| I have finally come to my senses and dusted off my Bible today (The Message). I had the opportunity to hang out with Aspen, Chris and Duy after Bible Study for a brief catch-up. There was a lot that I learnt from them but the most important was what they had to say about God. That was when I realised that everybody feels a little disconnected sometimes but God will always be there patiently waiting. I felt the willingness to read the Word again and flipped to James as Chris and Duy recommended.

I like reading The Message because theres always a short and sweet introduction for each book of the Bible. For James, it goes like so:

When Christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business - and dishonest business at that. Insiders see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners. Many of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or disguised. It's similar with sinners outside the church.

So Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behaviour. They are, rather, places where human misbehaviour is brought out in the open, faced and dealt with.

The letter of James shows one of the church's early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of misbelief and misbehaviour that had turned up in congregations committed to his care. Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential. Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is a truth if we don't know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can't sustain it?

The idea that church is a holy place open for only the holy is highly pretentious. Why would Christians segregate themselves from the very people that God has created? I didn't know what to say the other day when I handed out flyers for an upcoming youth outreach at my church and had some handed back. When I asked why, friends would say that they weren't Christian therefore they weren't able to come. But 'outreaches' are out reaches to Christians and non Christians alike. Churches aren't an all exclusive meeting place. They are open and free for all to come in.

Back to my issue of 'displacement', I've found my place again. I can't explain what I felt and why I felt it, all I can say now is that when my relationship with God is weak, so are the rest of my relationships. I think I want to be a Christian counselor.

Hoping everyone is feeling alright, and if you're not all too well, you have the comfort of knowing that everybody gets a little down sometimes.

Why do we fall Master Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again.

Labels: Feelings, God