"Listen to this very carefully..."

This was in an email I sent to myself 3 years ago. The title of the email read "Listen to this very carefully...".

Here's what it said: "This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." John 3:19-21 MSG

Three years after I sent these verses here are my two take aways:

1. "God Light" has been more of a painful exposure in my life recently. Not fun. BUT in the depths of my being I desire light and more and more have a dreadful distaste for darkness. I pray, hope, and trust that God-light continues to pursue me and that my spirit will be soothed by the warmth that God-light brings.

2. I need to choose to invest in myself more. The thing with most investments is that they are best realized when you let them be for long periods of time. Time seems to allow for profound impact. In all, I realize that I should leave myself more treasures like this email.

Fog Forms Focus

Fog is a crazy thing. A cloud on the ground. Without it, there's clarity. With it, haze, mist, and obscurity.

Fog isn't inherently bad, it just imposes focus. Take driving for instance. With fog you can only see so far. If it's really thick fog then sometimes you can only see a few yards or feet. Fog demands focus. You slow. You search. You pan. You focus. You orient how you drive to accommodate the fog. You focus on what you can see.

Truthfully, fog imposes focus whether we want it or not. The times fog becomes a frustrating obstacle is when we long for the horizon, long for clarity and fog just won't allow us to see. Why? Because it's demanding and imposing focus on what's happening now.

Thinking on my life, I remember seasons and moments of fog. I used to become frustrated by fog in my life (I guess I still do at times) but what I'm discovering is that fog forms focus in our lives and I praise God for that.

Not a fan..

A few years ago in my Rhetorical Theories class the professor talked about modern and post-modern thought. My ears perked up because the only concepts of modern and post-modern thought that I had were blurry portrayals developed by merely overhearing conversations. I wanted clarity.

While listening in class, there were many large criteria for post-modern thought, most of which I thought were silly, but one of the main criteria was that post-modern thought is anti-rational, not meaning irrational, but that there are other legitimate ways to know and understand things i.e. feelings, hunches, intuition, art, music, poems, etc.

In general this is a concept that I agree with but only to a point. For example, I believe God made us emotional beings and those feelings in correlation with thinking moves us, as humans, in this sort of dynamic dance with God and His will, our heart, our mind and so many other factors. This dance shapes us to be who we are, where we are, what we know and what we're doing in this exact instance all with and for a purpose. Simply put, God gave us the ability to think and feel and both have legitimacy in our lives. It really irks me when people try to take away the gray area and make it all about one.

I'm not a fan. I'm from Ames, home of the Cyclones, went to school in Cedar Falls, home of the panthers, and have friends and family in Iowa City, home of the Hawkeyes. I'm still not a fan. The reason? Because if I'm to say I am a fan of one it automatically implies that I'm not a fan of the others. Why make something mutually exclusive when it doesn't have to be?

I guess what I'm try to say is that I don't like it when we become so affiliative in our faith that we exclude other expressions of that same faith. Feelings are wonderful especially in a relationship with God, but if they cause you to exclude your thoughts they aren't offering a more full experience of God but rather a more constricted one.

Longing for Something Good

Now if you remember my first blog post you'll remember that I didn't promise frequent blog posting so I don't feel at all bad about waiting 4 years to write my second post. If you feel bad, there's nothing I can do about it, so get over it. Besides, who in there right mind is anxiously waiting this post.

Okay, with all that said, here goes my second post...

Longing for something good. I've realized lately that I just long for good things. It manifests itself in odd ways sometimes but there is a deep and significant longing for something good. Just this weekend I had my grandpa-in-law Clement Griffith III come and help me install a dishwasher in my kitchen. Before, we didn't have a dishwasher. Now we do. This is good. 

You see, I have a longing to make my home good. Good, materials, good layout, good space, just plain ole good.

I desire for friendships that are good. I desire for a good marriage. I desire for a good ministry team and good youth group. I desire good for Kwambekenya. I desire goodness to abound in me.

I'm realizing that the more I mention 'good' the less powerful and profound it becomes but that's not what I feel. You see the more instances that I can get to tangibly interact with goodness, the more fully I see God.  To go there, Psalm 34:8 says, Taste and see that the LORD is good.

I guess I long, desire, and seek goodness because it's a tangible taste of who God is. The fact that God is good and I can catch glimpses of Him through goodness pretty much instills that longing in me. I pray it never leaves.

bloggin

Here we go! My first official blog! I figure I've been needing to hop on this blog train and what better time than now?
As my blog description says, this blog is dedicated to my simple, day to day ponderings. I've noticed that as I live life there are certain thoughts, questions, funnies, and randoms that pop into my mind, heart, and life. Too long have I ignored them and now I'm here to document and share. I don't promise a frequent blog but I do hope to make this a regular occurrence; plus I really need to work on my writing skills.