Senior 26: Licence to Drive
WHETHER THE NEWS EXCITES or terrifies you (and I haven't yet decided how I feel about it), I now do have my driver's license. Acquiring it was a grueling process--just ask my dad--, but I am already appreciating the fruits of those efforts (along with the added expense and frustration, e.g. traffic). If you're getting the idea that this is a bit of a mixed blessing for me, rest assured that I am very excited and pleased (...as well as trepidatious and apprehensive). A friend told me that it never really feels like you've got your license until you've nicked someone's car. (Oy vey!)
AT THIS POINT, RATHER than continue this faltering and vacillatory monologue, I'll turn, instead, to other recent events.
I HAD MY FIRST big spill on (or 'off') my bicycle. I scraped up my hand and my right leg.
It's a good thing I was wearing a helmet.
I had tried to ride up Barranca toward Sierra Madre. Those who are familiar with this area know that that is not a shallow grade. I ended up walking most of the way up... and most of the way down. It is incredible to me that Nick rode down that hill on his long-board. But, then again, he's studly like that.
AND CLASSES HAVE BEGUN; I am thoroughly excited. (No equivocation here.)
-----
THE LORD IS MOVING; and I am slowly growing in my awareness of His activities. It is interesting (or, perhaps, instructive) to think back: During my time at Oxford (fall '05), the reality of God's immanence was especially impressed on me. In my studies in philosophy and theology, I was confronted with the God in whom "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28), in whom is "life" and the "light of men" (John 1:4), Emmanuel.
Toward the end of Spring semester ('06), I was reminded of God's "personhood". He is not a an abstract concept, an obscure force, or some vague, nebulous thing. (Luke 11:1-13, John 4:24) Rather, he is concretely personal and desires to have a personal relationship with you. (John 17:3, Revelation 3:20)
And most recently, the character of that personal relationship that God desires has emerged as one in which Father God and his children are interacting and communicating. (John 10:27, 15:15-16)
This is not the easiest thing to say (and often not the easiest thing to hear), because God often seems distant, remote, and silent. But at this point, I am taking a few uncertain steps (Mark 9:24), trusting God to work out of my inadequacies, and, I think, growing in that.
At such early stages (in any aspect of spiritual growth) I think it is important to take hold of and embrace even small signs of progress. In our often-skeptical human nature, the first reaction usually is to dismiss such indications as wishful thinking, flukes, or coincidence. But the journey of "the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) is precisely one of learning to think and perceive events and circumstances and people in ways that are "unnatural" (contrary to habit)--of bringing our mind into conformity with that of Christ. And, like learning to drive, it takes time before we are comfortable and used to it.
Blessings all,
-----
"God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world."
AT THIS POINT, RATHER than continue this faltering and vacillatory monologue, I'll turn, instead, to other recent events.
I HAD MY FIRST big spill on (or 'off') my bicycle. I scraped up my hand and my right leg.
It's a good thing I was wearing a helmet.
I had tried to ride up Barranca toward Sierra Madre. Those who are familiar with this area know that that is not a shallow grade. I ended up walking most of the way up... and most of the way down. It is incredible to me that Nick rode down that hill on his long-board. But, then again, he's studly like that.
AND CLASSES HAVE BEGUN; I am thoroughly excited. (No equivocation here.)
-----
THE LORD IS MOVING; and I am slowly growing in my awareness of His activities. It is interesting (or, perhaps, instructive) to think back: During my time at Oxford (fall '05), the reality of God's immanence was especially impressed on me. In my studies in philosophy and theology, I was confronted with the God in whom "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28), in whom is "life" and the "light of men" (John 1:4), Emmanuel.
Toward the end of Spring semester ('06), I was reminded of God's "personhood". He is not a an abstract concept, an obscure force, or some vague, nebulous thing. (Luke 11:1-13, John 4:24) Rather, he is concretely personal and desires to have a personal relationship with you. (John 17:3, Revelation 3:20)
And most recently, the character of that personal relationship that God desires has emerged as one in which Father God and his children are interacting and communicating. (John 10:27, 15:15-16)
This is not the easiest thing to say (and often not the easiest thing to hear), because God often seems distant, remote, and silent. But at this point, I am taking a few uncertain steps (Mark 9:24), trusting God to work out of my inadequacies, and, I think, growing in that.
At such early stages (in any aspect of spiritual growth) I think it is important to take hold of and embrace even small signs of progress. In our often-skeptical human nature, the first reaction usually is to dismiss such indications as wishful thinking, flukes, or coincidence. But the journey of "the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) is precisely one of learning to think and perceive events and circumstances and people in ways that are "unnatural" (contrary to habit)--of bringing our mind into conformity with that of Christ. And, like learning to drive, it takes time before we are comfortable and used to it.
Blessings all,
-----
"God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world."
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 7:01 PM
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