My daughter A is due to be home soon and the house that I had hopes to have clean before then will still be an utterly hopeless mess.
I slept in lat today, until 11 am! It felt good, but then I am realizing that I still feel tired. Nevertheless I shuffled about picking up stray laundry from the kids rooms and got it all downstairs into semi-orderly piles... and then semi-cleaned the kitchen in preparation for waffle making. I tried a different method today with a nuttier brown rice. The result was something that would perhaps make good bread but definitely not crisp waffles. I'm thinking that perhaps I can use the extra waffles that the batter made for sandwiches.
So today, I shall most likely have clean laundry, stacked high in piles... ;) and semi-clean rooms... and that's gotta be good enough for now.
I'm looking at a picture of Jesus on my calendar for July, he's sitting by the shoreline, gazing into the distance, thinking. How serene and peaceful he looks. One thing that's interesting to me is that the Bible doesn't mention the type of work he does to support himself. Plus he tells his apostles to leave their trades to follow him. Then he wanders around from place to place telling parables, stories, that are supposed to uplift and edify the hearer. So I suppose that he taught for a living, didn't care about worldly goods, but cared about healing and teaching. I suppose that people must have fed him and clothed him... to me the concept of following Jesus has always been a bit confusing. Are we supposed to leave our work, our earthly concerns, and go about to peoples homes teaching them, healing them... relying upon the good graces of the Lord to provide? Impractical, and I ironically in some ways today this would be seen as immoral as we are expected to provide for ourselves and our families (as well we should be).
Then what do we do, in what way do we follow Christ? and are there more implications than we might think about the right way and wrong way to follow him?
What I mean is, what are the practicalities of being a follower of Christ? For instance, he was beaten, spat upon, ridiculed. Are we expected to live up to that standard, to allow ourselves to be abused? Theoretically yes. But is this a symbol of powerlessness? Is humility humiliation?
One thing to recognize is that when Jesus told his disciples that when a man compels you to walk a mile with him walk with him twain, he meant that as a method of regaining personal power. The first mile was a law allowed under Roman rule. That a Roman could compel an Non-Roman to carry his burden for 1 mile, in that way the person compelled had no power. But walking a second mile carrying the burden is the compelled persons choice, in that way he regains power, the Roman then becomes obligated to the person he compelled.
In another way, when Jesus was spat upon, mocked, ridiculed... and he withheld retaliation, he gained the power over the situation. Those who were expending the negative energy, those who spat, mocked, ridiculed, were losing power.
Some thoughts anyway.
SG
I slept in lat today, until 11 am! It felt good, but then I am realizing that I still feel tired. Nevertheless I shuffled about picking up stray laundry from the kids rooms and got it all downstairs into semi-orderly piles... and then semi-cleaned the kitchen in preparation for waffle making. I tried a different method today with a nuttier brown rice. The result was something that would perhaps make good bread but definitely not crisp waffles. I'm thinking that perhaps I can use the extra waffles that the batter made for sandwiches.
So today, I shall most likely have clean laundry, stacked high in piles... ;) and semi-clean rooms... and that's gotta be good enough for now.
I'm looking at a picture of Jesus on my calendar for July, he's sitting by the shoreline, gazing into the distance, thinking. How serene and peaceful he looks. One thing that's interesting to me is that the Bible doesn't mention the type of work he does to support himself. Plus he tells his apostles to leave their trades to follow him. Then he wanders around from place to place telling parables, stories, that are supposed to uplift and edify the hearer. So I suppose that he taught for a living, didn't care about worldly goods, but cared about healing and teaching. I suppose that people must have fed him and clothed him... to me the concept of following Jesus has always been a bit confusing. Are we supposed to leave our work, our earthly concerns, and go about to peoples homes teaching them, healing them... relying upon the good graces of the Lord to provide? Impractical, and I ironically in some ways today this would be seen as immoral as we are expected to provide for ourselves and our families (as well we should be).
Then what do we do, in what way do we follow Christ? and are there more implications than we might think about the right way and wrong way to follow him?
What I mean is, what are the practicalities of being a follower of Christ? For instance, he was beaten, spat upon, ridiculed. Are we expected to live up to that standard, to allow ourselves to be abused? Theoretically yes. But is this a symbol of powerlessness? Is humility humiliation?
One thing to recognize is that when Jesus told his disciples that when a man compels you to walk a mile with him walk with him twain, he meant that as a method of regaining personal power. The first mile was a law allowed under Roman rule. That a Roman could compel an Non-Roman to carry his burden for 1 mile, in that way the person compelled had no power. But walking a second mile carrying the burden is the compelled persons choice, in that way he regains power, the Roman then becomes obligated to the person he compelled.
In another way, when Jesus was spat upon, mocked, ridiculed... and he withheld retaliation, he gained the power over the situation. Those who were expending the negative energy, those who spat, mocked, ridiculed, were losing power.
Some thoughts anyway.
SG
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