I have been…something… lately.<\/p>\n
Numb? \u00a0Down? \u00a0Depressed? \u00a0Without joy? \u00a0Despairing?<\/p>\n
I wasn’t able to put my finger on it, what I was feeling or not feeling. \u00a0It feels like fatigue. \u00a0Tired. \u00a0No energy, no anticipation, no enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
I was really trying to figure it out. \u00a0Circumstantially my life is incredible. \u00a0Thirty years married to one good man. Three grown, healthy children. \u00a0A grandson on the way. \u00a0A cute brown dog for companionship. \u00a0Friends I love, who love me in return. \u00a0Extended family. \u00a0Jobs. \u00a0An American life, which is comfortable, safe, rich. \u00a0Seriously, what more could you ask for? \u00a0I can’t imagine. We have it all.<\/p>\n
But…<\/p>\n
We live in a broken world.<\/p>\n
Selfishness. \u00a0Poverty. \u00a0Meanness. \u00a0Hate. \u00a0Greed. \u00a0Apathy. \u00a0Unforgiveness.<\/p>\n
Yet I am not without hope.<\/p>\n
I believe God exists. \u00a0I believe that he is good. \u00a0And I believe he lived among us as a man called Jesus.<\/p>\n
And this man called Jesus wants us to know his father, God. \u00a0He wants us to acknowledge our brokenness, in this broken world, and turn from it, and turn to him. \u00a0And he wants us to live like he lived.<\/p>\n
And a lot of people believe what I believe. \u00a0We agree, in principle.<\/p>\n
It’s that pesky business of living it out that trips us up.<\/p>\n
Because this Jesus, this guy was a bit extreme, for his time, for our time, for any time.<\/p>\n
He wants us to live according to the rules of his kingdom. \u00a0Yes, he claims kingship over a kingdom.<\/p>\n
There are two basic rules:<\/p>\n
Love God. \u00a0Love everybody else.<\/p>\n
Sounds simple enough, right?<\/p>\n
Sing it with me…”What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”<\/p>\n
But then the lawyers come out…What is love? \u00a0Who is everybody? \u00a0What does that look like?<\/p>\n
And that is where it begins to unravel.<\/p>\n
I have my idea of what that is supposed to look like. \u00a0And my idea is growing more radical by the day. \u00a0I really want to live like Jesus.<\/p>\n
It seems like, if I live like Jesus, I should look really different. \u00a0Really<\/em> different. \u00a0In a, “you are nuts, but wow look at what you’re doing” kind of way.<\/p>\n But \u00a0I’m not all that good at living what I believe.<\/p>\n So it reminds me of Al Pacino in the movie And Justice For All<\/em>. \u00a0He was a lawyer. \u00a0Working in a broken judicial system. \u00a0He had an idea of what it could\/should look like. \u00a0But he just kept banging up against the brokeness. \u00a0And he felt very alone.<\/p>\n And I guess that’s what I’m feeling now. \u00a0Like Al Pacino sitting on the steps of the courthouse at the end of the movie. \u00a0All energy expended. \u00a0No real change.<\/p>\n And wondering, What next?<\/p>\n How do I live in this broken world?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been…something… lately. Numb? \u00a0Down? \u00a0Depressed? \u00a0Without joy? \u00a0Despairing? I wasn’t able to put my finger on it, what I was feeling or not feeling. \u00a0It feels like fatigue. \u00a0Tired. \u00a0No energy, no anticipation, no enthusiasm. Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0qX-gI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1066,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}