This is an interesting article.

“If you write for God you will reach many [people] and bring them joy. If you write for [people] you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish you were dead.” – Thomas Merton

curious the things you stumble across.
Very pleased I found this.

I remember the first time I heard the Missy Higgins song ‘Scar’. I was in the car driving with mum somewhere. I think it was just the two of us – maybe Emily was in the back. It played and I turned it up because it was different, distinctive. I liked it the first time and the second and the third and then it slowly got frustratingly cliche and mainstream. Not enough so that I didn’t buy the CD, because I did. I like piano music.

I don’t listen to it much now but I put it on tonight. I was reading chapter 3 of the Purpose Driven life. ‘All for Believing’ was playing. Despite being a love song, there was curious clash of interest.

“I’m all for believing, if you can reveal, the true colours within,
And say you will be there for me to hold,
When the faith grows old (I’m all for believing)
And life turns cold, (I’m all for believing)
When the faith grows old, (I’m all for believing) and life turns cold.
So if you’re cold I will stay, maybe fate will guide the way.
I believe in what I see and baby we were meant to be,
Just believe. Just believe. Just believe.
Trust in me.”

I don’t know how well I can explain it.

‘The Benefits of Purpose Driven Living’ the chapter segment was called, which sounds like a plug for the manifestation of the author’s ideas. He claims that, “Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life”.

I am sitting here now wondering how much I actually agree with that statement. There is a valid argument behind the general concept.

Hope is important. I can remember multiple times in my life where I would ‘live’ for the next thing I was looking forward to. That is no way to live life as a Christian (and I still stray into using it sometimes), but it helps in someways to pull you through a boring week, a mess of time and a constant of change.

Job is mentioned. He is undoubtably one of a few standout Biblical characters to me. He kept his cool remarkably through his friends ill-timed wisom, maintained honesty, still stuffed up and visibly learnt to understand that we don’t need to know the fullest picture of life, he strove to honor God for who he was despite circumstances.

Did Job know his purpose? Or was his life a simple (heh) acknowledgement of God and obedience to the one that matters most?

Thinking about things now. Do we have to live a purpose driven life?
Or do we just have to live?

How then shall we live?

Am I just simply messing with semantics?

1 Peter 1 has a curious lot to say on the matter of living.

Be Holy
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

17Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

I guess what questions my mind is surfacing is, do we live with intention for the future or for now?
The future or the present?

I am not condemning the book as it has a lot of excellent stuff to say.
It points out Ephesians 5 for example.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (v 15-17)

Question though, it seems to take ‘the Lord’s will’ as a ‘will happen’ thing, not a ‘now happening thing’.

Now there’s a lot around ‘running the race’ and ‘pressing on towards the goal’.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
-Phil 3:12-14

You can’t forget in the importance (I think) of living in the present, the undeniable future that God has planned. His return, or our death to then meet God.

No one ever won a race by sitting and thinking about how they would get there, but what they were doing at that exact moment propelled them towards that point.

Maybe I am just messing with semantics? I can jump puddles (of conclusion). But how can one book present God’s plan for our individual lives beyond the simplicity (or difficulty) of living for and in obedience to him? Or maybe that is the point of the text, before I go ahead and assume the ending, maybe that’s what it’s trying to get across?

Statments like, ‘knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity’ get slightly up my nose. So what if I don’t have a clear idea of ‘my purpose’ beyond living ‘in God’. We have to give a personal account before God. Yes? That screams to me of what I’m doing with my life now, not what I do and don’t know.

Society is future driven, past forsaking or dwelling and present ignoring.

I’m not being apathetic by throwing goals out the window, quite the contrary. What drives my life? I am not utterly sure, but it should be God.

I don’t know why God made us, aside that he is a God of love. That should be all I need to know.

What am I trying to say?
Maybe that, we don’t have to know everything, we don’t have to know exactly what God is doing, but we do have to acknowledge him as our God who does not falter and does not change.

The chapter concludes with Isaiah 26:3,

“You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.” (TEV version used)

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you”. (NIV)

mind is steadfast/purpose firm. Are they the same?

I just find it interesting.
(and I like semantics, and I like thinking, and I like arguing against stuff – the book really is quite right in many regards- so here you go.)

Quite an excellent day.

Church was at first looking like to be another downer, but the sermon was on evangelism (“oh no!” my mind cries, he might smash this one to pieces) but the guy did an excellent job and talked a lot about how the 90% of us without the whole ‘go talk to people/street evangelism’ thing can be effective in serving others.

Heads up to you fine reader: do a random act of kindness for someone (which does mean, no strings attached)

Had a chat with Merryn (did yr.12 w/ her, not really close) during the break.

And after I got talking to Dan (YITS from Berwick) and Jordan (Jacqui’s cousin) Anyway. Dan said he’s had the same problem, they’ve been at Vineyard 6mths now and not one young adult has really come up and welcomed them. I mentioned that I find it too big for me. I really don’t know about staying at Vineyard, it has some fantastic points, good sermons, good music mostly – but yes. So prayer still appreciated for church related things. I might give Lilydale Baps (at night) another try, however church shopping that sounds.

It being the date it is, I called Sam to say Happy Birthday (18) and see if she had any spare time. 3:00pm I went up and took her to Morrisons for afternoon tea, which was rather nice. There was a photography exhibition on up there and Sam and I had a chat to the ladies, I got refered to a photography club (no perhaps not, might be alright, but it’s on a Wednesday night). Came back home, and we pulled a box thing of my old junk out to find various art stuff, Sam had a right old snoop and then we cut and stuck stuff and drew (depending on who we were) to our hearts content. A strange but oddly enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

The “art” I made quite disturbed me. Why must I always throw in a dark underlying theme? :
More talk with Sam. Then she went home. And I bummed around, shower etc… Started reading ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ after some thinking about whether I should buy into Christian consumerism. I guess it must be quite good, I shall read w/ an open and questioning mind. Prayed about it.

