Wednesday, August 29, 2007

retreats

I think if Jesus were here today, he would be a camp person. He loved crowds sometimes, a certain few more often and sometimes, he would just go away by himself. That's camp. A bit of everything. It's been special this week being up there doing what we feel to be God's work in presenting the gospel in worship. I've been moved to tears almost everytime I sing "how can i keep from singing" because it is just so much how i feel being up there.

Does your life have the same balance? Time with others - including believers and unbelievers? With the intimate few you truly INVEST yourself with? Do you have time by yourself to nurture your own listening prayer life with God? Sometimes the noise has to stop in order for our spiritual lives to start.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Blog about blogging

It's hard to blog about the news when I have no idea what is happening in the news. Being at camp all week this week (with exception to Thursday night which I'll be coming back for the last one!), I've been out of the loop. The year that Wayne Gretzky got traded from Edmonton, I was at camp and didn't even hear about that until a week later! I could blog all about stuff at camp but the connection point for you wouldn't be the same.

That 'disconnect' I'm describing is one of the biggest issues that I think faces Christians today. We're out of the loop. Somewhere, we've interpreted being of the world but not in the world as taking a critical backseat to everything that the world offers - and maybe more importantly, a criticism of the people within it. Healthy criticism is a good thing - as in just being reflective and analytical about what we're taking in and being a part of. But when we just make running commentary on the world and people while having no connection - no relationship - with them, we've immediately lost our audience.

Imagine if Paris Hilton decided to write a book criticizing the inner workings of the church. We'd be in a rage because she couldn't possibly know anything about what us Christians believe! Let alone her lifestyle! It's NOTHING like it should be. She hasn't earned the right to say anything!

That's kinda how those in the world feel about us I think. I know that we live by the truth and we can't possibly adopt the lifestyle of the world just to communicate to it. But we can't hide behind that either. Jesus diedto save the world. Maybe it's time we start to love it the same.