It’s Saturday and so I must blog…
I am engulfed in the book by Michael Yaconelli called Dangerous Wonder. I’m in chapter two and my mind is spinning with excitement. The quote on top of my blog is in this book along with many others.
I love my kids – this is obvious, however, their uncomplicated life keeps me entertained forever. They want to play relentlessly, ask questions never fearing the interruption or the answer, and explore everything from the paint on the wall to a plant in our garden to little bugs (of which they inform me of each encounter). Their life is an adventure. Mine is not. I get up everyday, go to work, come home, eat, sleep and start it all over again. My vacations consist of going to ones relatives for a three day weekend and visiting. I am known as a visitor, not a traveler. I go to concerts to be entertained, not knowing how to play a damned thing. Granted, the time spent with my beloved wife is indeed an adventure of it own. She engages my mind and soul with a pure passion that continues on long after each encounter is over. I want a life full of expeditions. I want to hear the whisper of my Father tickle my mind and chase after Him like a romp in a field – never knowing what’s behind each corner but never dreading the plunge. I want to speak to the Father and ask all the stupid questions that my mind has suppressed since a childlike curiosity has become inappropriate at my age. I want to be able to go to the movies (Borne Supremacy – Borne knows all!!) and be board because my life with the Father is more exciting that what is on the screen.
Although my life is burdened with responsibilities, I am not convinced that the adventurous life is unattainable. In fact the first generation of Christians were the most adventurous of all. They would put Christopher Columbus to shame.
For those men out there that want to play poker this Saturday night at 7:00, email me please.
So often I find myself pondering what is the balance in this life that we are called to live. When do I stop reading, studying, and discussing with my friends about this enormous love that I have stumbled upon and start eating, walking and conversing life with those who are empty? Where is that happy median? I highly value the friendships that the Father has given me for they are my source of inspiration. I have many books that I use for reference. I have a micro-culture of love that is beyond what words could portray. Life is good but, what about those people that I meet so often that never eat with me? Where is the in depth discussions about the Father’s love with them? What do they do in their spare time? Do they study the Word? What kind of micro-culture do they have and more importantly, why am I not a part of it? I can easily mock the Christian bookstores and the like because I see their focus as inward, but what grounds do I stand on? My heart desires this “outward” focus, but my mind finds more comfort in the old habits. I’m not a Baptist preacher going around looking for some one to save and dunk. My struggle is not over the great command. I have something to learn from those who are searching that is far greater than any book that I could ever read. I don’t believe that I am to do this on my own. It is clearly written that we do this together. So what’s holding us back? What is holding me back?
Happy Birthday to my friend,
Tommy. You somehow always know how to keep us smiling. Your gentleness and compassion come out in so many ways but it is always refreshing when we see you. I wish that, despite any circumstances, you have a fantastic day, week, month – however you view it. Keep your head up and know that our Father knows you and loves you more than anybody else could.
As of late, I keep getting caught up with the thoughts of my kids. I find my self thinking about them all the time. I wonder what my boys are doing, what are they playing with and who are they pretending to be. I picture my wife playing with my daughter and giggling all the while. She’ll get a song in her head and dance along side a table or chair with the biggest grin plastered between her cheeks (I’m talking about my daughter of coarse :)). God I miss them when I am working. The greatest thing about all of this is that they think I am the greatest thing in the world. Now I just need to keep spending all the time I have with them. They are what makes my world spin. They are joy in its purest form and make me laugh uncontrollably. What an adventure!!
My muddied thoughts…
Throughout the past week, I’ve been discussing the stuff on my previous posts with other people and I think that I have come to a clear definition of what is bothering me so much.
I see us as taking our attention away from the Father and focusing it on other causes.
Here is what I mean… I think.
The life that Jesus calls us to live is a very exciting one for sure. We live in a kingdom that is not seen by this world but we also have our feet firmly planted in this world as well. We are expected to survive here while pursuing his kingdom and this is a massive undertaking that, if we have our eyes on the Father, consumes every bit of our time. This life that we are called to live is so difficult, in fact, there was no room for anything else according to most of the letters written to the first churches, the apostles, and ultimately to Jesus. The only thing that was mentioned as a side note was the care of widows and orphans.
I know that we are called to pay our way through work and money but, the use of money is not a bad thing. It is a pillar of our social structure. Although it can be dangerous, money is a tool only. For that matter so is water. I know that we are called to work diligently however, when the work is done, our extracurricular activities should fall under pursuing the kingdom. Family life, art, music, friends……whatever should be seen as living life in the Father’s kingdom. If any of our pursuits pull us away from that, then our eyes are focused on something else other than Jesus. He warned us of this very thing throughout the Gospels.
