Cleaning out my Inbox

Every so often I get to the point that I need to archive my inbox to my local folder. I get a lot of e-mails and a lot of spam, and my box fills up so that I start to have problems connecting to the box, the file is too large. I guess this is an illustration of how many aspects of life tend to pile up, and that I am not all that great at keeping up and maintaining them.

I think I've reached this point with my business as well. I realized that there were things that I had to do that I just totally forgot about. So, now I'm making a point of turning the project management aspect of my business into something more organized. Need to do a better job of tracking projects, not letting them get lost in the shuffle.

I wonder what other aspects of my life I am forgetting about. Am I spending enough time with my kids, my wife? Am I aware enough of my finances, both long and short term?

What about my faith? Do I spend enough time with God, do I read my bible enough? Do I have a plan as to how I will pursue my relationship with Christ? Is it even on my radar?

My mom once said that it was amazing how much maintenance daily life takes. I think it was within the context of going camping. Since we are away from our many conveniences, we see relatively simple tasks such as cooking, getting sleeping bags ready, even washing up, as much more involved chores. But, this should also serve to show us that life isn't just about acquiring new things, ideas or skills, but also taking care of what we have. It isn't fun, but necessary part of living.

Happy New Year!

Now is the beginning of 2010. Is this the start of the next decade? or does that begin in 2011? Oh well, looking forward to a great year with lots of stuff to do!

Christmas, Looking forward

Garrison Keillor warns non-Christians, "Don't mess with Christmas."

I, for one, don't mind the pagan elements of Christmas. I look at the Solstice celebration and think, at its root, it mirrors humanity's relationship to God at the point of Christ's birth. We were still in darkness, but the we saw the star that signaled a new reconciliation, a "light at the end of the tunnel," (if you will excuse the cliche). It is not quite there yet, but we are at the nadir of death and despair; and we can hope for and expect our salvation!

C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia has a great passage where the grip of an eternal winter, caused by a White Witch (Satan), starts to loose its grip. The first harbinger of Spring, and the coming of the Aslan (the Lion, Christ), is Santa Claus, who gives useful gifts to the child protagonists. I really loved the inclusion of Santa in the story, especially to put him within the context of looking forward to Christ.

So, as the shortest days grow longer, I look to the growing light of the Sun, which points to the ultimate light of the Son, born this day to save us and reconcile us to Him!

Merry Christmas!

A Voice in the Wilderness

So now the opposite side of the spectrum from a Garden, I consider John the Baptist.

All four gospels talk about John, to varying levels of detail concerning his birth, ministry and death. Its interesting to me that with all the attention put on John in the Gospels, I haven't heard him mentioned very much in sermons. Thus, I don't really know very much about him, or his significance.

That being said, I do remember one bible study on the topic of Jesus' Baptism. There is a particularly interesting passage in John 1: 29-31 (NIV):

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.

I asked a pastor at the church I was attending at the time about this passage, because the passage indicates to me were that John knew the implications of Jesus' coming. He somewhat dismissed the idea, something he read in seminary I guess, but I wonder. In Luke 1:15 the angel visiting Zechariah states he had the Holy Spirit even at birth, and in verse 44 he leaps in his mother's womb at the visit of Mary. In Luke 1:32 he recognizes Jesus by a manifestation of the Holy Spirit like a dove. I think he knew what Jesus was on Earth to do.

And I, as a Christian, know what Jesus was here on Earth to do too.

Could it be that John the Baptist is an archetype/prototype of the Christian witness? Are we also voices in the wilderness? Isaiah 40:3 (NIV):

A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God..."

Certainly, we are in a "wilderness" in our own culture, or perhaps I am in the "wilderness" outside if it. Regardless, I don't think I am suffciently "calling out," making the "paths straight for the Lord" Just as John prepared the way for Jesus, shouldn't I be making a point of preparing people as well?

Locus Amoenus

Had a hard time sleeping last night (probably because of drinking too much coffee during the day). So I got up, poured myself a glass of milk, and sat down with my ipod to surf the web a bit until I got sleepy.

My thoughts turned to the Garden of Eden, something that I was considering in relation to Christmas and the coming of Jesus to save us from sin. I've also thought of the Garden of Eden as something of an idealized "heaven on earth," a place of innocence and freedom from worry. As it is, I often think about my own gardens, in my case they can be living in a quiet house on a quiet forgotten street, or a beautiful natural setting where I can be alone with nature.

In reading the Wikipedia entry on the Garden of Eden, it mentioned this idea as a literary device called locus amoenus, which is Latin for "pleasant place." The idea being a sanctuary where one is free from the dangers and lives in comfort. Following the link to locus amoenus in Wikipedia, takes to you to an entire discussion of the idea in fantasy literature.

The upshot is, the locus amoenus should be, at best, a brief respite from the true "hero quest." That the locus amoenus is actually a dangerous place of idleness, a place that is against the archtypical striving and challenge meeting that is the basis of legend and fantacy literature. I can think of The Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, offhand, as having examples of where locus amoenus become perilous to the adventurers who stay too long.

I feel that in my own challenges in my life, I look too often to my own locus amoeni as havens to escape the crushing preasures of my own reality. So, I felt that reading about the dangers of these places in literature and the snuffing of desire and energy as something that is real in my own life. So I was heartened to continue to strive and not rest too long in my dreams of quiet and comfort. Rather, keep moving forward in what God has put in front of me to do.

However, the locus amoenus concept is one that I wan to continue to explore, particulary as it relates to the Bible and how we are to consider our roles in life post Fall of Man and post Crucifixion. While we are reconsiled to God, I suspect that we are not reconciled to his creation, to his Garden of Eden. Our purpose is to strive, but to what end? We are to rest in God, but what does this look like in our day to day lives? I think I know some of these answers, but I look forward to reading more about what God says about it.

The Word Became Flesh

In the process of reviewing versus for a series of suppertime readings during Advent. Wow, if there was ever a passage that summarized the meaning of Christmas, John 1: 1-18 (NIV) is it:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

So why does John describe God and Jesus as "The Word?" When Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees in John 8:53-59 (NIV).

Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"

Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

The name "I am" refers back to Exodus 3:14, when Moses asked God what to call Him.

God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

So, I'll suggest that The Word and I AM are synonymous. What an incredible concept, that the creator is not an entity of matter or energy, but a statement; a statement of being. Also, that Jesus is God and that he was there at the beginning of it all.

Much to be Thankful for

Another Thanksgiving came and gone, and now we focus on the upcoming Christmas season. Somehow, Thanksgiving got turned from a genuine holiday of reflection into a prelude before the Black Friday shopping spree. We are encouraged by retailers to look beyond the meaning of Thanksgiving to 5am doorbusters, and the the like.

Now, there is a certain irony to the typical commercial Christmas tale. With the economy in a talespin, there is less money to make on the whole affair. Christmas consumers aren't the giant wildebeesties of shopping mall savanna, we are rather a pack of starving hyenas, laughing at the carcasses of bloated big-box stores, scavenging the remnants at 60% off.

So we return to Thanksgiving, a holiday which stems from the story of some of the first settlers to our country. Having endured brutal winters, death and starvation, had finally reached a point of success that they invited the neighbors over (Native Americans) and celebrated a five day feast. They were thankful. Thankful to God and what he had given them.

We should be thankful too. While we are still at the beginning of our winter of discontent, we should not loose sight of the many ways that God has blessed us and our country. In some ways, I am thankful for our current economic malaise, in the sense that perhaps our nation might turn its attention from what it can acquire, to what it can give. Perhaps thats the thought for this post, that Thanksgiving now needs to focus more on the Giving than the Thanks.