After You Believe

This is one of the most amazing things I've read, and I just had to share it with you.
"Give people a command for a particular situation, and you help them live appropriately for a day; teach them to think Christianly about behaviour, and they will be able to navigate by themselves into areas where you hadn't given any special instructions." NT Wright
This is what I intend to do with my life if I can just hang on until I can work again. I've long hated the idea of making rules for Christians but it's also true that we can't just "be ourselves", because that may very well be someone very off track with Christian behaviour. I had a good family, even sometimes a moral family, but not one that promoted Christian behaviour by teaching it with lifestyle.
And this is one of the most amazing, although dense, books I've ever read. If you're up for it, pick up a copy of the book in the blog title. You won't be sorry.

new admiration for The End

As many of you know, I've been a LOST fan since the very beginning. And as many of you also know, the show just ended this past Sunday night. I didn't have a good feeling about the end episode to begin with, but I've since changed my mind. I felt the goofy, universalist idea put forth by the chapel with every possible faith symbol in the stained glass was wrong or the easy way out. I already knew that the flash sideways was a type of purgatory, especially by this last show. And like my favorite CS Lewis novel, The Great Divorce, I thought the ideas that persons could choose Heaven but if they remained in purgatory it was Hell. I believe the Island and all that went on it was real and I loved the idea that flawed human beings can do valiantly unselfish things, like Jack did by returning things to normal before his own wonderfully recorded death. I pray my own ending will be as good, cause don't most of us want to do something that really matters in this life?
Cheesy comparisons to the old Ray Boltz song aside (boy didn't that turn out bad?), I think most of us want to know we made a difference in the world. And I think that's why I changed my mind about The End. No, it didn't tie all the loose ends together. But I think it made me realize how much every person was created for an amazing drama, and if two completely non-Christian guys (as far as I know) could write such an amazing Christian allegory, then I must have a lot to talk to non-believers about.
Oh and I got some of my ideas from this guy. Hope the show is still growing on you.

Counting the Costs

So, what has it cost to continue living in this town? And you know I don't mean financial...
Generally, when most of us lose a job or break up with a lover, we pray not to see them again. Makes you sore all over, you know? The best thing you can usually do is move away so you don't have to see all the old spots, old friends, hear the favorite songs while riding around, or see your former students. That doesn't mean the town is bad. Just that there's so much baggage we don't need or want.
Well, since I lost my job in this foreign country I still see all those old people, cause we weren't able to move away. Saw the board chairman's(now principal?) wife in the mall and you shoulda seen them run! Wasn't going to speak anyway but there they were, almost running into me but trying frantically to ignore me.
I made some choices this past weekend as we finished a sermon series about Joseph. I more compare my life to Job but if anyone had reason to harbor grudges it was Joseph. So I've determined to say nothing else about the school-from staff, faculty, board, and church. They were all part of driving me out and stranding my family here. I choose to forgive-hopefully not blogging about them and participating in negative conversations count for that.
I'm also struggling with some mystery fatigue/anxiety illness that I can't seem to get well from. But I choose not to negatively mention the school and its associated parties anymore. To continue to hit myself in the head with the hammer and expect them to feel the headache is the definition of insanity.