A New World is Yet to Come

And yet you are Christian only so long as you look forward to a new world, only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society in which you live, and only for so long as you emphasize the need for conversion both for yourself and for the world.  You are Christian only so long as you, in no way, let yourself become established in a situation of seeming calm, only so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.  You are Christian only when you believe that you have a role to play in the realization of this new kingdom and when you urge everyone you meet with a holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled.

– from With Open Hands by Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932–1996)