Caught in the middle

Have you ever been a place where you know that you have moved on but you still find yourself looking back? Have you ever felt like you have grown out of something but can't seem to drag yourself away from that place? That's kinda how I'm feeling at the moment. I guess as we journey through life there are things that were big parts of our lives before that no longer seem to have the same influence or sway. I guess I lost faith in some things, in some people and in some ways of doing things, but I still linger there in the hope of resurrecting a purpose and value in the time spent there.

Think its time to leave the certainty of the past behind for the uncertainty of the future.

3am ramblings in no particular order...

Are you willing to leave behind all that you have acquired in the pursuit of something that transcends material possessions.

Is that what is God is asking?

For some they melt down all that they have - remould it and reset it. They give it a new name and bow down before it.

But is less more?

Is there something of the promised land in the wilderness?

Do we have to lay down before we can pick up? Do we have to swap what we have to pursue what we don't have? Is the something beyond worth pursuing?

More blessed is the man then who has nothing he calls his own.

Blessed are the poor...
Blessed are those who mourn...
Blessed are the meek....
Blessed are those who hunger
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness...

There is the danger for those of us who have many riches to our name, that we become fearful of losing all that we have acquired and built up. Often that fear permeates every aspect of our life and our life becomes inhibited and prescriptive. We can focus all our energies on preservation, maintaining all that we have.

For those not governed by fear, they can live truthfully and spontaneously. And once they pass the hedonistic first impulses of this existence they find the need to focus on something more wider and permanent. It is from hear we begin to reach for the impossible - to those things that we thought we could never achieve.

Identity

Been thinking about identity and who we are as individual people. Much like the old adage about never stepping in the same river twice, we are not the same person we were yesterday and we are not the same person we were when we were younger. We are different mentally, physically, and spiritually.

The only thing that connects with who we were yesterday is the memory of it. But how does salvation relate to this - I've heard so many people that your salvation is secured and that you don't need to worry about it. I like the Catholic understanding of salvation. That we are saved, that we continue to be saved and that we will be saved.

The moment of our salvation becomes a memory - a moment in our past. And each day we can choose to make that moment our most significant. It influences the choices we make, and informs who we are on this day. Each day we have the opportunity to choose to be identified either by our past successes or our past failures. We have the opportunity to be defined by our salvation or our past brokenness.

It does also means that we can leave our sin behind, we don't need to carry it in to the next day. It was who we were but not who we are.

Quite possibly the best thing ever