Refresh

I think it is time to hit the "refresh" button on my blog life. I used to blog on over a dozen blogs of various topics and it was good for me to let out my thoughts in written form. It helped me to organize my thoughts and emotions, and it helped me to keep better track of what was going on in the world around me. Then things sort of "froze" as it were. I had a relapse of tendinitis, which required temporary abandonment of all forms of typing. It also brought about some emotionally painful occurrences at work. I was able to resolve the said painful occurrences at work, but they still left an emotional toll. I was so upset at what had transpired that I only blogged once or twice in a period of about 18 months.

Through various reasons, I am being led back into the world of blogging. And I think I can truly say that I am quite happy to be back. I am calling this hitting the proverbial refresh button.

This particular blog was designed to help me think critically of things around me... not to be judging but to get me out of my bubble of "easy Christianeze." By that I mean to challenge my thinking and get beyond that which I find easy and familiar, and to continue developing a biblical and holistic view of life. Here is what I originally wrote on my first post:

"Strange as it may sound, we are to be "in" the world. We are not to be "of" the world, but we are called to be "in" the world. How can we be in the world if we don't know what is going on around us? I know many times that I have felt guilty for not keeping up with politics or the news. Do I understand the world views around me? Do I know what issues plague young people the most today? Do I pray for the persecuted church in China?

Now granted we do need to be careful not to spend all of our time merely observing the world, for then we would start becoming "of" the world. We need to be transformed by the power of the Word, and constantly be renewing our minds. This will give us the power to be the salt to a world of decaying souls. This will allow us to flavor the world with the Gospel of Christ. This will allow us to be a city on a hill that is not hidden."

To continue on that thought, so often we as Christians make the hill into a mountain. We are to be a city on a hill, not a city on a mountain. We run the risk of living so far above others that we are not even visible. People have to climb to our level in order to reach us. We forget that Christ Jesus dwelt among the sinners of his day.

Furthermore, it is hypocritical of us to think that living on our mountain makes us any better than those beneath us. Our bubbles in the clouds are not so different as we make it out to be. Why is there so much divorce within the church? So much hatred? Such lack of love? Why is there rampant adultery, pornography etc.? Is this because we live too much in the culture or too much in our own bubbles? I argue that it is a little bit of both.