LIFE Nuggets

The purpose of this blog is Essentially to Chronicle our personal faith journey and that of a place that we call LIFE House West. Why Life Nuggets? Because Nuggets bring to mind a sense of fun and enjoyment, show me a child who is sad when they get to eat chicken nuggets..... Things like life, and following Jesus should be fun and we want to explore those things in a light hearted and fun way, so please, enjoy...

Name:
Location: Hagerstown, Maryland, United States

30 years old, married, Father of four children (2 boys, 2 girls) 2 cats and 3 dogs (black lab, english bulldog, and pug)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Finally Having Something to Say

It has been a very long time since I have written a note or blogged. Frankly I have been going through a quiet period. I have been weighing whether it i wise simply to write about things that I think about when wiser people than I have already written them. It smacks of vanity and I want to avoid that at all costs.

That said, an experience I had the other night I wanted to share. Sunday evening my wife and I went out for a little while to celebrate Valentine's Day and as is our custom we usually end up at Borders to look for books and get some coffee. Cindy went to her sections in the store and I went to mine. Upon meandering into the Martial Arts Section I found myself checking out some books on Shaolin Kung-Fu (insert Master Po reference here).

The books I looked at were interesting and had plenty to offer but something did not feel right about reading a book to learn a discipline that requires hard work and sacrifice to succeed at it. I put the books back and bought an anthology of Dr. King's work instead.

Monday comes around and as is my custom my son and I were at our Tae Kwan Do class and the day seemed as any other. Upon leaving I was still thinking of those Kung-Fu books, considering buying them again.

As I was about to leave the dojo floor another class was beginning and I waited for the class to bow in before leaving the floor (a traditional sign of respect). As I watched the class I saw the students of various ranks interact with their instructor and it hit me. No book on the martial arts will give you what you get by interacting with a teacher. No book can substitute for the fun of studying in community. You can read about the forms and movements of a martial art, even mimic the movements you see in the book, but it is not the same. It is artificial in some ways.

All of this lead me to think about this from the standpoint of my faith. You see, I read alot, I always have. I do not however, want to substitute my reading for what I do for Christ. This is a danger that we all face. Reading about the latest fad or trend can be interesting. Learning about the things and methods that other people use to plant or grow churches can be helpful, it just doesn't complete us. Far too often what we read (besides the Bible) gets treated as Gospel, when in fact they are just ideas that men have written.

There will never be a substitute for simply going out and living a Christ centered life. There will never be a substitute for living out that life in community with others who can help us do that better each day. Our faith is not a faith of theory, it is a faith of action. It is not a faith that is learned about by reading about someone's experiences. It must be lived by us, by me, by you.

So go live it, go live your story rather then just reading the story of someone else.