'reformation theology' which boldy claims the name theologia crucis, and pretends to prefer to Pharasaic ostentation a modest invisibility, which in practice means conformity to the world. When that happens the hall-mark of the church becomes justitia civilis instead of extraordinary visiblity. The very failure of our light to shine becomes the touchstone of our Christianity. But Jesus says, 'Let your light so shine before men.' For when all is said and done, it is the light of the call of Jesus Christ which shines here." -deitrich bonhoeffer, the cost of discipleship

I don't know where to start, what to say. So often words fail to hit where they should, they remain letters of the alphabet written on a page. And until our mouths reflect our hearts, what is the point of speaking...or rather, until our hearts reflect our mouths?
Repentance is not just confession. It's actually living a different life than we previously led. It means being a different person, living differently, thinking differently.

How many different portraits of brokenness do we, do I, need to be fed before I actually see? How many pictures must be published of people starving, dying, hurting, losing before we change our ways? How many stories must be told, how many reasons given? How many screams and echoes of the empty hands of innocent children stretched out toward us does it take?
I'm so exhausted by all the excuses we hurl to eachother, all the masks we wear, all the trends we create to be fashionable. I didn't think it was possible. But people have actually turned justice into a trend. It's fashionable.
The problem with this is that it lets us do just enough to alleviate our own conscience, and to appear good in the eyes of others, without actually costing us anything. Justice is something we do on occassion, when it should be the way we live our life.
We haven't been doing it to love others, we've been doing it to make ourselves feel good. Self-righteous justice. And nothing changes, and we don't change, not until we decide to actually get down on our knees and look the broken in the eyes, not until we actually see another person sitting in the dirt.
But how long will we sit in our comfort before we follow God's voice out into the reality He sees? How long will we hide behind walls of buildings we have created to contain God, before we realize He is out there, mingling with those who hunger? How long will we simply keep praying for God to bring justice, and righteousness and love to the earth before we actually become that because of Him? In 1 jn 4:11-12 it says this: ' Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.'
God meant for people to see Him, through us. And yet we refuse to look any different.
"only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes."