So Many Reasons To Be Happy

What a great last couple of days!

Starting on Thursday, I began a blitz on The Story We Find Ourselves In, which I began reading last Monday. I was around 60 pages in, but I ripped it apart over the course of the next two or three days and finished it off. This was my second time reading through it and I think that I got more from it this time around. The same could be said for the second time I read A New Kind of Christian, the first book in the series, so I’m glad to have taken the time to re-read the books again.

The two books have introduced so many new concepts and perspectives in my faith and, without going into too much detail (I can’t spoil the rest of the story for Jasmine, who is reading it for the first time), they spend a lot of time discussing very important – and controversial – aspects of Christianity: views on other religions, the Christian way of life, creation vs. evolution, judgement, heaven, and so on. The ideas that they present are so far from conventional and reading them was like taking a breath of fresh air.

On Saturday, I went back to St. Paul’s to hang out. A lot of things were happening: Shanna was up for the weekend, Keith was assembling his new computer (and I still believe it was needless for him to have gotten it but…), and Graeme & Co. were drinking vodka shots with a whole clove of garlic in them (gross!). I’m pretty sure they tried other things that were equally repulsive. We went out to a local watering hole and, surprisingly, we got into a discussion about religion. With a number of professed atheists or agnostics, we talked about Jesus, Judaism, and evolution, among other things.

I realized later that a lot of what I said came from the two McLaren books that I recently finished re-reading. It’s like what I just read became what I believed. But they aren’t.. at least, I don’t think they are. I’m not sure what angle I feel most comfortable taking right now, but the one that McLaren uses makes a lot of sense to me so, maybe I’m buying into it moreso than others. I think I’ll need to contemplate on these issues more. Talking about it will really help, too.

Enter Sunday. Jasmine randomly came to visit because Elevation was having an evening service, and I bet she missed Cynthia. It was so nice to see her again; I miss having good conversations with her in person. We chatted like it was the good ol’ days, and everything just felt so.. right. I think that I have adjusted to the displacement, and so things are good.. really good. We talked about the books, and I’m really excited to begin the third (and final) book of the series with her. It will be so nice to bounce ideas and questions off of her while they are still fresh in my mind. And like I said before, it’s my hope that through conversation, there will come understanding.

Anyhow, I’m dog tired, so I think I’m headed back to sleep.

This entry was posted is filed under Public.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.