"christ told us how to survive when he answered the question, who is my neighbor? in the tenth chapter of luke he tells the story of a samaritan who care for a jew who had been badly wounded by thieves. as we know from the precedign chapter, in which the disciples suggest in effect the firebombing of a samaritan village, the smaritans and the jews were enemies. to modernize the story, then, and so to understand christ's answer, we may substitute any other pair of enemies: fundamentalist christian and fundamentalist muslin, palestinian and israeli, captor and prisoner. the answer: your neighbor is any sufferer who needs your help.
~ wendell berry
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
so . . . what's next?
so as most of you that read this, if you still read this, know that i work with students.
well, its getting close to that time of year. close to that time of year where seniors begin to get asked that ever important and very annoying and i think wrong question; what are you plans? what's next? what are you going to plan on doing with your life?
however you want to word that question, i still am not a fan of it. i've been out of high school almost 10 years, out of college 4 years. i have no idea what i really want to do with the rest of my life. why do we expect 17, 18, 19, 23 year olds to know the answer to that question?
maybe i hate that question or those questions because i think they are the wrong questions to ask. to be very frank, i don't give a rip what you plan on doing 10 or 15 years down the road. i probably don't even care what i'm going to be doing 10 or 15 years from now.
now i do understand that i am guilty of asking students that question myself. i understand that. but i think i've come to a point to where i want and need to stop asking that question of myself and of high school seniors and senior citizens and anyone in between
i think a better question to ask is what are you doing right now? who cares about what we have planned 10 years from now, we may not be here 10 minutes from here. we've not been guaranteed tomorrow, we've heard this before, but we sure as hell don't live like we've heard it. i know i don't. i live like i have the next 40 years to do whatever i want. there is no longer any urgency to tell people about Jesus and His love for us. i'm as guilty as anyone.
now i'm not saying that we don't need to plan and try to figure out things. but i don't think we need to place the importance that we do on those questions and those ideals. is it not more important to follow God and listen to the Spirit now, then to figure out what happens 10 years from now.
you can read all through the Scriptures and see how individuals, groups of people, nations, they didn't care so much about the destination, how long it would take to get there, the rewards or the costs of the trip, if they had enough in savings, if they were able to buy the newest "cool" thing, if they had health insurance, if they had a 401 k, they didn't care about those things. we seem to give those things the title of of being "vitally important details." but what was important to these individuals that we find in Scripture that lived this way was that they just followed. they went.
we invite Jesus to come along for the ride we call "life" with us and ask Him to join us instead of going where He has already commanded us and doing the things He has already asked us to do.
francis chan says this; "A lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions."
well, its getting close to that time of year. close to that time of year where seniors begin to get asked that ever important and very annoying and i think wrong question; what are you plans? what's next? what are you going to plan on doing with your life?
however you want to word that question, i still am not a fan of it. i've been out of high school almost 10 years, out of college 4 years. i have no idea what i really want to do with the rest of my life. why do we expect 17, 18, 19, 23 year olds to know the answer to that question?
maybe i hate that question or those questions because i think they are the wrong questions to ask. to be very frank, i don't give a rip what you plan on doing 10 or 15 years down the road. i probably don't even care what i'm going to be doing 10 or 15 years from now.
now i do understand that i am guilty of asking students that question myself. i understand that. but i think i've come to a point to where i want and need to stop asking that question of myself and of high school seniors and senior citizens and anyone in between
i think a better question to ask is what are you doing right now? who cares about what we have planned 10 years from now, we may not be here 10 minutes from here. we've not been guaranteed tomorrow, we've heard this before, but we sure as hell don't live like we've heard it. i know i don't. i live like i have the next 40 years to do whatever i want. there is no longer any urgency to tell people about Jesus and His love for us. i'm as guilty as anyone.
now i'm not saying that we don't need to plan and try to figure out things. but i don't think we need to place the importance that we do on those questions and those ideals. is it not more important to follow God and listen to the Spirit now, then to figure out what happens 10 years from now.
you can read all through the Scriptures and see how individuals, groups of people, nations, they didn't care so much about the destination, how long it would take to get there, the rewards or the costs of the trip, if they had enough in savings, if they were able to buy the newest "cool" thing, if they had health insurance, if they had a 401 k, they didn't care about those things. we seem to give those things the title of of being "vitally important details." but what was important to these individuals that we find in Scripture that lived this way was that they just followed. they went.
we invite Jesus to come along for the ride we call "life" with us and ask Him to join us instead of going where He has already commanded us and doing the things He has already asked us to do.
francis chan says this; "A lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions."
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