On Whimsy and Answers

Hi again!  I have stared at this blank box for several hours now on several different occasions.  There are many things I could tell you right now.  Even now as I am typing I am not entirely sure of which words are going to come out, but here we go.

Tonight is my sixth night in my own bed since final exams.  I have been on the road a lot--camping, cabin-ing, concert-ing, etc. and have been enjoying pretty much every second of it.  Honestly enough, I have been having far too much fun this summer.  I am not used to such freedom and flexibility but I'd like to think that I am embracing it well so far.

If you were on my email list you would have received some blog-like updates about my northern experience in Dillon.  I am not going to post what I wrote here for privacy and confidentiality purposes.  But, if you would like a copy of the letters please let me know and I will send them to you.  In summary, I had an excellent time living in Dillon and being a part of the community there.  I was lucky enough to be offered many experiences which I will not soon forget.  And I met so many people whom I will not soon forget.

The thing about living in community is that it really helps you develop a heart for the people you are living with and around.  It is one thing to say you care for the marginalized and that you want to help and it is another to live alongside them, to sit in their homes and be a part of their family, to experience first hand the struggles and triumphs of being a certain person from a certain place.  I still have much to learn but I feel like I'm on my way to getting it.  For myself I have found that living with people leads me to love them and to desire what God desires for them.  I was fortunate enough to find an unsuspecting but true kindred spirit while up north.  We were able to meet up this week and we talked for eight hours straight (which was certainly a feat for both of us).  I don't think either of us realized how much we had missed each other since we parted ways in June (or at least I hadn't)!

I have recently added "whimsy" to my list of favourite words.  A quote from one of my summer reads, Halter and Smay's The Tangible Kingdom will help you understand why:

"For whatever reason, the church at large has theologized the idea of personal holiness to exclude normal interaction with the world.  Many churches we [the authors] work with have an alarming theology of "extraction" that creates a Christian peer pressure to move away from the world in all its forms.  To these people, the world is dirty, dark, intimidating, and evil.  The issue of "How incarnational should an incarnational community be?" is why we must align our theology around the call of mission...the havit of living among, means participating in the natural activities of the culture around you, with whimsical holiness.

The question of whether we "should" be in the world is pretty easy to reconcile.  Christ addressed the issue this way.  He told us in Matthew 5:13 that we were to be "salt and light."  We've heard enough sermons on this to know that salt is a preserving agent, and it also releases flavour.  The metaphor screams for our intimate proximity to those in need of preserving any taste of something great.  In 1 John 2:6, we're confronted with the bottom line: "This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."  Obviously, to walk as Jesus did means we not only have freed to but were commanded to live in the world like Christ did."

Good, yes?  The above paragraphs have impacted my thinking very much.  I know that there are some in the church who may not agree with some of the things I have participated in this summer.  But because of who Christ is in me I have been able to be involved in everything from sweat lodges to square dancing in a way that I believe brings honour and glory to the Lord.  And that's kind of awesome and freeing for me.

Other summer things: there was a question that I asked God last June.  He answered no and I didn't understand why (see previous posts).  Something prompted me to ask Him this question again last week.  He said yes.  So I think something is about to change for me.  I feel like I'm on the brink of something rather beautiful and exciting.  I feel like I am overflowing with joy and happiness about this shifting of tides, this changing of seasons.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Talk soon,

E

Current listenings:

Rivers in the Wasteland: needtobreathe
Prism: Katy Perry
Fading West: Switchfoot
How We Look at Horses: Trent Dabbs
Yes!: Jason Mraz
Chief: Eric Church
Ghost Stories: Coldplay (obviously).