The worst thing about the original super mario brothers wasn't the graphics or the rather underdeveloped characters. It was the fact that no matter how far you had gone, what you had overcome, even if you were on level 5-4 and you had dodged 7 bullets, gotten 99 coins, and just killed two hammerthrowers with one red shell, you could die. It wasn't like the movies where a super hero could only be defeated by a super villain either, you could bump in a koopa or slide right off the edge. Death cared not for your impressive performance or noble cause. Simultaneously, however, the best thing about the game may be the reset button.
I think that often when we think about becoming a Christian, we think of it as an upgrade (like a fireflower, or maybe that weird leaf thing from the third one, but I digress). We think of it as taking who we are and making it better. As if we are "us" and that God has found us and made us better than we were.
I am not sure that is how it works. It seems too superficial, like a new coat of paint. It is not enough.
I like to think of it more like a reset button. In John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemas that in order to see God's kingdom, he must be born again. The imagery surrounding rebirth doesn't seem to resemble an upgrade. It is a radical, abrasive event where the world is brand new and you are free to go and sin no more.
We are starting over. We are starting to live the way that God has always planned for us to live. We had been distracted and decieved, but now we are a new creation in Gods image just like at the beginning. It is not just a better way, it is the real way, the only way.
You know that feeling? The one you get when you love someone so much that it hurts? Or when you give so much that it costs you something? Or when you see new life that you have created for the very first time? Or when you meet with your creator in a near-tangible way? It feels great. It feels the way we wish all of life could feel. These are the reset moments. When nothing before even matters. When for a brief and fleeting moment the divinity buried deep within us from original creation permeates our entire being and we live as God intended. Press reset today.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Why Blog?
So, here I am, johnny-come-lately, jumping on the blogging phenomenon bandwagon only to add another voice in the chorus of our blogging world. With so many people typing so many words filling blog after blog with thoughts and feelings all so brilliantly unique and yet mundane, it all seems to get lost and we end up with a society of men and women just dying to be heard or at the very least to hear themselves speak. So, why join in? Am I so full of myself as to assume that I have anything new or anything worth saying at all? Can I say with any degree of confidence that I know something more than all the other bloggers in the world? Or that this blog will be of any substance at all? We shall see.
The intention of the title of this blog is to designate it as a place where my lost thoughts can go to save from being wasted. Good thoughts are scarce and should be preserved at all costs. This way thoughts that I have can be collected and held until useful. Unlike real lost and found boxes, you are more than welcome to come and pilfer any thoughts you like or need. It is constantly amazing to me the power that simple thoughts can hold. Something so small and insignificant to you can be a life-altering revelation to me, conversely, perhaps, these simple thoughts that I throw into my box can be used to do some good, somewhere, for someone and that is a hopeful thought.
I think that we understand God more through the open sharing of thoughts. I imagine every Christian who has ever lived standing in a large circle looking at God in the middle. God is large and far too much for any of us to take in, but we can each can see a small part. When we speak to the people on either side of us about what they are seeing, it may be totally different, but it paints a better, more complete picture for all of us. If thoughts and ideas were to be shared openly and freely around the circle, who knows what more we could understand.
It is far too easy to get lost among all of the words and thoughts and noise flowing endlessly in and out of our lives. I hope that pain in loss can lead to joy in finding. I hope that finding can always result in new searches. I hope that in a world of much, we can get lost in little thoughts sometimes. I hope that we can remember to feel the joy of being lost in something as well as finding. Most of all I pray that you, whether lost or found, can find something here worth finding.
The intention of the title of this blog is to designate it as a place where my lost thoughts can go to save from being wasted. Good thoughts are scarce and should be preserved at all costs. This way thoughts that I have can be collected and held until useful. Unlike real lost and found boxes, you are more than welcome to come and pilfer any thoughts you like or need. It is constantly amazing to me the power that simple thoughts can hold. Something so small and insignificant to you can be a life-altering revelation to me, conversely, perhaps, these simple thoughts that I throw into my box can be used to do some good, somewhere, for someone and that is a hopeful thought.
I think that we understand God more through the open sharing of thoughts. I imagine every Christian who has ever lived standing in a large circle looking at God in the middle. God is large and far too much for any of us to take in, but we can each can see a small part. When we speak to the people on either side of us about what they are seeing, it may be totally different, but it paints a better, more complete picture for all of us. If thoughts and ideas were to be shared openly and freely around the circle, who knows what more we could understand.
It is far too easy to get lost among all of the words and thoughts and noise flowing endlessly in and out of our lives. I hope that pain in loss can lead to joy in finding. I hope that finding can always result in new searches. I hope that in a world of much, we can get lost in little thoughts sometimes. I hope that we can remember to feel the joy of being lost in something as well as finding. Most of all I pray that you, whether lost or found, can find something here worth finding.
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