Zeros and Kingdoms
“Blessed are the spiritual zeros – the spiritually bankrupt, deprived, and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a wisp of ‘religion’ – when the kingdom of the heavens comes upon them.”
[Dallas Willard]
Restless
I am realising over and over again how restless I am. I can’t keep my feet on the ground, can’t sit still. I want to be on the move. I want to be away out and free of the issues of daily living in the west. Or maybe even just free of the hassels of living in the UK. I feel alive when I travel. When I’m out on a wing and a prayer and all I’ve got is God in me. When I’m loving others.
Travel is deeply spiritual to me. I experience so much of God when I travel… new sights and sounds and people and places. People mostly. I met some incredible people this summer.
Anatoli has the biggest grin I’ve ever seen.
Tima likes to drive fast on dirt track roads, and yet he’s willing to come pick up a bunch of foreigners and drive for 4 hours in the middle of the night to get us to where we need to be.
Liga, Dima, Vicka… so many kids who stole my heart.
Levi, a man who has the love of Jesus overflowing his heart, who slips in and out of prayer without skipping a heartbeat. I want to have that too.
Jill, someone I should have met a long time ago, who has many of the same questions, issues and struggles as I do.
John and Ali, people with a passion for justice and the Kingdom come.
So many Spark-ers with a love for our own community.
And so many more… I can’t possibly name them all. I am so thankful for the opportunity to travel and to meet people that I have had this summer.
But this restlessness? Is it good? Is it ok? The reality is right now I live in Glasgow, I live in the western world. How do I become someone who lives out their convictions and pursues their passions in a place that stifles dreams, disregards Jesus, and is all about bigger, more, ‘better’?
I’m thinking a lot about what it means to make space in my life at the minute. I think that’ll be another post… but any thoughts?
A Glimpse Of Spark
the vision of Spark is…
uniting
loving
being
…that the church of Jesus Christ in Ballymena would together represent the characteristics of Jesus in their town: loving, compassionate, full of grace and mercy, kind, humble, forgiving and passionate.
[Spark webpage; Spark blog; Spark photography]
Risky
“I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding your love, trading for your love: I will simply love. God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.”
[Don Millar]
Link Love
So… yes, I finally got round to sending some link love…
I’ve added some new bloggers to the blogroll (and some not-so-new ones that I just didn’t quite get round to…), and I’ll post some links here to blogs I’m loving at this current point in time.
A few more Glasgow Uni blogging friends – Fran and Holly to start with, both medics and deep thinkers. Fran loves photography as much as me I do believe. Holly loves home mission as much as me. Phil is blogging too, not sure if it’s just for while he’s in Chechnya or more permanent. Phil and I were in Latvia this summer on team as well as being at UoG.
Gillian may blog from time to time… if she blogs regularly I’ll add a permanent link haha.
Claire is blogging occasionally also… I linked here when she started, but now she’s in the blogroll too.
Rick has been blogging for quite a while now, but I’m increasingly challenged and encouraged by his words so I’ve linked him up in the blogroll too.
John is a guy I met and got to hang out with for a few days in DC… he has a passion for justice like I’ve never seen before, as do a lot of the folks I met through the Week of Justice there (more on that later).
Loving Longbrakes blog at the minute… I am envious of the roadtrip they are doing… maybe I will do one in Scotland. That would be fun. He’s thinking about some stuff I’m thinking about too.
That’s all for now.
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