Tangent, anyone?

Friday, February 27, 2009

10:17 am – Back on a plane (CO Seat 9F, in case you’re wondering) bound for Houston. The giant bag of Skittles from WDAFRAB was indeed a sign. I am exhausted and ready to see my husband and kids again, but I’ve just experienced all kinds of awesomeness over the past two days.

I couldn’t possibly cover everything in one blog post. Well, I suppose I could, but it would be more like a novella than a blog post, and I don’t want to steal my pastor’s blog M.O. And speaking of pastor’s blogs, here’s a little tidbit of moderately interesting information: When I started reading Jeff’s Convergence244 blog, I didn’t even know what a blog was. I thought that maybe there were a few people out there that had blogs, but surely not anything I would be interested in reading. The only notable exception to this was another blog called Convergence that had a very similar URL address. Why was it so interesting, pray tell? Because the other convergence blog was A) also called Convergence (which is me restating what I just told you, but I don’t like to have just an “A” and a “B”. I have random moments of OCD.), B) The writer of the blog is also named Jeff, C) the other Jeff’s outlook on life was in such stark contrast with Pastor Jeff’s, that I will heretofore refer to him as “Beyondo Jeff”.

Okay, sorry guys. I’m in full tangent mode. Bear with me…

The creation of Jeff’s blog was intentional. When Jeff , Tam and the girls left our old church and moved back to Ohio, it was for the express purpose of Jeff going back to school to further his post graduate education in church leadership, thereby better equipping him to pursue what God was calling him to do, which was…..”Anyone?….Anyone?….Bueller?…..Bueller?….Ferris Bueller?

That’s right: to plant a church. Good job! Some of you have really been paying attention! The Convergence blog was a means for Jeff to gather his thoughts and get some feedback from friends about the eventuality of planting a church. I don’t know that he necessarily came right out and said that, and it’s not as if he had this sneaky little plan to test the waters and reel in a core group. But it was a way for Jeff to “put himself out there” and see if what he had in mind was a good, Christ-centered thing or just a big bag a hooey. (Moderately interesting sidenote: “hooey” is an actual word, whereas “sidenote” is not. Which reminds me of a great Jim Gaffigan bit where he says, “You are so dumb, Spellcheck!”) But I digress in the midst of my tangent…

While Jeff’s blog is full of hope and teaching and encouragement; reminding its readers to rely on God even when He seems very far away, the content of Beyondo Jeff’s blog was as dark as the Blogger skin that he chose for it. One got the impression from reading it that Beyondo Jeff truly believed that life was barely worth living; that people were jerks (himself included), and that he once had a glimpse of a good life but that it was far beyond his grasp now. I left a few comments there, and I know that others have as well, hoping to provide some encouragement to him.

Reading Beyondo Jeff’s blog also served another purpose for me. It was virtual truth that there is much darkness in this world, and millions of people who have yet to experience the freedom of a life seeking to abide in Christ. Our mission is important. If I truly believe in hell (which I do), Then it was high time for me to stop looking sadly upon those whose lives were desperately and hopelessly mired in sin and simply say, “Good luck with all of THAT!” As one of my favorite movie characters Red from “The Shawshank Redemption” would say, It was high time that I “Get busy living (for Christ), or get busy dying.”

Dude. I had no idea I was going to write about that when I started. Katdish: Queen of the tangent. Long may she reign!