Sabbatical

I guess it is obvious that I have taken a break from blogging, not necessarily out of desire but out of necessity. The beginning of each new school year always seems to bring about different levels of disorientation as I try to juggle changing schedules of school, work, marriage, and physical well-being. I'm not so sure I've yet achieved any semblance of organized status but I will continue to press on. Last week Sara and I decided to begin a Saturday morning tradition of going to a new local coffee shop here in Abilene called Java City. We find that it is easier for us to accomplish our studies apart from the comfy coziness of our humble abode. So here we find ourselves once again this Saturday slaving away all for the pursuit of higher education, well and I guess transformation is an important aspect too.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately for classes and I came across what I consider to be a great excerpt in a book entitled, StormFront: The Good News of God. Here is what the authors have to say regarding the subject of community as the church in the world today:

At it's best, the church has affirmed those who are called to a radical simplicity of lifestyle, to remind the rest of us that we don't need what we think we need. The church has understood the value of people committed to celibacy, who remind us that sex is neither a necessity nor a god. We have learned from those who continually open their homes to others, who cure the rest of us of the idolatry of our privacy. We are nourished by devoted parents who sacrifice career advancement for the sake of time with their children, who help the rest of us keep our priorities straight. We are strengthened by people who are lavish in prayer and spiritual disciplines, who remind those of us with harder spirits of where our real help comes from and goad us out of our complacency. The church thrives when it is made up of communities of Christians willing to commit themselves to support each other in risky, venturesome ways, when Christians are willing to resist creatively the many ways in which the dominant in our world crush the weak.

In short, the gospel resounds in the life of the church when Christians find a thousand joyful ways to take the mixed-up values of this world and turn them upside down--when Christians aren't afraid to walk down a path the world calls madness, a path that is really the road to life. In this each of us will have a distinctive calling. But that calling is discerned and embraced within the context of a loving and discerning community. It is vitally important that we not carry someone else's cross, but rather that our eyes are fixed firmly on where Jesus is calling us. But it is also vital for us to encourage each other in our shared discipleship. In this way, each individual life bears witness to the power of the cross, and the shared life of the entire community bears witness with harmony, unity, and power to the mysterious way in which God brings life out of what the world calls death...This is what it means to participate in the reign of God and to be united with Christ in his death. This is the life that the gospel invites Christians to receive, to enter, and to proclaim.

It is energizing to know that we are the body of Christ made up of many important parts, called to live in the world and not of it to the glory of the One whose abundant love is made evident in the life of Jesus! Praise God that we may enter and proclaim that community.