Boston Trip

So I think I should probably just start over on my whole "blogging" attempt...

For now I will start posting random thoughts here and not sure what else but hopefully you will enjoy it. Either way it is more for me to get things written down for me than for your entertainment. =)

So this past weekend we went to Boston to visit some friends. Although we never really got to spend a lot of time with them while they lived in Searcy we have always had an instant connection with them. It is sad to me that we haven't found people like that in our hometown yet. Maybe we have but haven't realized it yet or maybe we just haven't found them yet either way it is very frustrating. Okay enough negativity...it was so fun this weekend to go to a big city and just soak it all in. As crazy as it sounds it was wonderful to not have a car...just a subway pass and a pair of shoes. I have always loved the big city and I really don't know why. I have never lived in a big city growing up...as a matter of fact I grew up in smaller cities mostly but I have always had a desire to live in a big city. Maybe someday I will be able to live in a big city but I have come to grips with the fact that I will probably have to live vircariously through friends like Sam and Brooklynne since we have Noah now. I wouldn't trade having him for anything but I do hope that someday we can sell a lot of our crap and our car and move to a big city where we only have a subway pass and live in an extreemly small apartment and live on ramen noodles and water...even if it is for only a few years. =)

-Paul

transcend the normal level of discourse

Over the past few months I have been reading the book, A new kind of Christian by Bruce McLaren. If you know anything about that book you probably know there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Even though I have not finished the book yet, I would highly recommend it. Also since it was written back in 2001 you can tell I am a little behind in my reading list, but hopefully I will eventually catch up. =)

So the next question you might ask yourself is what is up with the title of this post...well actually it's a quote from the book. It is on pages 47-48 of the book...

"'But Dan, the need to put everything into nice neat categories is part of the problem. Modern people believed that they could create a nice framework that would pigeonhole everything. So if you succeed in creating a postmodern framework, I think you've just sabotaged it. At the very least, you have to be ironic or ambivalent about your pigeonholes. Remember that the Pharisees were the great pigeonholers and that Jesus told them that many who came out last in their framework would come out first in his. So you'd better doubt and deconstruct your boxes as fast as you construct them. Does that make sense?'
...'Look at this....' He knelt down on the path, cleared away some fallen leaves, and drew a line in the dust. I stooped down next to him.
'This might help you. Very often,' he explained, 'debates in the church occur on this level. There are all kinds of positions on an issue along this line, with the most extreme positions being here and here.'
...'Now, almost all debate in the church takes place on this line. The issue is where the right point on the line is. So people pick and defend their points. Each person's point becomes the point in his or her mind. Here's what I'm suggesting: What if the point-defending approach is, pardon the pun, pointless? In other words, what if the position God wants us to take isn't on that line at all but somewhere up here?' He was moving his hand in a small circle, palm down, about a food above the line he had drawn in the dust.
'So you're saying,' I replied, 'that we have to transcend the normal level of discourse. That makes sense to me. I mean, Jesus did that sort of thing all the time. Like with the woman at the well in John 4. The big debate is over where people should worship, on this mountain or that mountain. Jesus doesn't choose one point or the other; he says that the answer is on this higher level, that what God wants is for us to worship him in spirit and truth, wherever we are. Both mountains are good places to worship, so in that way both sides are right. But where you worship isn't the point at all, so in that way both sides are wrong.'"

Reading this book has opened up my eyes to many thoughts I have had but kept to myself because they scared even me. I cannot even put into words how much this book has helped me come to grips with some of those thoughts and explore some even harder ones. I definately believe it is a God-send...it is definatley a must read.