A new Nooma was released today, the eighteenth in the series. Those of you that heard me speak at Illini Life Summer Church or at the Fall Retreat might find some of the material familiar. This Nooma is a bit of a summary of a couple of life changing teachings I’ve listened to frequently by Rob Bell.
For the next 48 hours you can watch the NOOMA for free on their MySpace page.
It was good to be reminded of these truths today.
Illinois has mountains too… well sorta. This is Camel Rock in the Garden of the Gods, part of Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois.
In a few short minutes I’ll be on the road with my twin brother Chris headed for Harrisburg, IL. We’ll be spending the next 3 1/2 days hiking a small section of the River to River trail – specifically we are destined for The Garden of the Gods.
I’m excited to have a chance to retreat and spend some refreshing simplistic time with God. I pray He meets with me as I walk through creation and communions with me as I drink deep of His beauty.
See you in a few days.
Typically after a marathon I tend to struggle more with feeling down and emotional – some runners have a term for this, Post Marathon Depression. While I’m not sure I’d call it depression – certainly there is a great feeling of lose and emptiness. In one respect you reached the goal through months of training, uplifting. Then there is the emptiness of not having a goal to strive for, not having a motivation to get back on the road and put in the miles. In addition you have the physical limitation; your body simply needs to recover and your legs can be mad at you for sometime. Typically my body needs about 2 weeks to recover and feel up to pounding the road again.
Reviewing previous years it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the past weeks have been pretty tough emotionally and felt so exhausting. Periodically I’ve felt overwhelmed with emotion – making it hard to be around friends or even complete my work.
Yesterday I noticed the hours of sunlight dwindling, like they do each fall, and that made me sad. Soon it’ll be dark when I go to work in the morning and dark when I get off. Over the years I’ve heard claims that sunlight helps fight depression, so I’ve made it a point to get outside today – visiting some of the buildings I’m networking. Surprising how much better I feel just from getting to see the sun a bit – how much more hopeful life seems. It excites me and reminds me of this idea of God being light and us as followers being salt and light.
I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. ~ Jesus (John 12:46)
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Now playing: Derek Webb – This Too Shall Be Made Right
via FoxyTunes
This weekend marked our annual Fall Retreat. Each year Illini Life heads off to a little camp near Peoria to get away from the busyness of campus and the chaos of year’s beginning. In the past we’ve brought in a speaker to teach the 4 or so main sessions – this year our teachers were all in-house which aided a more family centric feel to the retreat.
The topic of focus: Insecurities – Physical, Emotional and Social.
I felt the weekend was very accessible and left me with a great deal of hope. Sharing honestly about our insecurities – what is really going on behind tearful eyes, or a joyous smile – breaks down walls and makes me feel less alone. Sharing in others insecurities removes the isolating and crippling power they have over us.
I’d like to try and write a series of posts on this weekend, reflecting on each of the teachings and the things God has shown me through them. I say try because we all know I’m not so consistent with posting.
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Now playing: Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
via FoxyTunes
“If Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. Everything must change.” ~ Brian McLaren Everything Must Change
As I sat at my desk today, my mind straying to thoughts about this coming weekend, I found myself more and more pulled to God. Talking to Him about anything and everything. This video quenched some of my thirst for something deeper today – something more than computers, networking and music.
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Now playing: Over The Rhine – Born
via FoxyTunes
I came across this post by Scott McKnight on Jesus Creed, I thought it worth sharing.
Letters to Emerging Christians
“Now my final point: the biggest issue that I see with the Romans Road approach is that once the sin problem is resolved (sin almost always understood as guilt before an all-holy God, which is true but not true enough), salvation has been accomplished. Frankly, this isn’t biblical: the sin problem of guilt, to be sure, has to be resolved, but sin is bigger than guilt (it is distorted relationship with God, self, others, and the world) and therefore the resolution (salvation) is bigger than forgiveness (it is resolved relationships with God, self, others, and the world — and it takes a lifetime). Only a kingdom vision makes the sin problem fully clear and only a kingdom vision makes the solution fully clear.”
It’s official!
I’ll be returning the wilderness of Colorado for an 8 day trip oriented around connecting with God in a uniquely distraction-free way. We call the program Wilderness LT or WLT. Part of the GCM Network, WLT takes a group out into the wilderness for an extended period of time focused on the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence, Fasting, Prayer, and Simplicity.
There is a strict list of equipment we are allowed to bring – only the essentials, NO Coffee 🙁 The food rations are small for the few days that we will be eating. Five days of complete solitude. No music, TV, or computers to distract me. Just God, me and my issues. It breads intimacy that forever changes how you follow Jesus.
We’ll be returning to the same remote wilderness we stayed in back in the summer of 2005. Pictures of that excursion can be seen here. The dates of this summer’s trip are July 6-14. I’m eager for it to arrive.
After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter,
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.Jesus repeated the question:
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.A third time he asked him,
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said,
“Then feed my sheep.
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him,“Follow me.” Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”
Jesus replied,
“If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
~ John 21:15-22
I went to Easter Mass with my Dad when I was home and the priest referenced the passage of John running faster than Peter to the empty tomb only he painted it in the light of John’s young age and put some spin to the effect of John’s youth made him less wise than St. Peter – hinting at worth and spiritual maturity being greater in the older, wiser St. Peter.
So much comparison – measuring one man against another.
The challenging part of this passage comes when Jesus says “What is that to you?” He gives Peter a purpose, tells him what his life is meant for and alludes to how he’s going to die, but Peter is more concerned with what John gets. “What about him?”
This is the comparison game – what steals my joy and my peace – and “the disciple Jesus loved” and the disciple Jesus builds his church on are playing it. It is so far ingrained in my humanity it twists even the simplest things in life. I compare my stuff, my progress at work, my spirituality, how effective I am at teaching and leading, how I pray, how much I read my Bible, how smart I sound, how smart I am, how fast I run, how far I run, what I look like, how much money I make, how much money I give away, how many people read this blog, I’m sure I could type for the rest of the night and still have more to list.
The point is Jesus has given me a purpose (some might call it a calling but that’s too churchy sounding), I shouldn’t be concerned with what everyone else gets. Living like that is being content, it is being comfortable in your own skin, it is being who God made you to be.
He’s given each of us a purpose – we shouldn’t be asking “what about him?” because Jesus’ answer is “What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
I’m being really productive this morning 🙂
It all started when I was reading JK’s recent post and then jumped over to his flickr sets – this dude has shot some pretty cool pictures. Once there I noticed a picture of a time I had almost all together forgotten.
A group of us from i-life were headed to Mexico to build homes for families in need about 3 years ago. One morning on our journey down we stopped off at White Sands National Park – I think simply to be kids again. The picture is of Ben Chase, Matt Dobsch, and Me (from left to right). We are jumping off the edge of a sand dune. Funtimes.
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Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
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