Feeling Alive
So it's been a while since I've added anything here, not because I haven't thought about it, moreso because I've been living with my head down, nose to the grindstone. Much the way I believe most of our American culture lives. I've been reflecting lately on the ancient words of a wise man who said, "the unexamined life is not a life worth living."
Maybe more of the reason I haven't added anything here is because I have been letting life lead me. Now, that's not to say that I haven't been pursuing various things (too many things, some say), in fact many would say "he's taking the bull by the horns and making life what he wants." But honestly, of all the taking the bull by the horns I've done the last few months, I don't know that I can say I truly felt more alive than I did tonight.
I spent the evening with two friends, a relatively quiet evening, but a philosophically intense one nonetheless. I honestly don't think it gets better than when two or three friends can get together to discuss matters of life, with different perspectives to boot, while sitting on a rock formation overlooking a twinkling city below. In terms of my faith, it is nights like tonight that completely rejuvenate my desire and passion to serve the God I so often claim to know and love, but who also I second to my schedule, pursuits et al. That is to say, discussing matters of faith with a man who understands the basics tenets of Christianity but subscribes to no particular set of beliefs is quite the insightful challenge to a man (me) who operates from a Christian paradigm most of the time. But what was discussed tonight were matters of the heart. All religious terminology extracted, the matters were of those relating to the heart. Compassion, goodness, desire for faith in a higher being, the nature of man, the list goes on. Regardless revealing my heart in regards to such issues brought a feeling of living that I have not yet found to be substantiated by our current culture of Wednesday night cell group meetings. They seem a little too "churchy" for me. Which may not be bad, but I feel that if we are really here to engage the culture of boulder with the person of Jesus Christ, then why the heck do we always meet together in our living rooms?! Let's engage the Boulder community as a whole, lets get outside of our comfortable culture of a box that we have created and really get to know hearts of people in Boulder.
I must retire to a soft bed, as an early morning at the Boulder Shelter awaits.
Lastly, I don't quite know what the hyper-links buried in the text are, they just showed up...it turns out, they're advertising for various websites. This is your warning, and heed your warning, there's no need to click on them, I did it--yippee.
Maybe more of the reason I haven't added anything here is because I have been letting life lead me. Now, that's not to say that I haven't been pursuing various things (too many things, some say), in fact many would say "he's taking the bull by the horns and making life what he wants." But honestly, of all the taking the bull by the horns I've done the last few months, I don't know that I can say I truly felt more alive than I did tonight.
I spent the evening with two friends, a relatively quiet evening, but a philosophically intense one nonetheless. I honestly don't think it gets better than when two or three friends can get together to discuss matters of life, with different perspectives to boot, while sitting on a rock formation overlooking a twinkling city below. In terms of my faith, it is nights like tonight that completely rejuvenate my desire and passion to serve the God I so often claim to know and love, but who also I second to my schedule, pursuits et al. That is to say, discussing matters of faith with a man who understands the basics tenets of Christianity but subscribes to no particular set of beliefs is quite the insightful challenge to a man (me) who operates from a Christian paradigm most of the time. But what was discussed tonight were matters of the heart. All religious terminology extracted, the matters were of those relating to the heart. Compassion, goodness, desire for faith in a higher being, the nature of man, the list goes on. Regardless revealing my heart in regards to such issues brought a feeling of living that I have not yet found to be substantiated by our current culture of Wednesday night cell group meetings. They seem a little too "churchy" for me. Which may not be bad, but I feel that if we are really here to engage the culture of boulder with the person of Jesus Christ, then why the heck do we always meet together in our living rooms?! Let's engage the Boulder community as a whole, lets get outside of our comfortable culture of a box that we have created and really get to know hearts of people in Boulder.
I must retire to a soft bed, as an early morning at the Boulder Shelter awaits.
Lastly, I don't quite know what the hyper-links buried in the text are, they just showed up...it turns out, they're advertising for various websites. This is your warning, and heed your warning, there's no need to click on them, I did it--yippee.
posted by Niles at 8/03/2005 12:07:00 AM
6 Comments:
Ok so Niles...you don't know me, but I have heard a lot about you. I now work at the McCaslin store and found out you left. I was looking forward to talking to you about your trip to Africa..I just got back and think i'm going to move there. Ok well maybe someday we will meet.
so niles, i think it's important to engage culture but as much as we're anti-systems/anti-structure...these can be good things, as long as they're simple. & i believe that corperate meetings with believers is a good thing as much as i believe you can have "church" with non christians at work, as long as you're talking about who God is & what He's doing & loving people, ya know? those are my thoughts.
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I'm on board with corporate meetings 100%! In no way did I wish to convey that dissolving the community God has created for us was a good idea. Community is essential to our relationship with our Creator. I suppose, for me, it is often easier to revert to a comfortable culture of the church than it is to hold on to the truths we know about community and allow them to interplay with the culture around us. I am hoping to gain a better perspective of what it looks like to live consistently in both realms, no; rather I am hoping to dissolve the thinking that there are two realms (from a living standpoint). That is to say that life is life, regardless who I am with or what "container" I find myself. Still knowing full well that God is just and he will call all of those who know him to spend eternity with him.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I am adding your blog to my list of regular reads. Doug White told me the story of running into you at Starbucks and shared your blog address.
- praying for God's strong presence and leading in the work He has called you to do!
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