Yup, I'm going camping this weekend. Wish it was here, in Colorado, one of my favorite states. I think it is the best state for outdoor adventures: rock climbing, skiing/snowboarding, hiking, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, swimming, running, all water sports except surfing, etc. But West Virginia will have to do....nah, just kidding really glad that I got invited to go so I'm pretty grateful for this.
Well, I'm kind of like man it's probably going to be awkard cuz it's with one person I know well, another I kind of know and then their high school friends and me, hahaha an ODU student who will be the youngest one there. It'll be fun though. Good time for me to just talk to God, and read the Bible. Two things I haven't been doing as much as I should nor want to. Kind of feel real distant because of it and need like a "quiet time" to try and just start over. Plus I just like camping and I think it will be fun hanging with these guys.
Small group on Tuesday was probably the best one yet where we dove into the last half of James chapter 2 about faith and works and we discussed, very passionately, about faith and what it is and what it looks like and how acting corresponds with faith and prayer and not really knowing anything and yet still acting even though we don't want to but have faith that God is calling us too.....yeah, most of it were big circular conversations but it was just awesome to talk about God and faith and just pursuing God in that way. Again, something I haven't had in a while; talking about faith and scripture. One little bit that I thought was interesting and something we all do everyday is the cultural sayings of "how are you?" and the immediate response "good" without even thinking what the question nor the answer really means. The pastor on sunday briefly talked about this. That question use to mean something: i care about. Now it is just a tradition, a common courtesy to conduct when you see a stranger. Does the person that asks that really care? Maybe, but 9 times out of ten they don't and it's just a habit.
And the answer, good? Just another custom in our culture to just get away from that subject and move on. To not get involved with the person asking the question, they immediately respond with good. And that's it. On both sides, people just don't care. Why? Because they don't have time nor the motivation to get involved in the other person's life, to care for them, to have a friendship with them. So they pass by on the sidewalk with out a care in the world that they other person just got fired and really needs encouragement or the other just needs someone to share the joy that he has when his girlfriend said yes to "The Question". But this doesn't happen, except on a rare occasion, because generally people don't care and maybe there's something wrong with that.
Awesome small group though. Had a really good talk with Shane about friendships and he said one thing that stood out, "You can't experience a Living God without having good friendships" or something like that, basically you can't grow or experience a living God by yourself. I agree with that, maybe you can, who knows...God is endless but being a Christian is one of the hardest things to do by yourself, and you can forget about growth. Yeah, still thinking about all the stuff from earlier blogs, it's still hard but I have some kind of peace about it which makes thinking about it and acting on it a lot better.
Oh, glad to see Shane and Jon bloggin again. Finally, I can read some other people's thoughts. Steve, Andrew, you guys are seriously slacking off and need to get with the program.......... :) Bubye!
