My family was sick. I was sick. I had to drive to the Oregon/Idaho border and back in a weekend. Work's been busy. I have some excuses, none of them great, but I want to get back to it. I won't go so far as to say I had a resolution or anything silly like that, but I wanted to write more this year. And then that kind of tailed off. I have gotten back to the 750 words the last two nights, but neither was worth actually sharing with anyone. So I figured I'd better pop on here before any more days had passed and at least write something, even if it was short.
I heard an interesting thing on the Saddleback podcast I listened to today. It said that as Christians, if we are living like Christians, we will stand out. And people will notice and if they resist or want to push us away, it's because God is placing something on their hearts that they're fighting and so as a natural extension of that as we seek after God, they're going to push us away as well. That, while not to the level of what you'd normally think of as persecution, nothing like what Christians in other countries face, it's still a form of persecution. And so it's something to be expected. And if we try to fit in, try to avoid the comments or the feeling of being judged or marginalized or passed over, then we're not really living as we're called to live. Interesting. Made me start thinking of magnets. The way we live can either draw people to us or push people away. We may or may not be able to control it, but there are obviously some things we can do to push or pull people, but we can't discount their own part of the equation.
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. -- 2 Timothy 3