(no subject)
Life is beautifully complex.
I was just wandering around the Memphis airport on my way home from the Wilderness First Responder course I took in Birmingham, and I found a little bookstore/magazine/paper shop thingy and I poked around for some books, as I love them. I found this book that I'd heard about called 'Into the Wild' about this kid who graduated from college, donated all the money he had been given for grad school to a charity foundation and took off, never speaking to his parents again. He ended up in Alaska dead, but his story is so complex, woven so very well into the space he occupied. He fit perfectly into every niche he found himself in. Worry did not exist for him. I feel myself closer to that than I ever have been before.
There's a reason that we can't ever seem to find fulfillment in rules, there's a reason that we can't ever be filled up by things or money or other people. The reason for our constant searching is that we have become far too sedentary for God. We would never follow Him wherever He calls if we have three mortgages and a car to pay off. I starts with a look at the rules just for what they are: a bunch of rich jerks trying to crush the lost of society. There is no benefit in living by the rules. That's why people think that Jesus is cool, but christians are jerks; christians try to follow the rules, allowing for pride. When we do something right, we give ourselves an attaboy, a pat on the back, and lift ourselves up for what we say will be only a few minutes. It's nice on top, and we decide to stay. Eventually the devil himself shows up to assist us in our self-destruction, and we are lower than we ever thought possible, caught in a spiral of shame and depression when we didn't turn out to be so great after all. In humility and love, resting upon the deity and magnanimity of Christ is our end. But the cool thing is that it shore don't look like resting. Life in Christ is so very adventurous. It leads to the very heart of danger, to exposure for the fools and whores that we are. But the glory of Jesus Christ covers us, and proves to the world that there IS power in the cross, resurrection from the grave and that God is alive and well.
To God be the glory, to me the cross!
I was just wandering around the Memphis airport on my way home from the Wilderness First Responder course I took in Birmingham, and I found a little bookstore/magazine/paper shop thingy and I poked around for some books, as I love them. I found this book that I'd heard about called 'Into the Wild' about this kid who graduated from college, donated all the money he had been given for grad school to a charity foundation and took off, never speaking to his parents again. He ended up in Alaska dead, but his story is so complex, woven so very well into the space he occupied. He fit perfectly into every niche he found himself in. Worry did not exist for him. I feel myself closer to that than I ever have been before.
There's a reason that we can't ever seem to find fulfillment in rules, there's a reason that we can't ever be filled up by things or money or other people. The reason for our constant searching is that we have become far too sedentary for God. We would never follow Him wherever He calls if we have three mortgages and a car to pay off. I starts with a look at the rules just for what they are: a bunch of rich jerks trying to crush the lost of society. There is no benefit in living by the rules. That's why people think that Jesus is cool, but christians are jerks; christians try to follow the rules, allowing for pride. When we do something right, we give ourselves an attaboy, a pat on the back, and lift ourselves up for what we say will be only a few minutes. It's nice on top, and we decide to stay. Eventually the devil himself shows up to assist us in our self-destruction, and we are lower than we ever thought possible, caught in a spiral of shame and depression when we didn't turn out to be so great after all. In humility and love, resting upon the deity and magnanimity of Christ is our end. But the cool thing is that it shore don't look like resting. Life in Christ is so very adventurous. It leads to the very heart of danger, to exposure for the fools and whores that we are. But the glory of Jesus Christ covers us, and proves to the world that there IS power in the cross, resurrection from the grave and that God is alive and well.
To God be the glory, to me the cross!