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Life or Something Like It
Holiday's over, back to work. Here at the Hall house yesterday, we had a great memorial day. Even though #2's birthday isn't until next week, we held the party for him yesterday since that was the best time to get everyone together. We had part of the family here and had a really good time. My #3 went home with Nana to spend a few days having special time with his grandmother. Today it is dark and rumbly outside and inside I am back to trying to get things done.
One of my daily routines is to check Facebook. Since I use it for communication a lot, I have to check to see if I have any messages, but I have to confess that I also check my feed just to see what is going on out there. I also have to confess that sometimes I can get rather discouraged checking my feed. A lot of life passes through my feed as so many of us put our lives out onto facebook. You can see what people are doing, feeling, and thinking at any moment. Whether this window into our lives or souls is a good or a bad thing is irrelevant to me today. My point is just that you can see a lot of what is going on in people's lives, what is important to them, and how they approach life.
I had a great time with my family yesterday. I miss #3. I am really glad he is getting time with Nana, but I miss him today. I like having him around. When I am away from my family, I think about them a lot and I look forward to seeing them again. Yesterday I really missed my Dad a lot. It was sad to not have him with us for a family time.
It sometimes seems, as I watch lives unfurl across facebook, that Jesus has been absent but umissed in some lives. I don't mean those among my FB friends who have never professed any belief or commitment to Christ. Obviously they are not going to talk about or display an awareness of Christ when they don't even believe in Him. What saddens my heart is the number of people who have declared such a commitment and profess such an awareness, but don't seem to actually have a regular awareness of Him. Not only is He never mentioned, but what is mentioned is often totally at odds with a life lived in His light. It is almost as if God is good, but this life is better and we live lives of the world, not concerning ourselves with Him. Like if I didn't miss my family when they were away. If I'm not really in a deep love relationship with them, if I'm not used to spending regular time with them, then it would be easy to not miss them.
Is Jesus easy for you to miss? Can you go days and not even feel the pang of not talking to Him and reading His Word. Can you remember the last time you really connected with Him? Was it more than a day ago? More than a week? Do you have regular and intimate contact with the rest of the the Body of Christ, the church? This is not about being a good person or doing and not doing what you should and should not do. This is not about being a "good person." That kind of thining will often lead you to do good things without connecting to or missing Christ.
Christians are sometimes fond of saying "Its a relationship, not a religion" but I see a lot of Christians who don't seem very deeply connected to any relationship. That makes me sad. It also reminds me to make sure that I invest in my love relationships, starting with Jesus.