God Lives

How did you read this title of this posting – God is alive OR Lives filled with God?

Well I’ll leave you to ponder that for awhile and come back to what I used this title later on.

Monday, we slept late—refused to answer the phone and had a great day doing whatever came to mind as the most important thing to be doing at that moment. Linda did a lot of clean-up, fix-up, paint-up work around the yard. I did a little of that but mostly I spent my time cleaning the interior of my truck. July 1 was the 2nd anniversary of my retirement so I was a little chagrined to discover that I hadn’t cleaned out the truck since then. Perhaps spending 6 months of thattime (that's equivalent to 1 day in 4) traveling in the BBB helps explain it but it still seems unbelievable. Anyhow, my hardhat and boots have now been stored away in the garage , all the accumulated “junk” has been removed and disposed of , the carpets vacuumed, armor-all on the vinyl, windows washed and the insides of the doors and doors post all washed. When I went to get in this morning I had to look twice to be sure I was getting in the right vehicle!! (JD – it reminded me of the van except I didn’t find a camera)

Karen & Rene Morin dropped by Monday while on a bike ride. They had been talking to Linda about the fact that they hadn’t ever seen the “BBB” so she had offered an open invitation to come by for a look – They were both off work since many businesses were closed yesterday as an alternate holiday because July 1 (Canada Day) was on Saturday. We sat and visited for a whilebefore they headed off. I have mentioned then before and there is a picture in my May 1 entry. See http://candlw.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_candlw_archive.html

Today (Tuesday - July 4 - big day in the US) we continued working on our projects, talked to Melissa about her weekend camping trip and had a nice walk this evening.

We also had a pleasant surprise this week when Dave McMillan called from Thunder Bay Sunday night and asked if he& Heather could stay here last night enroute to St. Catherines. We have known them since the mid-80’s. Although we hadn’t seen them for over10 years , We have followed some of the major events in their lives via email and through contact with mutual acquaintances.. They are from Saskatchewan. When we first met Dave was moving to Ontario to teach at the Bible College at Great Lakes Christian College. He and his family stayed at our place a couple of times in the mid 80’s as they traveled to/from Saskatchewan to visit family. I also got to know David during that period because I was on the Board of GLCC and was on campus several time a year. I was deeply engaged in conversation with Dave this a.m.and had to rush out ot meet Roger for breakfast so I forgot to take apicture. Hope they comeback soon so I can rectify this (Maybe we'll haveto go toMexico to do it - only problem is getting the "BBB" into thevillage where they workmight be a bit tricky)

In the 90’s David’s journey of faith led him to become involved in a house church and faith community that was quite different in many ways from the practices prevalent in the “Churches of Christ” where we both had our roots and had begun our walk of faith. For the past several years David has been teaching in public schools on short term contracts. During the summer he & Heather have been using their savings from their teaching jobs to go to Mexico and help meet the basic living needs of poverty stricken people. As they go about meeting the physical needs they are also showing the love of Jesus and proclaiming his word. We enjoyed their visit and we had a very interesting and challenging dialog about the different “directions” we taken in our mutual commitment to following and serving Jesus.

In particular he was able to give me some insights into the (so-called) post-modern philosophy that describes the “way of thinking” that many people under 50 use to ”make sense” of life. I still don’t get it I value knowledge, logic & reasoning as the way of understanding the world – which I’m told means I think like a modernist. And isn’t valued by “post-modernists” – They value experience and relationships as the basis for making sense of things.

I do know that the church needs to be able to communicate with people who think this way and that in the absence of a relationship that has meaning to them, many words we say to them are just like that TV commercial where the guy is eating cereal and people are talking to him telling him he is fired or other things and he just keeps on eating and nodding because all he hears is “a roaring noise”. –
(Hey guys I’m trying but you are going to have to have a little ( a lot!!) of patience with me if we are going to learn to ”hear” each other.

It was a “spiritually uplifting” dialog as we shared some of our questions about our faith and had an honest conversation about what we thought was missing in various lines of reasoning related to topics that are “hot” with the mainstream Churches of Christ today. At the end I felt that God was working -- in sending them here and in the conversation we were having. I was glad to find “my brother” and to be in strong fellowship with him despite large differences in our understanding of what it means to “be the church that God has called us to be” God has called us by His grace to love & to faith in Jesus. We are united in those areas of central importance --- and that is enough – for now - but who knows what discoveries lay ahead in either of our journeys.

So God lives – God is living and active in the world- I thank him for sending me people who are very different in some of their thinking and yet the work of God in their lives is so evident. I’ve been thinking of GOD LIVES as a “vanity” plate for the “BBB” . both as a declaration of the belief that God is alive & well and that the owners on board are committed to God(ly) lives. Might be a good conversation starter?

God Bless
Charlie & Linda