I am pretty confident that we are not here to judge or point a finger at a person and say that “you, or what you are doing are wrong and I am better because I know God.” We are here not to divide but to bring those into this kingdom that is
“invisible, and so is His city, and the road in, is paved with words, and the door by which you must enter, you won’t find, it will find you, and when it does, you will never see or touch it, you can only trust it is real, and abide in it.” - Jeremy Ohl
I’m not sure if I am making any sense or not. I just don’t want us to be bitching at each other for any reason. This life is too short and we are supposed to be too busy diligently doing the Father’s will to look up and compare ourselves to each other.
It's all about the music…
As I was driving into work this morning I plugged in a “Time Life” worship set. Normally I would never buy worship CDs, but there is a song that my boys love. They think its Gene or Adam playing it.
I started to get a “vision” of what we will be doing when we are all together with the Master. I wonder what it would be like to never get tired and dance forever. I wonder what it would be like to loose all inhibitions and praise Him like you always wanted to. I saw a concert that had the energy of a thousand locomotives. The music was so loud that you insides vibrated along with the chorus and my ears weren’t distorted and they didn’t hurt. I then saw the Master in the midst of us dancing with joy along with us. It seemed that he was having the most fun of all of us – mainly because he was with his children and nothing could be better than that. Not in heaven or in this world. Imagine living with a God that created joy and who is the master of bliss. I think that I am starting to learn what that is all about - or at least attempting to scratch the surface. It sure is captivating. We, who are His children, have nothing to be sad about because we are in the Kingdom of God right now. Or should I say that though the Kingdom is all around us, we live in this mortal world and so we experience things and sadness is one of them. Either way, I desire to see more joy on the faces of those who know the Father.
So perk up, pop in a worship CD, play it as loud as you can, and look like a fool at the stop light. What do you have to loose?
“….A crescendo of voices in Heaven sang out, ‘The kingdom of the world is now the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah! He will rule forever and ever!’”
Of all the 11 comments on my previous post, none were about the main point of my blog about hate. I find that disturbing. I don’t think that I have been this serious about one thing before.
I read Paul’s writings to the churches. All I see is pure passion about the Father and his Son. It is the gospel, gospel, gospel and then the gospel. Paul’s passion for it made him. He never deviated from that. I never heard him boasting about what he had or didn’t have. I never heard him speak of how wrong those pagans were for driving this or eating that. NONE of this happened. He was focused on only one thing. Obviously this could be easily said of Jesus and this was one of Jesus’ main concerns. That we all “get along”. That people will know that we are followers of the Master because of our love for each other. Yet all I see is separation. Call it denominations, differences of opinions; call it what you will, but it has made us weak. And now I see it creeping in my family. I will not stand by and watch it happen. I can say that all of us are distracted on small ventures of doing something that we have a soft spot for. All the while our heads are turned from the Father.
This year we went on a retreat and, what I thought, discovered some life changing things about this so called faith. Strangely enough, I rarely hear about it with the exception of maybe three people. Why? This was all new to all of us. Yet we never digested it. Why? Was it because we were all too busy? We had other, more pressing things to attend to. I AM GUILTY OF THIS. This world is pointless. Nothing matters except for the Father. Everything else is a distraction from Him.
“……You're not going to make much ground with these people because the reason they believe in conspiracy theories is because they don't want to get to the truth. They don't want to do the work, the intellectual rigor, and they may not even want to know the truth because it's easier (to believe the conspiracy theory).”
So Mr. Moore has something to say…
I’m a little saddened that those that hate our President have only conspiracy theories to stand on and not issues. I have yet to hear anyone to come up with a solution that would make us safer and make our economy grow better that it is currently. I have been debating this topic on some of my car websites that I visit. Yup, blogs and cars – that’s the vastness of the internet to me. Most of the time people will say that they hate the President because he is a stupid, funney looking guy. I politely remind them that this is the first president that has a MBA. The sad thing is that for the most part it is hate that fuels their passion. What is equily sad is that hate fuels the passion in many communities that I’ve seen.
Hate for the norm.
hate for industries
hate for mormons
hate for consumerism
hate for the big church
hate for muslems
hate for the small church
hate for denominations
hate for politics
I could go on. I am not sure if hatrid would be the apropriate word, but it fits for me. I am not amune to this hatrid. I am ashamed of it. I see how it seperates us from eachother and those who are searching for eternity. For the past 5 years, it has been an eye opening event in my life. I have learned much. I have seen much. I have discovered my hatred and am now trying to see love and only the Father’s love will do.
I know that most of the time I come across as an opinionated asshole, and for the most part I’m… not. I would like to think that I am blunt, not one to try to prety up the situation with words. I am however continuously beeing formed by the Father. I hope that I am making myself clear. For me, being right was the only way and those that had a different opinion than me were flat out wrong. I catch myself on this subject often.
