Small Words

I was about to write something long and incredible about...well, that will be a surprise for now. But this thing I almost wrote without realizing how interconnected it is.

I just finished reading this incredible book from the church library. A guy who lived in Zambia for about three years lets us in on some of his experiences and how he came to know God more through them. We had to read it because the pastor told us to. Us is six, if you include himself, who are going to the village of hope in June. I was just going before. Now, I'm excited. And it's still months away.

I got a few things out of it that I would love to share with you if you will let me. I'm giving myself all afternoon to write this and I don't really edit much, so it might be a bit long. Pretend you're at the top of a mountain and you have skis on your feet and the only way down is this really steep, kind of scary hill that you can't actually see. Here we go.

One reminds me of a friend of mine. He takes a while to get anywhere because he gets distracted a lot. Mostly by people. I met someone else like him too. Also very distracted, but only by people, it seemed. Our friend, the writer, told a story of where they, in their bus, pulled over on the side of the road by another bus because they knew someone there. Which was fine. But it was a narrow road and they were in a bus stop and it was rush hour. And our friend was the only one concerned with all this. Everyone else in the group enjoyed the company of their friend. They seem to be much more community based over there.

He said that it seemed life was about the interruptions. Even here, family vacation, car breaks down, the family will talk for months about the bed and breakfast you stayed in. I didn't write that. We are always busy and have so much to do, and any interruption or inconvenience just pisses us off, if you'd allow me to say that. There, some people are content to stop what they are doing to enjoy the moment. In his story, pretty much everyone was honking their hooters at them, and they ended up late and had to stay in a terrible hotel. I think it was worth it to them though.

I'm not going to tell the story for this one. Rejoicing in the small things. I don't know about you, but I aim for big things. Maybe it doesn't leave my head most of the time. But that doesn't change that I do. Anything short of that huge unreachable goal isn't good enough. Maybe they should be? As Christians, we strive to be like Christ, or claim to. That might be unreachable. I don't know. I'm not there. But as I continue living, I'd like to think I get closer and closer. Maybe each of those steps is worth celebrating. What if. I like these ideas.

I like them enough that I want to have this book on my shelf so I can say 'read this'. So I asked my Mom to drive me down to the store where they should have it. And I searched that store. Nothing. So I gave up and asked them at the till. Nothing. Oh dear. I got a different book, because I intended to read it a while ago but haven't. Sometimes I write like him. I like how he writes. Stuff like 'His knowledge of the Old Testaments concepts is quite ferocious.'

But before we go there, I co-lead a small group. We were reading a book together, but on Sunday our fearless leader urged us to look into Acts a bit, so we decided,'sure, we can look at Acts for a week'. Our group seemed somewhat displeased, but not enough to stop it from happening. I'm glad we did it. We read the first 2 chapters, an the discussion was kind of boring. I sort of scribbled all over my piece of paper. I got another 2 things out of this one though. I'd be a horrible pastor. They're supposed to have three point sermons?

They prayed constantly (Acts 1:small part of14), and were together. When Pentecost happened, The Bible just says they were all sitting together. They weren't praying or doing anything super spiritual. Weird. I like the last few verses of chapter 2 as well. It outlines how they worked, as they early church. They lived together and shared everything. That doesn't totally fit today. It could. If you made it. Where am I going?

I sometimes wondered what you are supposed to do when you are alone. It's seems hard to do what Christians do. Help the poor? Have fellowship?

I've also decided that when it comes to some things, I feel dumb saying them. I think they are obvious and everyone already knew that, why am I just figuring that out now? That's not what I decided. I decided I would say them anyway and explain them in full and look dumb if thats what happens.

Our season in youth and such is relationships. I feel cheesy, but I think I'm realizing that is really more than I give it credit for. Maybe everything. When you are with people, you strive to connect with them; to know them. When you are alone, you can strive to know and connect to God.