As the title suggests there are some other that I could(or should) be doing right now. Those would include bibliographies and research proposals among other things. Right now, though, I just want to reflect. What have I learned since the December entry? Plenty...from plenty of different teachers. Consistent morning prayer has become an addiction, without it I just walk through the day like a wraith. When those days have happened I come running back to the ritual. Ritual here is a wonderful thing, a discipline grounded in its consistency. In a way it's the outgrowth of realizations from the fall retreat. The biggest of those concerned Christ's words about the vine and branches in John 15, apart from which we can do nothing. Of course the word "do" or rather the verb "to be" mentioned there is, as I've found, loaded. When we are connected to Christ, the "do" is apparently limitless in potential. Sometime not long after the last entry I was given a crash course in boldness. This boldness is new, and it revealed my cowardly "deeds" or lack thereof. If I believe something to be true, and I stand by that, I've realized that I might actually encounter some opposition. So much more with Christ, where that opposition has all but been guaranteed. I wonder what I was thinking before, or maybe I was just listening intently to fears and doubts. One thing about boldness that I've realized: it comes with enormous responsibility. I think we've all seen it abused. All of the fruit of the spirit. Truth. Grace...but not cheap grace, would bring about something else. Maybe people would see and enter the Kingdom.
With that I say "People of God, rise up and give out your love and show your faithfulness to your Kingdom!"
