-
Sickness and Following Jesus

Since coming to Korea both Kristina and I have been sick quite frequently. Much more than at home. I think I have mentioned this before. It's fairly common for foreigners to repeatedly get cold's, flu's, and various kinds of sinus infections. So this is not surprising. I have to say though, it sucks.

Nevertheless, I can't say nothing good has come of it. Kristina has been sick more than I, and more often. One of the side effects of this is that I have to take care of her a lot. I love doing this, no hardship there. One of the other side effects is that I have to do basically all the household chores. You would think that if taking care of her is no problem, this would the same, but its not. I have discovered I very easily get frustrated and selfish; I strongly desire a certain amount of 'me' time, relaxing time, stuff like that. I don't like doing housework. I recently read an article, an interview with Eugene Peterson, in which he responds to the question "Pastor, how can I be spiritual?" with "Forget about being spiritual. How about loving your husband?" He's absolutely right. Being forced to do things like this has really made me face more of my bad side, made me pray more, and is helping me to be more loving (in a paradoxical way).

Check out the article. It's worth a read.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

-
"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
Read more

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....

-
Image
"Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18 "One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That's because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn't measure what it's supposed to measure, if it doesn't reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can't possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce." - Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems. 
Read more

A Gracious Reading of Rob Bell

-
The Journey So Far The controversy rages on over Rob Bell's upcoming new book. No matter what happens now, this controversy has effectively guaranteed that 'everyone who is anyone' will need to read this book. Either to find out what is wrong and bash it, or because someone we generally disagree with also disagrees with the book so it has to be good stuff! Then, because 'everyone' is reading it, people like me will 'have to' read it to. After all, I am a pastor, and if many of my people are reading and being influenced by a book, don't I need to know what is going on as well?  Or so the reasoning will go... and perhaps I will read it, who knows. In the meantime, none of this will stop me from continuing to join this fray which I probably ought to have stayed out of in the first place. Onwards, Christian... :) The Latest Salvo The latest salvo has been fired by DeYoung  claiming that not only do we not need to talk with Bell but, more importantly, it
Read more