Daniel’s Pilgrimage

I’ve been thinking about my job quite a bit lately. Here is how a normal day goes:

I work on computers, either at the office or on the road. I have a few small, mostly surface conversations throughout the day. I don’t see the same people everyday… most of the time I don’t even see the same people every week.

Then when I get home it goes like this:

I have not had any decent social interaction all day, so I want to hang out with people and talk. Alicia has had nothing all day but hour long conversations with people she sees pretty regularly. She wants time with me, and just some peace. Our desires conflict.

I’ve come to the conclusion that since my social interaction outside of work has slowed down, that it’s highlighted to me that I don’t have any social interaction at work. I’ve been thinking about looking for a different job because of it. I’m gonna talk to my boss about it next week and see what he thinks.

Why is it that Christians get so set into their own little corner of the Kingdom? I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve been. At NLCF it was all about NLCF and GCM, with Young Life it was all about Young Life, and at Horizon it is all about Horizon. I can only imagine the impact it would have if any and all of these groups of people talked about Jesus and the Kingdom of God like they talk about their specific group. Because come on people, it isn’t AT ALL about NLCF, GCM, Young Life or Horizon… We need to get the Kingdom clearly in our sites and not let anything take our focus off of it.

I’ve been thinking about this some recently. The normal model of churches in America is: Announcements/Intro, Sing, Sermon. Of course there are little variations, but that is pretty much it. The focal point of church gatherings since that reformation has been the sermon. Before the reformation, and in catholic gatherings the focal point was/is communion. I’ve been thinking that I like the idea of communion being the focal point better than I like the sermon being it.

We have been moving towards a monastic style of worship that includes written prayers, eating together, responsive/group readings, sacred reading(lectio divina), canticles/chants, communion and similar type things. As we experiment more I’ll share some of what we learn here.

Well, my life must be getting at least a little in sync with Celtic Daily Prayer. This mornings readings spoke to exactly my struggles right now. So I figured I would share them. This is from the Aidan series of readings for today:

I have observed through the years that most Christians have little understanding of the word ’season’. Our Lord is a seasonal God; He comes, He departs. His faithfulness never changes, but His seasons do! There are seasons when the tree is green, there are seasons when it is dry, and seasons when, for the life of us, the thing looks dead. Now, does this mean you are serving a capricious God who comes and goes by whim? Or, could it be, that it is only though seasons that true growth may come?

And this is the meditation for this day of the month:

Seven times a day, as I work upon this hungry farm, I say to The, ‘Lord, why am I here? What is there here to stir my gifts to growth? What great thing can I do for others - I who am captive to this dreary toil?’ And seven times a day Thou answerest, ‘I cannot do without thee. Once did My Son live thy life, and by His faithfulness did show My mind, My kindness, and My truth to men. But now He is come to My side, and thou must take His place.’

You know how you get to those places in life where you really don’t have a ton going on, and life kind of drags a little? I think I’m there now. I go to work for most of the day doing something that I don’t really enjoy most of the time and I don’t really build any relationships at work. After work I get to spend some time with Alicia, which is the highlight of the day, and sometime we hang out with some friends. There just isn’t really anything going on. Which is tough for people like me who are addicted to change and who always like to have new and exciting things going on in their life. It is a challenge for me to be able to learn how to follow Jesus during these times. It seems to me that these are the time liturgy is most helpful. It keeps you moving and keeps you doing something when you might not otherwise. Hmmm….