Yup...I've moved.  I decided that it wasn't worth trying to salvage my maiden Xanga.  I need a new, hip wordpress account.   So, here I go.  check er out:

http://klintb.wordpress.com

 

kb

So, the greatest holiday of all time just slipped by.  You're probably thinking Easter; you're wrong.  My birthday.  I just passed a real milestone: 23.  Crap, what the heck happened?  I was just 17 the other day, I swear.  Weird.  Anyhoo...I was thinking today, ok, over the past couple of days I've been thinking about this. 

These two events just slipped by without much mention-birthday and Easter.  Birthday's aren't a big deal.  They come and they go...whatever.  Easter IS a HUGE deal!  I know we live in a culture that likes to commercialize everything and lose the meaning of cultural traditions/holidays in empty consumerism.  I know; thats an all too cliche complaint. 

Here's what scares me: it slipped right by me too.  Sure I went to an Easter service - and it was incredible - but I found myself allowing Easter to slip by without much thought and reflection.  Ouch...have I bought into the same thing as the broken and largely spiritually bankrupt culture that I live in?  More over, why haven't I strained to do my part in redeeming this tragic mis-understanding?  How have I failed my circle of influence if I have not thrown my entire being into bringing the world in which I live to a fuller redemption in our glorious Christ?  Maybe failure is found in one's inability to recognize such short comings and the unwillingness to change.

May I strain, pull, push, shout, run, sing, write, go, show, live, make, and take whatever action is necessary to lead the world in which I live closer to the compassionate Father that is our Creator.  May my efforts, ordained by my gracious God, aide in bringing this man and world in which he lives to full redemption.  May the Kingdom come in our midst. 

Ok, here it is...  An eruption.  These recent thoughts all started the other day when I was watching a little football.  For those of you who may not know, I like a da football; it may even be save to say that I love football.  So, I'm watching the game and I begin to think about the things that I really like about the sport and my experiences with it.  I rambled on pointlessly in my own mind for a while...and then something struck me. 

One of my favorite things about it is the way a team comes together and sells out for the whisper of greatness that could be.  There is a dream, a hope, a vision of what could be accomplished...and the only way to get there is together.  Throughout the next few months a team will endure together through all kinds of adversity...tiresome agony of daily training, gut-wrenching defeats, the hazard of victories, blood, sweat and tears flow...all of this and more-But why? What is it that motivates a group of people to go through it?  It's that whisper...the fragile dream of achieving, together, something great that will outlast each individual.  If they can endure all the hardships and navigate the hazards they have a chance. 

The thing I love...that burns inside...is seeing a group of people band together and commit to each other.  They go through the lowest of lows and highs, together; endure pain and self-inflicted agony, together.  All of this for one common hope, aspiration; a faint glimpse of something that could be.  I loved to sell out; to give absolutely everything I had in chasing that whisper with these people I'd banded with.  I loved to push myself through physical pain and fatigue because I knew that if the guy next to me was giving the same effort that I was giving, that whisper could become a voice; that faint glimpse could become a clear picture - one step away from reality. 

So I started thinking about all of this the other day.  It's been rolling around in my head ever since. (trust me there's a lot of room for it to roll)  I miss this stuff a lot.  Then that dangerously nagging little thought worked it's way in, "why"?  Why do I miss it?  Sure I loved being on a team; and hitting someone really hard to hear the pads "thump"...but these other things - why do I miss those?  Isn't this the opportunity I have every day as a member of the Body of Christ? 

Every day, don't I join with other believers, to face different difficulties and adversities all in the name of that whisper we've heard of the greatness; the glory of an amazing God?  That greatness which will outlast us all...  The only way to get there is by joining together.  Just like the only way a team of football players has the faintest prayer of doing something great, the Body of Christ must come together - unified on that glimpse of Glory and solely focused on that one vision. 

I think that's all...I could go on, but I think I would ramble.  Ephesians 4 makes me stew on this often. 

yup.