What Moves You?

I'm spending time today, among several other things, thinking about what moves people?  In today's overload of information at the touch of a button, what interests people?  I'm developing ideas and themes for Sunday Classes that might be helpful to people in their daily life.  So many times we think that once Sunday is over, so the spiritual quota is complete for a week. Tough thing is we have 2 hours on a sunday (of course really it's only 1 hour) to interact with others in a truly spiritual way.  And this 2 hours is supposed to help us cope with the remainder of the week.  Two hours of training and encouragement = 168 hours of Christlikeness. (yeah, I had to use a calculator.)  One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies "TRUE LIES" goes like this.

NT. / EXT GIB'S CAR/ STREETS OF WASHINGTON - DAY They are driving through D.C.  Harry is still shocked by his daughter's behavior.   

GIB    Kids.  Ten seconds of joy. Thirty years of misery.

HARRY  She knows not to steal.  I've taught her better than that.

GIB    Yeah, but you're not her parents, anymore, you and Helen.  Her parents are Axl Rose and Madonna. The five minutes you spend a day with her can't compete with that kind of constant bombardment. You're outgunned, amigo.

Gib and Harry turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue, heading toward Lafayette Square. Capital Hill is behind them.

Problem is, how many of us really dig into the word of God throughout the week...honestly. Not trying to promote guilt, just reality.  So, Sunday morning is really the 5 minutes a day that we spend with God...and that's all that most of us have.

The reality though is that certain thoughts and ideas move us to action.  What are those?  I think for the most part we have a good idea, but when it comes to church and learning about how we can be more like Christ and how to share the hope we have with a world that's lost, what does that look like?  What would we be 'really' interested in?  In this information age when knowledge is at the touch of a button, why go anywhere?  I'm interested in your comments.  What moves you?

Starting Over

I don't guess it's really starting over. It's just a continuation of my journey. Here I sit in the middle of my lunch break from my very first class in my pursuit of a Masters of Arts in Religion. I've put it off as long as possible. the runing joke was that I didn't want to pursue seminary or graduate school in theology because I didn't want to be screwed up for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I told that Joke to one of my best friends, Dr. Michael Harbour, during one of our regularly scheduled morning coffees several years ago. He thought it was funny, but also a challenge. So, what he proceeded to do for the next 6 years was to screw me up for the rest of my life. His continuing questions and challenges to those things I thought I knew to be hard and fast fact became a bit more, well, soft and slow. I guess I figured that it couldn't be any worse in grad school, so I decided to take the plunge.

This story may sound a bit negative, but what I've discovered is that when your faith is completely shaken, you discover what really lies at the basis for your belief. I would venture to say that most westernized Christian Americans haven't really faced things that would challenge their belief. Maybe we're getting close, especially with the economy the way it is, but it took me 32 years until I came to that point.

Which brings me back to where I am currently. I'm on a break and my brain hurts. A january short course crams in an entire semester's worth of learning in about 5 days. OUCH! I guess it's not that bad. What I've truly come to understand about this starting point is that I've looked up and I realize that I have a long way to go on this journey. But then again, if I could turn the picture around the opposite direction, I might just see how far I've come. So, I trust that God will bless...not necessarily with things, although that would be nice, but with the realization that I haven't screwed things up too badly yet. My journey is interesting. My family is lovely and my God is completley faithful. And I'm not really staring over...I'm just continuing and the road ahead doesn't look too difficult or depressing. It's actually exciting. I hope my children learn that from me. That you don't necessarily start over, you just find yourself in a place where you ust have to 'continue.'