Name:Andy Country:United States State:Indiana Metro:Indianapolis
Interests:Jesus, my amazing wife Cristen, music, guitar, songwriting, reading, running Expertise:depravity; hypocrisy; debauchery; the heighth, depth, breadth, and width of the love of Christ
last month I read donald miller's new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I couldn't put it down. I remember really enjoying Blue Like Jazz several years ago, so I was really excited to read this one.
This book was really resonating with where I was in life three short weeks ago. I'd almost say it has influenced the choices I've made since reading it.
I wanted to include a few passages that really hit me, but as I'm scanning through the book three weeks later, I can't seem to find all of them. But here is one:
"If the point of life is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation... [I wondered if] we were designed to live through something rather than to attain something, and the thing we were meant to live through was designed to change us. The point of a story is the character arc, the change."
And around the time of reading this book, I bought Relient K's new cd, Forget and Not Slow Down. Its title track seemed to go well with this book and especially this passage.
I have gone through trials due to sin issues and due to general life issues, but those problems were all for transformation, so that I could be made more into the image of God, to be more like Him.
The book also talks about the "inciting incident" in our lives--a decision or action that changes the course to come.
And my inciting incident has finally happened--putting in my letter of resignation at school.
I don't know where God will lead me, but I know that I trust in His Story for my life more than I trust in my story for my life.
May He be glorified through this inciting incident of faith.
...and rode on the coattails to tennessee, to get by, get by, oh, oh" -- tyler james
i don't know if today was easier to get up because i'm still like a little child on the first morning of snow or because there was a weight lifted off of my mind.
either way... i'm enjoying this morning. i have my red santa tie on and the Lord is good.
a few weeks ago, my students read the account of Hercules from Mythology. you may be familiar with the story of Hercules from the Disney movie--which is always a reliable source (sense the sarcasm?).
Within the story of the greatest Greek hero, before the twelve labors and freeing Prometheus, is the story of the sorrowful depths of guilt and shame and the amazing heights of forgiveness and freedom.
Hercules has a raw deal from the start. Hera, Zeus' wife, gets jealous that Zeus has a child (Hercules) with another woman and enacts revenge upon Hercules. She sends a madness upon him, which makes him kill his own wife and kids.
After he realizes what he has done, his guilt overwhelms him. He wants to kill himself. Luckily, Theseus steps in. And it is here that we see the beautiful picture of redemption:
Theseus stretches out his hands to clasp those bloodstainded hands of Hercules knowing that he would become defiled himself and have a part in Hercules' guilt. Hercules says to him, "Do you know what I have done?!" And Theseus responds, "I know this. Your sorrows reach from earth to heaven... You shall come to Athens with me, and share my home and all things with me..."
and as i read that, i am overwhelmed with the same emotions i'm sure Hercules would have felt. i have felt the same guilt, the same shame for a sinful deed; and i have had the same redemptive work done in my life as Christ took my sins as his own and invited me in to dine with him. and he continues to invite me in. i don't have to complete twelve trials in order to achieve atonement. that has already been accomplished on the Cross.
praise the Lord that he transforms dry deserts into fertile springs of running water...
i've wanted to post some other mind-meanderings in the past two weeks, but have felt it was going to impede on the more important facets of my life at the moment.
so this is just to say that today marks the start of the christmastime season, the most wonderful time of year!
