It is always helpful when someone has had similar experiences and they share what they learned. I have been reading Jason Zaharaides’ blog for quite some time. He is, as you will see, entering the Eastern Orthodox church. I have found his posts about his journey toward Eastern Orthodoxy interesting (Post #1) (Post#2). I thought these posts are helpful on several counts. 1) He summarizes the issues with consumer church. 2) He describes his emerging church response to the consumer church and finally he talks about the short comings of his emerging church experience. I’m not of any mind to head to Eastern Orthodoxy but I think he is right about the need for community and liturgy. I have not progressed nearly as far as Jason in my journey away from the consumer church, but I think the lessons Jason learned are very helpful in thinking about where to go from here.
We had an exciting ball game today. The Rangers played the Phillies. The game was tied 11-11 and it was the bottom of the 6th and the Rangers were up to bat. The bottom of the batting order was up. The first batter stuck out. The second hitter makes a great bunt and gets on. He advances to second on a fielder’s choice. Two men out. The lead off hitter, Blake Crockett, comes to bat. He has had a tough day at the plate, three strike outs. He swings and misses two pitches. Then he fouls off two more pitches. The count is 0-2. The next pitch is down the middle and Blake drives it into right center field for a walk off double to win the game, 12-11. GO RANGERS!
Blake is a great ball player, but I am considering retaining an agent to help develop his media skills. Watch the video and you will understand why.
Enjoying resort living.
We are set to go. The hot tub is running. Ann and I tried it out this morning after our exercise. It was good. I feel like I’m living in a resort (well sort of). I intended to take a picture a but forgot . Next time for sure.
This is Derby week-end. We are going to Louisville for a party tomorrow.
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31
I have been thinking about this passage for some time. I have concluded that I have mostly failed to keep the most important command. Of course, everyone is imperfect and fails to keep the command flawlessly. That is not what I am talking about. There is another dimension of failure that has characterized my efforts to love God; it is a failure to love God completely. Completely meaning not perfection but wholly … heart, soul, mind and strength. It has been my consistent desire to love God. For many reasons, my efforts to satisfy that desire have concentrated on loving God with “all my mind”. I’m not sure what the “correct” understanding of “all my mind” is, but, for me it has meant diligently applying study, reason, logic, knowledge, correct understanding, et al to show God how much I really love Him. My love for God has not devoid of my heart, soul and strength, but has my default mode has been my mind. The impact of such an unbalanced love on my relationship with God is serious.
A simple analogy of an “all my mind” love for Ann illustrates the problem. I’m pretty sure that Ann would not feel very loved if my time and efforts to my love her were confined to study, analysis, interpretation of, and correct response to every communication and situation in our relationship. For example, she would find little consolation in the ritual of kissing her and telling her “I love you”each morning if she knew that I did it only because it is “a correct way to express my love”. She would soon reject my kiss and ignore my words if that were the case. Undertanding Ann’s expectations of my love for her, how could I be so foolish to not understand God’s expectations, especially when he speaks so clearly?
A continuing goal of my journey is to understand the full experience of loving God with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength, not just with all my mind. Of course, I need not to forget there is the second greatest command, “love your neighbor as yourself” to be obeyed.