It's a new month! And I think that's a good thing. This past month ended up being filled with late-night escapades with Linux and therefore not a lot of sleep. I joked that "Linux is either my part-time job or my girlfriend." Other things went on in the midst (service projects, trips to Ames, good talks with friends), but it seems like a lot of my attention went toward computer-related causes. ... Well, enough of that. I'll always be a computer person, but I need to sleep too. And hey it's a new month, so this is a good time to start. It's an ultimatum for myself.
And now on to other things: the trip to Ames in October was to attend the "UNITE Iowa" meeting, sponsored by "Every Ethne", a group devoted to reaching the unreached people groups for Christ. This reminded me a lot of when one of their members, Andy, spoke at Watershed for a few weeks. I remember then, and was reminded at UNITE, how I feel right now that God has called me to be where I am -- not to sit around playing with computers, but to be a mobilizer. I like the word "mobilization" -- as in using resources I have to raise up other people to go do great things. So if I can use my resources (time & financial, etc) to help God's causes, then I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
I used to think that saying, "I don't want to be a full-time missionary to unreached people groups" was a copout. But I'm more at peace with it now, realizing that I have an important role to play, even if I'm not the one physically going. And of course things may change in future years, but for this time in life, this path seems to be the right one.
While we were driving to UNITE, Daniel G and I were talking about the "phenomenal" vs the "noumenal" things in life. I took this to mean that the "phenomenal" are the things that we can detect with our senses, and the "noumenal" are the things that we can't discover with senses, e.g. thoughts and true meanings. There is a physical vs. spiritual element to that I think. At UNITE the speaker talked a lot about the Kingdom of God, how we are called to build it and work toward its growth on earth. This seems like a "noumenal" thing -- while we do see evidence of the Kingdom in the lives of people, the "Kingdom of God" seems to be something we need to think more deeply about to really understand.
Finally, in relation to this noumenal idea I also thought about "metanarrative". Oh, I sound emergent.
What's a metanarrative? My definition is... "the story behind the story." So, the world goes on, and beautiful and ugly things happen, things we control, things other people seem to control, and things that seem out of control. That's the narrative of life on the planet. But what's the metanarrative? What's really going on? What are the real causes? Where are we really heading? What should we be doing and thinking about in light of the metanarrative -- the story behind the story, 'the story we find ourselves in' as one author said it?
I like the concept of metanarrative. It might be too "brainy" for some people, but I think people should engage their brain and try to understand it. It's not a hard concept, and I think it's a biblical concept too (physical vs spiritual world). It helps things make more sense, and it also gives more of a sense of purpose and direction than just doing "stuff" in the normal day-to-day world.
So there ya go. The last 2-4 weeks in a nutshell. While I talked about several different topics, I hope you can see the ties between them, and how Linux and mobilizing and noumenal thoughts and the Kingdom all coexist in my brain.
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