on being home

It's hard to believe I have been in the beautiful United States of America for an entire week. Life is so weird.

No really, it's a rather strange phenomenon.

The weather in Bucks County has been unseasonably beautiful and I have been doing my best to take advantage of my lush, green backyard, and the beautiful canopy of twinkling lights provided by fresh air fireflies which transform the backyard every night into a fairytale sort of world.

The other night I was sitting on my patio thinking. i realized two weeks before I had been sitting on a port in Monrovia, Liberia. Enjoying the company of my ship friends, the heat of Liberia, and a hazy sunset. A week later, I was wearing a sweater and jeans, sitting in a cafe in London. A week later I was pretending to play guitar in my back yard with a cup of coffee. Three completely different scenarios all found in real life. It makes me wonder what reality is.

Reality is a strange idea. I wonder, what is it really? Is reality owning a house and a car? Is it having a family? Is it finding security? Is it following a life plan? Is it exploring the world? Is it helping somebody? Is it pursuing your dreams? Does it have a specific feel and taste?

Paul says
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

Jesus is reality. He is the only constant. He is loves tangible full expression. The metric of completion. The grade of the tangible.

We now live in a false reality. The goals and dreams; the plans and commitments; the houses and cars; the families and friends; the good deeds and sacrifices; they are dim fleeting shadows next to Christ.

Which brings such freedom. We can't produce reality. We live in the shadow lands. We build air castles. But the Spirit of God can and wants to produce an eternal reality while we live and breath and hope and dream and fall in our temporal state. The Spirit wants to produce in our hearts and minds that which rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Eternity can be born from our lives at anytime or moment. It doesn't matter what we are doing, where we are living or going, who we are with, or what dreams are in our heads.

At any time, any place, any moment, we can learn to love. We can radiate joy. We can experience peace. We can become long suffering. We can exude gentleness. We can walk in faith. We can live in the light. We can effect our eternity. We don't need to live in the shadows.

I don't claim to live in the Spirit but I would like to. I want God to create and define a new reality in my life that is defined by eternal things rather then temporal.

I suppose life is for learning.