So the only reason I got this is because I wanted to view a friend's blog and it made me get a profile. However, since I've got it, might as well write something.

I've been reading this book called Blessed Child by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright lately, and not only is it a fantastic novel I recommend all should read, but it has a spectacular opening quote that I've been obsessing over the past few days:

"The greatest difference between present-day Christianity, and that of which we read in these letters (in the New Testament) is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience.  We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code or, at best, a rule of heart and life. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we could achieve what they achieved."    -J.B. Phillips in the introduction to his New Testament translation.

Man, could that be phrased any better? We see the story of Jesus as a moment in history.  The stage set and his great act of mercy carried out. Redemption for all is achieved on that amazing day. But can any of us imagine what it was actually like? To be in that place with no hope and look at Jesus, dying on the cross, and finally find yourself?

Imagine you're one of those disciples. You met this guy, he's the teacher of the century, people following in his footsteps every way you turn, and you just know something big is coming.
Something huge,
something life-changing.
It's like the anticipation of an acceptance letter, or a call back for the job of your dreams except 5 billion times more intense.

Then everything goes downhill, soldiers are everywhere, mob mentality is taking over, life has turned into one giant swirly.
Then you see Him, your teacher, through the midst of it all, and He's still just being Him. Forgiving people, making things right, taking it all, and you just stand there watching and knowing He doesn't deserve to be there.

All of a sudden all those riddles, all those parables, all those prophecies, they start to make sense and all you can do is weep at the prospect that He is being brutally punished for a life you lived.

You know what all those disciples did? They lived their lives for Him. They went to prison, they DIED for Him. For HIM, not for themselves, not to follow a book of codes, but for the person they knew to be real and what he did for them. Trying to live like Jesus is just being a good person, but living life for Jesus is what being a Christian means.

I think the person that came closest to this was Mother Teresa. She did everything not for the good consequences that would come to her, but because she had a loving relationship with God that she lived out.

I hope to be that courageous of a person, I wish I was that person now. But I cling to stability. Schooling then a job, following a normal path of life, but I always wonder...

if one Jesus could turn the world inside out, what could 500 Jesus' do? The world would be a much better place for it, that's for sure. We can never hope to attain what Jesus has done but if we all tried how much better could we make it?

One of my favorite Mother Teresa quotes is "love is giving till it hurts." If we all did our best to love, if we all gave till it hurt, think what a difference that would be.

                 Sincerely,
                      an inspired and motivated Carolyn