Fresh

Once upon a time, about two years ago, I started a blog.  I wrote a lot of entries.  I got really wrapped up in it.  It was cool.  My chest was puffed up - which I needed like a hole in the head - as I realized that people were viewing and reading what I had to say.

My blog tapered off.  It lost shape.  I discovered that I had a downfall, a penchant, for saying a large number of things on a single topic.  Wordiness plagues me.  The desire to be comprehensive rests deep in my bones.  My desire to justify myself before the reading world is a disease that runs to the very center of my heart.  My blog became something that probably few people would read with benefit because each entry was becoming something like a chapter from a book.  And my blog became something increasingly hard to write... because each entry was becoming something like a chapter from a book.

Well, the foundation of everything I know and will ever meaningfully say - then and now - comes down to this:  God is real, sin is a problem, and in Jesus there is forgiveness.  On this I gladly stand.  Of this I am unashamed.  (Romans 1:16)

Christianity is a religion of fresh starts and steadfast love and forgiveness, not once, not twice, but seventy times seven times.  And I am pretty sure that God would forgive me on the 491st offense, too.  Praise him for fresh starts and forgiveness.

And so, by a possibly strained analogy, I am starting a new blog.  I hope that it is fresh.  I promise brevity.  I hope for consistency.  I pray for your edification in the reading and my edification in the writing.

I also aim for more fun.  Not slapstick stupidity.  There are weighty realities in the world like glory, grace, love, crucifixion, resurrection, hell, heaven, and others.  Letting these weigh on me has a tendency to take my taste-buds away from unsatisfying fluff and mindless entertainment and trivialities.  The weight of these leads me (at least sometimes) to prayer and awe and more prayer.

But God saves us to a life of joy, and I believe one of joy's deepest and most appropriate expressions is laughter.  When we come to the realization that we have done nothing to save ourselves, that it was all the sheer grace of a holy and loving God, we realize how odd and flabbergasting it is.  I should have been wiped out by wrath at my first sin, but I was not.  And sometimes, through tears, I laugh at grace.  I mean that literally.  Perhaps if I were holier I would have a more somber reaction.

But I think that laughing at the absurdity of myself is a way of thanking God for his grace towards me.  And such laughter does not rule out sorrow.  Joy and sorrow may be bedfellows, strange ones, but what God has put together, I am not - at least on my better days - foolish enough to try to take apart.  Let's take them both as they are given.  Rejoice in suffering.

So let me wrap this up, lest I break my own rules before I even get started.  Have an excellent day today and run after God.  Wherever you are, take your next step towards him.  He draws near to those who will draw near to him.  What a promise from our Creator and Savior!

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Some scripture to think on...

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  (John 15:12-14)

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Things to check out...

Do You Actually Read Your Reports? - Eugene Peterson, the writer of  The Message, tells a very humorous story of his early days as a pastor.  Had me laughing out loud.

Spurgeon the Dog - My sister-in-law's blog.  A quick but challenging true story of their near adoption of a theologically-named dog.

Chesterton Quotes - A collection of quotations from GK Chesterton, my favorite person to quote.

Math Puzzles - So yeah, I am a math teacher.  And I geeked out over some of these puzzles today and even put a few on my finals as bonus questions.  Have some fun if you dare!

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Suggestions for Global Prayer...

Pray for Vietnam.  Long, narrow country occupying the entire eastern and southern coastline of Indochina.  Population: 89,028,741.  There are 114 peoples, 56% unreached.  52% of the population is Buddhist.   Many people worship ancestors.  Pray for distribution of Bibles, wisdom of missionaries, and the willingness of the peoples to see Christ as greater than generational bonds.

Soli Deo gloria.