I talked to my little sister today. It's always good to talk to her, it's always the pinnacle of my day. I'm taking a mini-vacation at the beginning of November: going down to Cincinnati for three days to spend some koala-t time with quality friends. It's about two weeks away, two weeks in which I'll be trying to fix my car for the drive down, paying school loans, and basically just spending the evenings at the house. Most of my evenings are like this one: take-out sushi, an episode of "Bones", working out to Led Zeppelin, maybe studying some theology. It's really not at all that exciting, but I've learned that to be in a place where you can sit on the front porch without fear of bandits, to be in a place where you can sleep peacefully at night, is something 3/4 of the world longs for and doesn't experience. Am I blessed? Certainly so, in so many ways, and I pray God will continue showing this to me and guiding me in my life. "Trust in YHWH with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." I've been reiterating this scripture to myself again and again, letting it burrow deep within me, hopefully to take root and blossom into a "life manifesto" of sorts. All too often I rely on my own understanding; all too often I acknowledge myself in all my ways, my own desires and dreams and ambitions and hopes and goals; the scripture itself is a call to a very different sort of life, a life of devotion to God and his kingdom above all else. "Come along with me," Jesus says, and I'm working to figure out what that looks like not just in "orthodoxy" but "orthoproxy"; in other words, not just in the realm of metaphysical theology but in teeth-to-the-dirt application. I've always been good at the former, not so much with the latter.
"In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man..." Led Zeppelin is playing in the background. I love that song, and I am reminded of King David's exhortation to his young son Solomon before he ascended the throne: "I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of YHWH your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statues, his commandments, his rules and his testimonies..." That's what it means to be a man. It's not about being legalistic, it's about being fully devoted to God. It's about being what God created mankind to be. It's what being a man is all about because that's what God designed man to be. Led Zeppelin may define being a man with loving a woman forever and ever (and that is quite commendable), but the real test of a man is this: "Is he devoted to God or not?" Anyways. Meandering tangent is over. "Good Days, Bad Days" is one of my favorite Zeppelin songs, and it's calling me to workout. Focus today: chest. Here's the sushi I had yesterday at Sima's with Carly and Jessica (we all shared; this one is the Spicy Playgirl Roll):
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