Alive in the World

Jackson Browne, sings "Alive in the World"

I want to live in the world, not behind some wall
I want to live in the world, where I will hear if another voice should call

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world
With its beauty and its cruelty
With its heartbreak and its joy
With it constantly giving birth to life and to forces that destroy
And the infinite power of change

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world
To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world

Jackson Browne is a songwriter who not only sings about injustice but does something about it.

This song is a prophetic challenge, rebuke and inspiration for followers of Jesus to get out from behind their walls [Sunday services, isolation] and get alive in the world. John says 1:14 “The word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood.” Jesus was God alive in the world! He is God with flesh on, Jesus on our doorstep.

And this is where we live out our theology, our understanding of who we are in Christ. God is not far away, out in space somewhere, behind some cloud; no, God is alive in the world. 

As a church, we are to live the Word outside the leather covers of our printed Bibles and/or the plastic/metal covers of our smartphones/tablets. That Word needs to become "alive in the world." God with flesh on. Jesus on the doorsteps. Grace on the streets. Alive in the world!