half in/half out
i read an awesome article by david crowder in relevant a while back. i wish i could link to it, but you'll just have to start reading relevant. crowder's got an article in each issue now (except for the most recent one...).
and it's always something to wrap your mind around.
here's a paragraph from his article, "a costly faith: lessons from a pawnshop van." it's in the sept_oct 2006 issue.
"i think we live in a space divided. i think jesus insisted that the kingdom of heave was not just a apace we would later inhabit, but also on that he was bringing here and now. that it is surrounding us. that we are walking around in it. that we are bringing it. that the eternal begins now. here. we exist with one foot here in the early and one in the eternal. yet we rarely feel it. we rarely live with a sense that someone should take a picture. that what is happening right now bears documentation. that we're in two places at one."
crowder was talking about how we don't think about death nearly enough. we're in the present, and nothing else.
but the part that really got me thinking was that we're in two places at once. if you're a believer, you know that your body will end someday, but you've got a soul and it's unstoppable. it goes... somewhere. and the two are related. your soul speaks to your body and your body can override the soul.
so we're really a soul, since that's the eternal part of us, and we're stuck in this fleshy thing here... what do we really look like? what are we really thinking? what are our personalities really like? the phrase "fish out of water" comes to mind.
these thoughts have stuck with me for a while now. (there are more thoughts, but i won't run rampant with them right now).
while i was doing some homework, i was reviewing a classmates website (it's required that we review two of our classmates projects and comment on them).
this guy likes photography, and scuba diving. so guess what his site is about? underwater photography! well... sort of. it's more about diving than photography, but he's got a lot of photos on his site.
i saw this one and had a thought.
that thing (whatever it is) is beautiful. i can imagine it underwater swaying with the current. it's got so many surfaces and colors on it, it's a lot to look at. that one little thing probably has as much surface area as we do.
but i bet it's ugly when it washes up on the beach.
i bet you wouldn't even know what it is if you saw it.
you might even think it's garbage washed ashore.
and it might hurt if you step on it (i don't know that for sure, but it looks potentially dangerous!)
so let's set this up in an analogy...
if that sea creature belongs in the sea, but ends up on the earth and it is totally out of its element and struggles just to survive, then if we're a soul, but we're on earth, are we struggling to survive? are we really more beautiful than we perceive b/c we're not at home? can we even know what we really are when we're just visiting? has anyone mistaken you for garbage? (or have you ever treated someone like garbage?) do we hurt people when they step on us? if someone came by to throw you back into the ocean, would you sting them?
more and more rampant thoughts... but i'll just sit on this for a while. i like nature analogies, but i don't like being stung.
and i don't like thinking that i'm messing up here, while i'm existing somewhere else, too.
the tagline from crowder's article...
"jesus insisted that the kingdom of heaven was not just a space we would later inhabit ... "
and it's always something to wrap your mind around.
here's a paragraph from his article, "a costly faith: lessons from a pawnshop van." it's in the sept_oct 2006 issue.
"i think we live in a space divided. i think jesus insisted that the kingdom of heave was not just a apace we would later inhabit, but also on that he was bringing here and now. that it is surrounding us. that we are walking around in it. that we are bringing it. that the eternal begins now. here. we exist with one foot here in the early and one in the eternal. yet we rarely feel it. we rarely live with a sense that someone should take a picture. that what is happening right now bears documentation. that we're in two places at one."
crowder was talking about how we don't think about death nearly enough. we're in the present, and nothing else.
but the part that really got me thinking was that we're in two places at once. if you're a believer, you know that your body will end someday, but you've got a soul and it's unstoppable. it goes... somewhere. and the two are related. your soul speaks to your body and your body can override the soul.
so we're really a soul, since that's the eternal part of us, and we're stuck in this fleshy thing here... what do we really look like? what are we really thinking? what are our personalities really like? the phrase "fish out of water" comes to mind.
these thoughts have stuck with me for a while now. (there are more thoughts, but i won't run rampant with them right now).
while i was doing some homework, i was reviewing a classmates website (it's required that we review two of our classmates projects and comment on them).
this guy likes photography, and scuba diving. so guess what his site is about? underwater photography! well... sort of. it's more about diving than photography, but he's got a lot of photos on his site.
i saw this one and had a thought.
that thing (whatever it is) is beautiful. i can imagine it underwater swaying with the current. it's got so many surfaces and colors on it, it's a lot to look at. that one little thing probably has as much surface area as we do.
but i bet it's ugly when it washes up on the beach.
i bet you wouldn't even know what it is if you saw it.
you might even think it's garbage washed ashore.
and it might hurt if you step on it (i don't know that for sure, but it looks potentially dangerous!)
so let's set this up in an analogy...
if that sea creature belongs in the sea, but ends up on the earth and it is totally out of its element and struggles just to survive, then if we're a soul, but we're on earth, are we struggling to survive? are we really more beautiful than we perceive b/c we're not at home? can we even know what we really are when we're just visiting? has anyone mistaken you for garbage? (or have you ever treated someone like garbage?) do we hurt people when they step on us? if someone came by to throw you back into the ocean, would you sting them?
more and more rampant thoughts... but i'll just sit on this for a while. i like nature analogies, but i don't like being stung.
and i don't like thinking that i'm messing up here, while i'm existing somewhere else, too.
the tagline from crowder's article...
"jesus insisted that the kingdom of heaven was not just a space we would later inhabit ... "
