as i read the story of Jesus going into the wilderness, it strikes me how prepared and underwhelmed he was by the experience. especially considering how unprepared and overwhelmed we are by the wilderness of our own lives.
i plan to play with the phrase "unprepared and overwhelmed" to describe our lives today...and invite people into Lent as a time to prepare for a more faithful life.
in the introduction to "An Altar to the World", Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of someone asking her, "What is saving your life right now?" she then goes on to talk about the saving power of simple christian practices.
i'm working to tie these two ideas together--that we can move past being unprepared and overwhelmed through the saving power of our christian practices.
Working on the lonliness of modern life and the lonliness of Jesus in the wilderness. As he was "driven" into the wilderness, we have been and are being driven into a wilderness titled modern social life where so much is so very different than our past. We don't sit on the front porch in the evening watching and talking with neighbors who wander by, but now we sit in our houses and look hopefully for neighbors around the world to wander through facebook or into our e-mails. To those who don't have these, or don't understand them, there is an increased estrangement from life as we have known it. If we are of an age where much of our family and many of our friends are incapacitated, or dead, the lonliness is very real and can become a serious problem unless we can recongize that in this lonliness our need for a daily relationship with God is even more crucial than it may have been in past, busier times. Want to talk about the difference between being alone and lonliness and the different types of lonliness.
as i read the story of Jesus going into the wilderness, it strikes me how prepared and underwhelmed he was by the experience. especially considering how unprepared and overwhelmed we are by the wilderness of our own lives.
ReplyDeletei plan to play with the phrase "unprepared and overwhelmed" to describe our lives today...and invite people into Lent as a time to prepare for a more faithful life.
in the introduction to "An Altar to the World", Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of someone asking her, "What is saving your life right now?" she then goes on to talk about the saving power of simple christian practices.
i'm working to tie these two ideas together--that we can move past being unprepared and overwhelmed through the saving power of our christian practices.
Working on the lonliness of modern life and the lonliness of Jesus in the wilderness. As he was "driven" into the wilderness, we have been and are being driven into a wilderness titled modern social life where so much is so very different than our past. We don't sit on the front porch in the evening watching and talking with neighbors who wander by, but now we sit in our houses and look hopefully for neighbors around the world to wander through facebook or into our e-mails. To those who don't have these, or don't understand them, there is an increased estrangement from life as we have known it. If we are of an age where much of our family and many of our friends are incapacitated, or dead, the lonliness is very real and can become a serious problem unless we can recongize that in this lonliness our need for a daily relationship with God is even more crucial than it may have been in past, busier times.
ReplyDeleteWant to talk about the difference between being alone and lonliness and the different types of lonliness.