Usually ashamed that I'm part of the text message, facebook, indirect, non-committal generation I feel awkward posting. However, having family beyond the convienence of a quick evening or more quality weekend visit, I've seen the benefits of blogs, with the benefit being praying without ceasing. So in I too jump in the cyber world of maintaining a community that crosses borders, state lines, and main streets.
For such a time as this...nestled in a quaint pocket of the heralded and fantasied California coast our experiential reality is only shaken when the sun doesn't shine for a full day or the thermometer rises above 80 degrees or I get a traffic ticket due to my ill regard for law and for law enforcement "filling" their time. Death is buried and never seen, save for the engraved granite, pain is blunted by the pharmaceuticals at our fingertips, fear is composed of the possibility of being a have-not. Play is at my doorstep with the beach beckoning and the surrounding hills and mountains discreetly hiding the joys of hidden springs, oak nestled valleys, and panoramic vistas. Family and work, both gifts to be treasured and stewarded, seem often to tip the balance towards consuming in the meetings, deadlines, diapers, soccer games, driving, home projects, dinners, etc.  Contentment and permanence, or jointly permanent contentment appear to be where this is going.  Yet I feel the Day is drawing ever nearer, the Lord's Day, and we live in such a time as this, on the precipice of His Advent, where His permanent justice and  unchanging reign, and our joy filled hope our consummated.  To summarize his return and our times in relation to our comfort/contentment have been on my mind recently as I am wrestling with the idea of what it means to eagerly wait for his appearing.  Gratefully fill my belly full with delights(i.e. snickers)with thanks to God, sell everything and give to the poor, or play the safe middle ground of whatever is convenient.