The following was an email update sent by one of my friends, and I was intrigued by the questions that was asked. Please feel free to leave comments on my blog to answer the questions presented. It would be interesting to find out what others think.My Friends,The longer I live, the more people I am acquainted with, the more I am faced with the reality of suffering and pain. Physical trials, broken relationships, emotional and spiritual crises seem to strike everyone indiscriminately, reminders of just how brutal this world can be. We sense that this wasnt the original plan, yet we can do little to avoid the onslaught.These past few months I have had the unfortunate opportunity to watch several of my friends as they have struggled through some incredibly difficult circumstances, blindsided by the fierce trials of life. As my heart has ached for them, my mind has been sobered by the realities of struggle and pain that seem to plague us all, regardless of where we live, what religion we follow, or how much money we have.So, the question is: where is the balance? How much of this life is to be spent celebrating the victories and how much of it is to be in mourning over the defeats? How much are we to allow our hearts to ache for a world that suffers daily, mostly apart from any hope of redemption, and how much are we to embrace and enjoy the blessings, rejoicing in the incredible gifts God has lavished upon us?

I was reading and update of a friend and it had the marvelous quotation of Kramer from the sitcom Seinfeld? ”Do you ever yearn?”  I do think that question sometimes about my yearnings. I sometimes fear that I am moments away from slipping into “comfortable Christianity”. It would make life alot easier if everything was just about going to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and appearing at the men’s fellowships that the church offers and the rest of the days of the week, I just focused on my hobbies (i.e. cooking, reading) and in the other open times just watch tv.    I am taking a limited sabbatical right now and the fear of “comfortable christianity” is one of the things that I am every now and then get anxious about. “Am I slipping?” Then I have to remember that I am on a sabbatical right now and I am supposed to rest. One of the great things about resting is there isn’t any anxious-hurried-drive that motivates me to “advance the kingdom as fast as possible” as if “it all depends on me”. It is a good reminder that the world still spins when I am not active in creating ministry opportunities and that Jesus is still on the throne and salvations are still happening. Then I am reminded that these seasons of rest are for dreaming and feeling and hoping and praying and drawing closer to Him. I have learned a lot about patience and grace and effecitive service just in sitting and waiting and resting. It is pretty nice!  I recognize that though I am not promised tomorrow, or the next five minutes for that matter, yet right now I am able to stand back enjoy God’s panarama of what He is doing, praise Him for His marvelous works and just dream. As I stand back and view His dealings I ask “Where does God have me in this panarama?” Is it in the villages, is it in the city, is it among the homeless, or the prisons or the hospitals, is it with kids, is it with muslims or buddhist, or christians? Many questions, many yearnings, and somehow I rest in the confident hope of the bigness of God and His plans and realize that all my seemingly different desires are all wrapped wholly into His ultimate purpose for Me, and as I rest in His soverigntly, and obey His voice, I will be able to look back upon what used to be my dreams and find out they have become realities.

Well I got married on November 10 and everyday my life has been improving more and more. Marriage is great!!!  When I tried to write another blog post, I went to my book marked page for this blog only to find that it wanted me to type in a username and password. I haven’t had to do that in over a year and so anyways I forgot what that stuff was. It wasn’t until skimming through my emails that I stumbled across a hint and BAM! back in business.