Ordinary Time
As I’ve been telling people about my travel plans, some have a hard time understanding what I’ll be doing for 5 months. No work? No school? Just traveling? Why? I usually respond half-jokingly, “Well, I have to be somewhere right?” I admit that sometimes the thought does scare me. Other times the thought is very freeing. I will be spending time with a dear friend, diving into different cultures, seeking God and His will, and enjoying life away from the many things that try to run off with my soul.
It seems that this general aversion to (or discomfort by) “downtime” is apparent in many areas of our lives. I find it ironic that hardly do we ever just kick back in our living rooms and simply “live”. Most every American living room boasts a TV as its central focus. When did the TV become a necessity for living? Some of my best memories in Austria were the evenings when my host father and I would sit in the TV-less living room and discuss life over a glass of wine. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened much since.
This problem plagues the church as well. It’s easy for us to live the Christian life on Sundays in the company of other believers. But I think we often walk out the doors at noon and ask ourselves (rhetorically), “Now what?” We stare dumbfounded at the dichotomous gap between what is and what should be.
All this to say, I hope to learn what it means to live in these “ordinary” times.
Good.
Aaron, you're the man.
Richard J. Foster says, “Refuse to be a slave to anything but God.”
i understand. and i wowna go.
Amen bro. Right there with you.
I’m jealous of you big brother.
But I can’t believe you’re old enough to drink WINE! weird. haha.
Guess what. I emailed the coach at Ouachita just now. It was kind of a God thing accctually. I was just on there looking at the roster, and they only have one keeper (which is SUPER rare). So they’ll be looking for one for next year, and the on they get probably won’t start because the one there is only a sophomore this year. This means it’d be beneficial for them to be able to play on the field. Are you seeing what I’m getting at??
I was going to email you this but I forgot which one to email you at. I figured you’d get it this way too. So yeah. Maybe Ouachita, maybe.
Love youuuu.
(Been a while since I visited) So totally totally true. We let the people making the media think for us, and we miss out on relationships big time. Besides, when else will you (necessarily) be able to take 5 months and travel?
Hi Aaron,
Glad to meet you online.Your blog echoes the pain in my heart for a time when people truely talk to each other.
I don’t live in a country where the nation pledges itself to a single faith. We are multicultural and multiracial and a secular nation but your nation is not America but one that is bigger than America alone. Your nation is the Kingdom of God , the everlasting nation of God, where people of every nation worship Him together. Your spiritual family is beyond America.
I pray that you keep the faith if in the event America renounces her faith in God.
In Christ’s love,
Karen
Singapore