Maybe it's the heat....???

I attended a sermon a while ago that has had me thinking… The author of the sermon likened life (or, rather, the end of life) to a vacation. She said that at the end of her vacations she cannot wait to get home. During her vacation she is having a great time but slowly gets the itch to be home again. Life (without running too far with the simile) is like a vacation in that it is temporary and we cannot wait to get to Heaven… itchin’ to be “home” with our Father. That’s cool, but…

Last night I just finished my third Donald Miller book called “Searching For God Knows What.” In this book Don (I can call him that because we are good friends, or at least he makes me feel like I am his good friend and he is telling me stories over pizza and lemonade) talks about seeing the Bible as a way of having a personal relationship with Jesus. He speaks out against formulaic Christianity by saying there is more than X+Y=Heaven and Bells. The Bible is complex, beautiful and a relational tool for all to learn about and grow close to our Lord and Savior; a personal and loving relationship with Jesus. Beautiful, but…

I agree that Heaven will be amazing - beyond all I could ever imagine. I agree that formulas are not all that we should take from the Bible. Like Kelly says in her last blog, relationships are so important and a loving relationship with Jesus would be great. I would love to take Jesus back to my house to give him a ride on my motorcycle, introduce him to my puppies and then go fishing while he tells me stories about all the places he has visited. This is something that I have actually been pursuing by reading the Bible. Searching for a deeper level of understanding and hopefully working on that relationship, I started reading the Bible - starting in Genesis - a few weeks ago.

So I come to the question that Laura addresses in her blog… “what are we doing here?” The final destination is Heaven but I have to think that God gave us this life for some reason. This has to be more than a testing ground - like Biology 101 - to weed out the uncommitted, doesn’t it? As far as a life of equations… I was horrible in Algebra (paper and pencil) but Physics class (measuring tools and time outside the classroom) and I got along real well. Mapping points on graph paper made me cross-eyed for almost the entire semester but when our teachers turned us loose to figure out the force of the drinking fountain by measuring the distance and arch of the water’s path, well… “You had me at hello.” We had the chance to apply to our world what we learned from our books.

I am only a quarter of the way through the Bible and will approach the “Wisdom” books soon so maybe I will find much more in that section. Here is what is on my mind, though. Don (Miller) gives a few examples throughout his book on how society influences the movements in Christianity. I wonder if in our day and age of internet, mail order groceries and fences around our yards that we might be looking for deeper relationships. Why not Jesus as a best friend? I am sitting with my headphones on right now listening to a song called “Dare You To Move” and the line that just played says: “Where you gonna go? Salvation is here…” Maybe God gave us time on Earth to enjoy his creation. Maybe He showed himself on Earth in Jesus not only to join him in a loving relationship but to show us how to do that with others.

Many great things happened in Haiti and Tennessee. I had a couple experiences that I will definitely remember when thinking back on the trips… The first is a conversation with an elderly gentleman with whom I had the opportunity to discuss mining and how life happened in the decades past. The second experience was adding over 2 hours onto an already long road trip to include a friend for the journey. Robert Frost says: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…” I like to think that that “Something” is God telling us that we should meet and greet our neighbors; spend time with them, love and enjoy them… like Jesus did. Maybe we should do that with all of His creation. But, then again, maybe I am just "normalized" to this Earth...

For now, I cannot resist but to leave you with this: “The future is no place to place your better days…” (Dave Matthews Band)

Jesse