Title: The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language
Edition: Third
Copyright: © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.
Publisher: NavPress Publishing
Publisher Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ecclesiastes 3:1
There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
It’s been quite a couple of years, and definitely has been quite a year. So as I was reading through my mac journal that has all the posts I hit the view blog in browser command and decided it was time to make the blog match the change. The other look fit with where I was a few years ago, especially the whole death star dark angst filled picture. I was angry and frightened and frustrated and depressed. So today when I was checking how big to let my ego get, I look at how many people are reading and decide how good to feel about myself for the day, I came to the conclusion that its time to let the last vestiges of that mess go. So as cool as that picture was it was time to move into something a bit more in keeping with the way things are now.
I still get frustrated, still get anxious and I still want things a certain way, but I also have come to the conclusion that it’s past time to just keep going. That season is over the new thing the right time for new things is now and holding on to an old blog theme seemed to be like an anchor. Crazy how that can be but it was.
Hope you enjoy the new look... oh yea and next week chapter one will be up...
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The perfect storm of confusion...
I realize it’s been a while since I have posted, for once I can say without reservation that this is by design not by lack of interest.
Much has gone before as anyone who has been reading for a while knows.
So why the time between posts? Just this J and I have been exploring options, looking for the next step, entertaining flights of fancy out west and checking out options here on this side of the world.
It’s not easy, making life changing decisions, sometimes it is better or it would seem to be better to have them made for you. Bear with me I am going somewhere with this.
See faith has to evolve and grow, humanity has to evolve, if we fail to evolve we cease to be relevant and if we cease to be relevant we are unable to impact humanity. One of the things that is needed to force humans to become what they are supposed to become is a catalyst.
J and I have been, okay that’s not totally accurate, I have been searching for the catalyst that is going to start the next process in our family. I say in our family because while this next thing is something that I will be doing it is going to have an impact on the rest of the Newell’s living here. I am not jumping to conclusions and I am talking things out with J we are open to whatever is going to happen whatever God wants, but is that a cop out? Something to say because it has the right religious overtones and makes a person sound so much more spiritual than they actually are?
See there was a time that I thought God still did things like he did when Gideon was around. Gideon would put out questions and then make these stipulations on how he would do what God said to do. Look God made this really clear. I have found myself doing the same thing at times. “Okay God so here it is if ___________ says _________ and then we see ________ I know what we are supposed to do. Took me a while to realize how faithless it was for Gideon to keep coming back and testing God.
I want things to be clear and simple. In some of the games I play the next objective is not just clearly defined but there is even a light that shows on the screen showing me the right direction to go, shoot there are even times when a big old arrow comes up and lets you know the direction if your a bit slow about getting there, thing is in real life in the real world this is not the case and wow would I love it if it were sometimes.
So why the title you may ask. Well it seems that when we make one decision things start to open up but the not just one thing opens several possible options. I say possible options because there is nothing concrete as of yet. I get positive feedback from interviews and then it’s the waiting game. The thing is as is often the case in life when it rains it pours and what happens when not just one but all of the options is on the table? Or worse yet what if we take on option only to realize a day later that the other is offered and ughh it just is a perfect storm of confusion.
Well there you have it not super profound and as I read back over it not super intelligible but I never promised those things when I started this blog dear reader I just promised the thoughts and observations that are happening in my life at any given moment.
Much has gone before as anyone who has been reading for a while knows.
So why the time between posts? Just this J and I have been exploring options, looking for the next step, entertaining flights of fancy out west and checking out options here on this side of the world.
It’s not easy, making life changing decisions, sometimes it is better or it would seem to be better to have them made for you. Bear with me I am going somewhere with this.
See faith has to evolve and grow, humanity has to evolve, if we fail to evolve we cease to be relevant and if we cease to be relevant we are unable to impact humanity. One of the things that is needed to force humans to become what they are supposed to become is a catalyst.
J and I have been, okay that’s not totally accurate, I have been searching for the catalyst that is going to start the next process in our family. I say in our family because while this next thing is something that I will be doing it is going to have an impact on the rest of the Newell’s living here. I am not jumping to conclusions and I am talking things out with J we are open to whatever is going to happen whatever God wants, but is that a cop out? Something to say because it has the right religious overtones and makes a person sound so much more spiritual than they actually are?