So day one.

“Everything go started in him and finds its purpose in him” -Col 1:16b (MSG)

No huge revelations.
Which is rather like this blog post, a reasonably boring summary of my day.

But here’s to Sam, an excellent person and a wonderful friend!

Rebecca
Who Slammed Doors For Fun And Perished Miserably
by Hilaire Belloc

A trick that everyone abhors
In little girls is slamming doors.
A wealthy banker’s little daughter
Who lived in Palace Green, Bayswater
(By name Rebecca Offendort),
Was given to this furious sport.

She would deliberately go
And slam the door like billy-o!
To make her uncle Jacob start.
She was not really bad at heart,
But only rather rude and wild;
She was an aggravating child…

It happened that a marble bust
Of Abraham was standing just
Above the door this little lamb
Had carefully prepared to slam,
And down it came! It knocked her flat!
It laid her out! She looked like that.

Her funeral sermon (which was long
And followed by a sacred song)
Mentioned her virtues, it is true,
But dwelt upon her vices too,
And showed the deadful end of one
Who goes and slams the door for fun.

The children who were brought to hear
The awful tale from far and near
Were much impressed, and inly swore
They never more would slam the door,
— As often they had done before.

There is a great lot of interesting people on the train today (2/12/05). Man + bike + suit, who has strapped helment onto the seat rail.

Two older ladies, one looking quite unnatural with a beige polar fleece beanie – she is complaining in halting phrases how someone refuses to go and see a movie with her, and her willingness to give any surpluss money to the other more normal woman should she need it. I can’t work out if they are friends or have just met.

There is a middle aged Italian couple who got on holding hands. They look vaguely familiar. Their language is a pleasant background behind my ears that are full of Relient K. English is a harsh language.

There is the girl sitting opposite me. Australian? She asked the old woman beside me what was the central station. The woman got it wrong. I interuppted, “Flinders Street”. She is going to the art gallery – I wish I was, instead of working. She has a very round face and interesting clothes.

Yesterday a slightly more vocal member of the public made a comment, “There goes another badly bred, uneducated person of lilydale.” It does, I admit seem to be a place taht attracts bogans.

Sam asked me the other day if I prefered white collar or blue collar (guys I believe she was refering to). A slightly amusing question that carries the generalisations of 6kg bricks.

White collar.

Lilydale is a blue collar kind of town.

There is an old man with a little face, tiny eyes, non-prominent nose and a blue beanie like a tea cosy. He has one of those cheerful faces as if he couldn’t not smile even if he tried. He frowns and it still looks like he is smiling. The beanie is too big for his head, if he bent over I think it would fall off.

Umbrellas are walking sticks, black and colourful, useful outside, a prop for your arms inside and a nuisance to close. Umbrellas are indiscriminant.

Camberwell.

I realise with ammusment that one of the supposed umbrellas is infact a walking stick. The old man makes it out the door just in time.

In the city when you are tramming your only ever see drivers with passengers not on their phones. The rest have this limited form of communication plasterd to whichever ears is most convienient.

Hehe. “Okay, so who doesn’t own a cell phone?” (RK comes on)

Last night’s MBO Christmas party was held at the Stokehouse.

I had a sore back from sitting too long and eating too late (a bit hyper, not the jump up and down kind, the “I need food” kind). Site surveys about 29 of them (the worst thing to do at work really), the majority whom I couldn’t get on to. Yet another nice round conclusion, this was my last day offically at MBO, I started work on the 6th of January doing the exact same thing.

Mel got back from the US this morning http://melinastravel.blogspot.com. Cam looked rather pleased to have her back. Paul just got back also, first time I’ve seen my boss in months, I think jet lag was crowding his brain. Shannon mentioned her friend has convinced her to do an Alpha course next year. Interesting.

So, dinner. The place was packed (not with just us), very loud. Talked to Ian and Anne a bit and got a seat between LongVan and Dad. Noise was good in that it didn’t mean you had to talk the whole time, besides, LongVan is fine to talk to, I know her so well. My stomach started hurting like nothing else part way through either due to food, sitting too long or eating too much. Restaurants are frustrating in the fact you feel somewhat obliged to eat a good portion of your plate.

I was incredibally happy when dad decided he’d drive home (despite my non-drinking anything so I could drive as originally planned), seeing as I was in stupid irrational pain and dead tired – not that I let him know.

I really don’t like steak I’ve decided. I always forget that the world thinks the best way to have it is medium rare and then I reach the dismayed point where it arrives just like that on my plate – cook it properly! There is something so entirely unappealing about blood dripping onto your plate and into your chips – most people had the steak. The entree was wonderfully good – flat bread and dips except the bread was !!!!. I ate so much of that I had a good excuse not to eat all the steak. Desert was cherry pie thing, I was too full by then to appreciate its niceness. I don’t really want to eat steak again.

Went to bed straight away. Felt nice to be able to crawl in and lay flat on my back without the intrustion of late night msn or blogging. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have time to think while you go to sleep. I generally prefer not to, aim of late nights: wear self out so I sleep right away or I end up lying there for hours. Sometimes I think maybe I should break habits a little more often.

Oh yes.
The day I finish up at MBO is the day I hear about Dymocks. I start on Wednesday. This is good! This also means I will have no life for the next while, I’ll be working pretty much full time up until/over Christmas.

Today is free. Nothing at all. A rarity indeed.