Obscurity
Man, I was looking at this... and the blog that I keep on Myspace, and was thinking to myself... "it's been a while since I've blogged."
I think that there's a rational explanation to this... maybe...
I'm giving up blogging for Lent.
Now, being non-denominational and belonging to a church that prides itself on being non-traditional, that would sound a little odd, wouldn't it?
And I think Lent (correct me if I'm wrong), ends at Easter... so I'd officially be breaking my so-called commitment by writing this post today, huh?
But, seeing as though I'm not Catholic... I don't care. :-)
I suppose a lot has happened since the last time I published some aspect of my life, thoughts, opinions for the Internet world to see. But then again, maybe not. Since the new year, the constant in my life has been travel... which has kept my life interesting but has also made 2008 a blur. Being out of town so much, I'm feeling a little obscure socially... which I don't like.
That's one cool thing that I like about Jesus.... He gets me. I'll explain.
In my quiet times starting out the year, I am reading through Matthew to really dive (again) into the life of my life.. and to understand more deeply the God that I follow. The thing I read (from Chapter 2) that stood out said this...
"So he (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfulled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazerene."
A couple of things stood out here... first the amount of detailed care that God gave to protecting Jesus (and Mary & Joseph of course) through giving direction. I am impressed by Joseph's wisdom to strictly follow God and trust Him, especially since some of the direction seemed a little out in left field. But then again, Herod was a little nuts... okay, a LOT nuts.... so perhaps I can understand :-). Considering that Jesus was to die on a cross in my place and live out the life that God desires in my place... it's cool to see that the journey wasn't at all easy.
The second thing was about obsurity... You know, the son of God lived for almost 28 (or so) years of His life in relative obscurity. I mean, for starters from the age of 2 to whenever, he was hanging out as a foreigner in Egypt because some lunatic wanted to kill him (because of his interpretation of a prophesy). I mean, that'd be like me moving to Mexico to escape from Hillary Clinton (of course, I've actually heard some people talk about doing something like that ;) )... probably not a great life and not too many like-minded friends.
... then Nazareth. I've heard that, in that day, that Nazareth both was unimportant (small?) and had a bad reputation. Think Vidor or Jasper... Backwards, far from society, and being from there branded you in the wrong way. That's where Jesus got to call his address until He became a public figure.
And He did that... for me. And for you. That's cool that the One that I've given my life to has walked in my shoes. That He became unimportant, because He deemed me valuable and wanted to relate to me. So, whenever you feel like you don't have a clue which way is up or down... and the world is passing you by and you're standing still - Jesus knows. He understands.
And He loves you.
cheers!
chris <><
I think that there's a rational explanation to this... maybe...
I'm giving up blogging for Lent.
Now, being non-denominational and belonging to a church that prides itself on being non-traditional, that would sound a little odd, wouldn't it?
And I think Lent (correct me if I'm wrong), ends at Easter... so I'd officially be breaking my so-called commitment by writing this post today, huh?
But, seeing as though I'm not Catholic... I don't care. :-)
I suppose a lot has happened since the last time I published some aspect of my life, thoughts, opinions for the Internet world to see. But then again, maybe not. Since the new year, the constant in my life has been travel... which has kept my life interesting but has also made 2008 a blur. Being out of town so much, I'm feeling a little obscure socially... which I don't like.
That's one cool thing that I like about Jesus.... He gets me. I'll explain.
In my quiet times starting out the year, I am reading through Matthew to really dive (again) into the life of my life.. and to understand more deeply the God that I follow. The thing I read (from Chapter 2) that stood out said this...
"So he (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfulled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazerene."
A couple of things stood out here... first the amount of detailed care that God gave to protecting Jesus (and Mary & Joseph of course) through giving direction. I am impressed by Joseph's wisdom to strictly follow God and trust Him, especially since some of the direction seemed a little out in left field. But then again, Herod was a little nuts... okay, a LOT nuts.... so perhaps I can understand :-). Considering that Jesus was to die on a cross in my place and live out the life that God desires in my place... it's cool to see that the journey wasn't at all easy.
The second thing was about obsurity... You know, the son of God lived for almost 28 (or so) years of His life in relative obscurity. I mean, for starters from the age of 2 to whenever, he was hanging out as a foreigner in Egypt because some lunatic wanted to kill him (because of his interpretation of a prophesy). I mean, that'd be like me moving to Mexico to escape from Hillary Clinton (of course, I've actually heard some people talk about doing something like that ;) )... probably not a great life and not too many like-minded friends.
... then Nazareth. I've heard that, in that day, that Nazareth both was unimportant (small?) and had a bad reputation. Think Vidor or Jasper... Backwards, far from society, and being from there branded you in the wrong way. That's where Jesus got to call his address until He became a public figure.
And He did that... for me. And for you. That's cool that the One that I've given my life to has walked in my shoes. That He became unimportant, because He deemed me valuable and wanted to relate to me. So, whenever you feel like you don't have a clue which way is up or down... and the world is passing you by and you're standing still - Jesus knows. He understands.
And He loves you.
cheers!
chris <><
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