not a whole lot to update you on. i've got a couple of posts brewing in my head and they'll come out eventually, but not tonight.

dr. hughes, whom i mentioned previously in speaking about his book how christian faith can sustain the life of the mind, is here this week. he's doing a good job so far. he's coming to our history class tomorrow, which i am excited about. he's been speaking on "the good life." he is saying that the good life is when we seek the kingdom of god by serving others and live a life of giving rather than getting, losing rather than winning, dying rather than living.

this is all very basic stuff, is it not? it is, for these are the words of christ we have been reading all of our lives. but yet it is so revolutionary! and it is so revolutionary because we are still not living it! and how can we deny it? the vast majority of christ's words were about not only helping the poor but becoming the poor, but christians have conveniently found a way to ignore this for quite some time. we are so very far off from what he intended, and we have very clever ways of rationalizing it all.

i am thankful because i feel like god truly has given me a heart of contentment and a heart of simplicity. i really dont want to get caught up in money or possessions or anything of that sort. (heck, look at the car i'm driving!) and i dont say this with arrogance because i really dont know how it has happened. i know it is not my doing, but for some reason god has chosen to bless me in this way. it is a rare thing these days, and i am thankful for it.

mewithoutyou sings "pay no attention to me dancing with my girl, we have every intention to be failures in this world." i resonate with that so much that i've been trying to talk erica into putting it on the cover of our little wedding bulletins. she says that no one will get it. and that's what's so sad about it. and neville says "there's too many people in this world focused on winning and that's where we go wrong i think. what a wonderful freedom it is (or would be) if we could celebrate our finitude, our downfalls, our weakness" and i agree with him.