There a glory and a reason for pursuing the unwanted pursuit.

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

10Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Gal 1:6-9

Isaiah 57

1 The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.

2 Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.

There is no other gospel. There is no other good news. Not outselves, not our cultures, not our marvelous buildings. These can all be good God given things that we are to enjoy, but they are nothing in comparison the the Gospel of christ. We know that there is no other good news in the world, we are told we will suffer, and we are also told that we will have peace in it's fullness later. Yet all the more we try to sell ourselves as something good and worthy.

Peace is a wonderful thing to enjoy, but it isn't an end in and of itself. God created everything and it was called good by God, the one who we use to define good, it is good, rather it is all distorted by sin. we are distorted by sin. An interesting thought is this: sin is just a distortion of what is good. C.S. Lewis said is like this " to be truely unique, you must conform to the one which good flows. sin never created anything new, rather it only distorts what was already there." It is a strange thought to realize that every attempt to run from christ, or whatever reason, it's all just distortions of something already there. by striving to be unique you become fully conformed.

and life moves on.

Funny how it never works the same way twice.

it is an interesting thing when you finally reach a point that you have been looking forward to for some time. i dunno, right now it probably has not hit me, but it seems a little less real. i've been living on a high for the past few weeks. more than anything i am anticipating the crash from the high. everything always seems less real when i'm in a spiritual rut. i have been in a spiritual rut for awhile now and i've realized it for the past week more than anything. you start to dread time alone or time without distractions. when it is quiet, your thoughts always wander and begin to self examine.

i am anticipating the crash. i am looking forward to it now that i realize it is coming. i pray the breakdown comes before campers come. the thought keeps on occurring that maybe campers are what will break me.

when you start to rely on people's thoughts of you, you become subject to them. eventually your actions start form around their thoughts.

It's warm again.

We seem to have an idea, it's ingrained in our culture, that words, thoughts, philosophies, they do not have consequences. the strange thing is, the building you are in right now, the computer screen you are reading this one, they are products of ideas and philosophies. manifest destiny drove the distinctly american building style. sky scrapers, cinder blocks, and spread out cities. they are part of ideas that trickle down and effect everyone of us.

ideas and words have consequences.