See there was a time that I thought God still did things like he did when Gideon was around. Gideon would put out questions and then make these stipulations on how he would do what God said to do. Look God made this really clear. I have found myself doing the same thing at times. “Okay God so here it is if ___________ says _________ and then we see ________ I know what we are supposed to do. Took me a while to realize how faithless it was for Gideon to keep coming back and testing God.
I want things to be clear and simple. In some of the games I play the next objective is not just clearly defined but there is even a light that shows on the screen showing me the right direction to go, shoot there are even times when a big old arrow comes up and lets you know the direction if your a bit slow about getting there, thing is in real life in the real world this is not the case and wow would I love it if it were sometimes.
So why the title you may ask. Well it seems that when we make one decision things start to open up but the not just one thing opens several possible options. I say possible options because there is nothing concrete as of yet. I get positive feedback from interviews and then it’s the waiting game. The thing is as is often the case in life when it rains it pours and what happens when not just one but all of the options is on the table? Or worse yet what if we take on option only to realize a day later that the other is offered and ughh it just is a perfect storm of confusion.
Well there you have it not super profound and as I read back over it not super intelligible but I never promised those things when I started this blog dear reader I just promised the thoughts and observations that are happening in my life at any given moment.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The Hole in the boat.
Watching cartoons can be an interesting lesson in life. I think of all those times when there are holes in a boat. So many times in the cartoon no matter how much they character tries to plug the holes another one pops out and the water starts to come in, no matter how many times they try and plug the hole another one opens and more water trickles in till they go down.
I feel like that’s where I am right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I know I can’t plug the holes, I know that I have to wait for what God brings, I know that what he brings may not look like anything that I would have expected. I get that but there are times that I wish things would be clear cut, that there would be no holes in the boat. There are times that I wish my walk with God, that the journey that my family and I are taking was more like a slot car track than an ocean.
See slot cars are great, you put the track together and they go around the track, from beginning to end they go where they are supposed to go, round and round, very predictable.
Life however is more like the ocean, no set path just decisions to be made and taken and consequences to be lived out. Sometimes the consequences are good and sometimes they are bad but they are usually a direct result of the decisions that we make. I say usually because I’m still trying to figure out the past few months. I know that the trying of our faith is supposed to make us stronger, to give us patience and make us more able to fulfill the call that God has placed on Christians as a whole. Still it can be overwhelming.
I have talked in the past about the idea of God not allowing more than we can handle. I have wondered if he pushes us because we don’t really ever know what we can handle. I understand and know that it’s a part of faith, faith in him that he does know what is best for us and what will make us into the people he wants us to be. Still I have to wonder. I have to question if there really is a point to all of this. I have to wonder why? I have to take it on faith that God knows what he is doing, but I must admit that there are really times when that faith wears thin. I read things in God’s word and I take them to heart but life goes one outside of the Bible and that’s where the problem comes in. Those things have happened, the principles that they teach are timeless but the living those principles and really taking them to heart is not easy.
We need God to open some doors, I need him to show me more than glimpses and little drops of encouragement.
I feel like that’s where I am right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I know I can’t plug the holes, I know that I have to wait for what God brings, I know that what he brings may not look like anything that I would have expected. I get that but there are times that I wish things would be clear cut, that there would be no holes in the boat. There are times that I wish my walk with God, that the journey that my family and I are taking was more like a slot car track than an ocean.
See slot cars are great, you put the track together and they go around the track, from beginning to end they go where they are supposed to go, round and round, very predictable.
Life however is more like the ocean, no set path just decisions to be made and taken and consequences to be lived out. Sometimes the consequences are good and sometimes they are bad but they are usually a direct result of the decisions that we make. I say usually because I’m still trying to figure out the past few months. I know that the trying of our faith is supposed to make us stronger, to give us patience and make us more able to fulfill the call that God has placed on Christians as a whole. Still it can be overwhelming.
I have talked in the past about the idea of God not allowing more than we can handle. I have wondered if he pushes us because we don’t really ever know what we can handle. I understand and know that it’s a part of faith, faith in him that he does know what is best for us and what will make us into the people he wants us to be. Still I have to wonder. I have to question if there really is a point to all of this. I have to wonder why? I have to take it on faith that God knows what he is doing, but I must admit that there are really times when that faith wears thin. I read things in God’s word and I take them to heart but life goes one outside of the Bible and that’s where the problem comes in. Those things have happened, the principles that they teach are timeless but the living those principles and really taking them to heart is not easy.
We need God to open some doors, I need him to show me more than glimpses and little drops of encouragement.
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Until I Wasn't
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