Freedom

I have been absent from this blog for a few weeks. One of the reasons is because my work laptop crashed a few weeks ago. A good friend repaired it and now I am trying to reinstall everything and get back up to speed. He was able to recover or save all my data but was unable access my Outlook files and save them. So I have lost all my outlook addresses, correspondence and calendar from the past three years. If you read my blog please send me your email address (to josh@centralpikecofc.org) just in case I do not have it. Here is a side note, back up your computer files, I was lucky and my files were saved. The other reason I have been absent is because I was in a short course last week. I have been buried in books and papers. I began this post with the prof was lecturing, I thought it might be a good idea to wait until I could give this my entire attention.

Much of the world seems to be focusing right now and for many months on Chile and the miners who were trapped underground. Last Tuesday night they began pulling the miners one by one out of their "tomb". As I sat in class last week I could not help but watch (via the Internet) the jubilant scenes as each miner climbed out of that tube to greet his loved ones.

As I watched there were so many things coming to my mind. One news story talked about when the first rescuer went down into the mine. They say that as soon as he got out of the tube the miners mobbed him and, presumably, poured praise and adoration as then end was now in sight. This makes me ponder our lives. We have been given this amazing gift of reconciliation with God through Jesus. There is a world at our door step that does not know the love and peace that comes through Jesus. Yet the world is searching, it is searching for something or someone to give them love, peace and acceptance.

Imagine if we bore faithful enough witness to the Kingdom of God that people anticipated us coming to them so much that they mobbed us because of the rescue offered to them through God. Instead it appears to be quite the opposite. Instead of followers of Christ being anticipated and wanted around we sometimes are scorned and reviled because of the hate and rhetoric we bring.

As Alex said in his sermon there are only two choices for the next life. We have been given this amazing gift and it is imperative that we we share it in such a way that God is glorified and the world is drawn to him. There are many more parallels to be drawn from this event and I think I will save them for a future post. Blessings!