More Mysteries....

I keep running across that phrase!!! The History or the Mystery. Yesterday I went to church with Emily. I go once or twice a month. She rarely misses. They handed everyone a small (4x8ish) copy of the Gospel of John…in The Message translation. Later, when I looked at the bulletin, I saw an announcement for the new sermon series; Gleanings from John.

John’s gospel is an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus, written by “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” It was the last of the four gospels written, and gives more of the mystery of Jesus, than the history of his deeds.

Gee…there is that concept again. I forget a lot of the sermon…(usually nothing very profound gets said) but I figure there must be something for me in the book of John…since God saw to it that I got my very own purse sized copy.

I guess I’ll put it on the steadily growing list of things that I want to write about…

The trouble is, I have more ideas than time!!!

Which reminds me of something that happened yesterday…..(digression begins)

Beth is working in the dietary department at one of the hospitals in the health system. It is about 20 minutes away. She doesn’t have her license yet. (She was too busy with full blown rebellion when she turned 16…skipping school, drug use, running away…. way too preoccupied to really care all that much about getting her drivers license) So the gist of this is…she needs a ride to and fro…there and back….most of the days she works. When I take her, I usually just hang out in that vicinity for the four (or more) hours she works. I spend some of the time walking (as in exercise) around the mall. Saturday evening Emily came with me to shop for a prom dress. Oh that was interesting :) And I sometimes spend time reading and sipping coffee at the Borders book store. Nobody seems to mind if you take a stack of books to the coffee bar…sit at a table…or plop down in one of the arm chairs and read for a while. We did that yesterday for about an hour…Keith and I.

There was another couple sitting nearby that I took notice of. They were “young”…probably under thirty. He was tattooed…a lot of tattoos and piercings. The woman he was with was pierced also…nose ring…a few lip things…eyebrow thing. She was reading a “plain and simple” magazine. From her appearance, I expected something a bit “edgier.” Another couple they knew happened along…

”Hi”….”Hey”…”How ya’ doin?” Pleasantries exchanged. “What are you guys doing here?”

The woman (couple # 2) shrugged and said, “Hanging out…..just killing time before bed.” She shrugged, “You gotta’ do something, ya’ know” Huh? It wasn’t even 5:00 pm!!! I was more or less aghast at this disdain for time...almost like it was an enemy...an inconvenience...something unpleasant to be dealt with.  But it inspired some thoughts on my own relationship with time, which probably does not exemplify living in the NOW.  Let me rephrase that....it definitely does not exemplify living in the NOW. 

In theory, I may be a timeless being, but in my “reality” I live in time. God put me here ensconced within it. To me, time is utterly precious and I am always conscious of it and its passing. I am always trying to manage it.  I am miserly about doling it out…not wanting to waste it…and definitely not wanting to “kill” it!!! Perhaps this shows how utterly unenlightened I am but it’s where I dwell…."at this point in time."  It seems there is never enough of it, I always want more of it....and I am always trying to make the most of it.....yet, with this nagging feeling that I am wasting it.  Time...

Now that would make an interesting series of posts.....

I'll have to put it on the list, too.....