Thursday, December 31, 2009

Morning Snow on the Field

The snow is drifting past the window this morning, lighting on the field outside our study. It's beautiful. Then, I cannot forget that it won’t be long before the accumulated mass of white will demand that I have to fire up the snow blower and start clearing a path out of the house. That’s the way it seems to be. For every blessing there is a cost, and visa versa.

I guess that is part of the equilibrium, the balance, we’ve been thinking about in the past few post. Life is full of beauty and struggle. We confront them both. The balance may be not in letting either the beauty or the struggle define our days. Too much accentuation of the beauty without recognizing the struggle breeds illusionary denial where everything is peachy and the troubles are ignored. Likewise, accentuating the struggle without seeing the inherent beauty breeds cynicism, contempt, anger where we feel victimized at every turn.

Paul was a good one for seeing both. He never spoke of grace without noting sin, and never discussed our sin without accentuating grace. The key for Paul was that we need to live by grace, not sin. That is to say, our orientation, as conscious as it needs to be of our sin, is facing towards the beauty of grace.

Have a wonderful new year’s evening, and may the day, the night and the new year be one where grace makes its presence known amidst our struggles and sin.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I had an interesting comment on the last posting:

"Equilibrium...I think I'm often striving to reach a place a equilibrium, where I feel balanced, where conflicts are resolved ... it seems it would be a good thing...but then complacency and stagnation do follow."

Maybe the equilibrium we need is between stress and calm; a point where life challenges don't overwhelm, but are just enough to keep inspire us with curiosity, excitement and enthusiasm. A comment to me from a psychologist, Dr. Scott Peck, was that we are stress seeking animals. As much as we yearn for calm, it is not long before we are out creating chaos. And yet, who would not agree that in the midst of chaos we yearn for calm. Maybe this is the equilibrium, a balance between the calm and the chaos.

Jesus himself certainly didn't have a life of calm. He was in demand. Crowds often surrounded him. Authorities were constantly harassing him. He didn't always get along with his disciples, and when he did, they didn't always understand him. He apparently had a temper and got into arguments in the temple.

Still, Jesus lived an equilibrium of calm by also retreating to mountaintops, vacationing in the northern provinces away from the crowds, taking private time with his disciples, and of course praying.

That might be the wisdom for living. As certainly as our world will deal unto us chaos and stress, and as much as we may be animals that seek it, so too our day needs the private, personal moments of contemplation, conversation and calm.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Something New

This blogging thing is new to me. Where I have felt somewhat tech savy on most things, I have to admit I suffer from the same complacency many of us do when we read a state of equilibrium. So, I've been happy enough to handle email, websites, the database and network stuff, that I haven't ventured into the newer social networking avenues of FaceBook, Twitter, Skype and blogging.

I guess a lot of us have the same tendency. We find a state of equilibrium, feel a degree of contentment, and then slowly resign from exploring new options and opportunities. This may be fine in some instance, but in an ever changing world, it can be disastrous. And think further what such equilibrium complacency become the standard of our faith development in an evey chaning world. We are likely to not only become stagnant, but also declining in our relationship with God and our effectiveness in ministry. Ouch.

So as we enter a new year, why not make it a point to push ourselves a bit into something that challenges us to experience new avenues of ministry and faith.

Blessings my friends. Let me know what challenging thing you are trying.

John