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revelation

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I am reading Revelation with my Wednesday morning coffee group.  I encouraged them to read it through in one sitting.  I made my read on Sunday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Revelation is a text full of encouragement on how to walk with Jesus in a world where it doesn’t appear that He has won or is winning.  I am astonished that it is the actual revelation of Jesus Christ to His churches.  I am thankful that it comes via the pastoral heart of John. 

I made my first reading of Revelation as a teenager, 13 or 14 years old.  I remember being enraptured by the imagery of the text.  Why it competed with that of Lord of the Rings!  As well I was also taken with fear that perhaps I might be the one who was somehow complicit with the Devil’s rebellion against Jesus.  Besides my fearful self-centered reading I was also deeply influenced by questions of when all this was happening and when Jesus was coming back and who all the national or global players in the events described might be.

I have read the text many times and with each reading I take heart with the promise that by simply reading it I will experience the blessings of God.  “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”  Revelation 1:3 NIV  I do find that I take it to heart.  However, my concern is not so much for when this all happens but for who it all happens.  I want to know and live for my Lord Jesus Christ who has pulled back the curtain on a reality that He knows but I miss.

It is easy to read the Revelation of Jesus Christ and fear that pain and persecutions would be the death of faith and the church.  However that does not appear in the text as the greatest challenge to those who claim the name of Jesus.  Complaceny is the greatest challenge.  The “letters to the churches” set the scene for us to get a glimpse of how quickly the heart is drawn away from attentive devotion and obedience to Christ the Lord.  I believe the rest of the text then calls us back to Jesus by giving us a glimpse of the “end game” to which all of humanity is hurteling.

Through our journey through Revelation I am now reading Darrell Johnson’s Discipleship on the Edge; An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation.  I invite you to pick up your own copy and join in on the conversation.

an honest game

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On this sunny Sunday I have been able to watch the last 8 holes of the John Deere Classic.   Quite enjoyable to watch after my agony on Saturday.  I took my oldest two out to Central Park and we played 18 holes of pitch and putt.  It was agony because by the eighth I was hurting badly from my cracked? or bruised rib.  My shoulders and neck were seizing up as I tried to compensate from the pain.  Golf is such an honest game.  I’m no Tiger Woods playing through the pain.  But, it didn’t matter why the shots weren’t great.  Yes golf has its lucky breaks and good bounces, but ultimately you have to live with the shot you make.  Back to the John Deer Classic–Kenny Perry, Jay Williamson, and Brad Adamonis playing sudden death for the win.  Jay Williamson and Brad Adamonis both ended up in the water.  Ugh!  No taking that shot back!  Kenny Perry kept it together and took the win.

golf and fun

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I enjoy golf.  It is not always fun.  But there is a joy in it still for me.  It’s only been three years and I don’t get to play as often as I would like.  However, the game is a joy to me.  It is a challenge.  I picked up a review of a book in the New York Times of The Downhill Lie, and related particularly to the follow quote:

Consulting books by the experts, Hiaasen comes across this tall order from Bob Rotella, the sports psychologist: “On the first tee, a golfer must expect only two things of himself: to have fun, and to focus his mind properly on every shot.” A friend agrees to join him in a tournament on one condition: “Promise me you’ll have fun.” Meanwhile, his wife and son sign up for lessons and … they think it’s fun! Hiaasen writes as if he were the only golfer out there who isn’t having a good time. Is golf fun? I wouldn’t know. In my experience, it’s a lot like writing — exhilarating when you get it right, and the rest of the time it’s torture.

While the journal format doesn’t allow Hiaasen much occasion to exercise his flawless ear for dialogue, it does give us a chance to hear the voice in his own head. His preoccupations emerge as themes here: a midlife awareness of the physical decay that aging brings, a stubborn resolve to prove himself the exception, memories of his father, hope in his son.

I turned 40 this week.  And after a party in which we played duck duck goose, danced the hokey pokey, cops and robbers, octopus and ran up hill chasing footballs and frisbees, I was painfully conscious of the shape I am in.  But for golf…I promise to have fun!  Let’s go play! 

craig obrien blogs here

/ Craig / Leave a comment

Craig O’Brien blogs here. 

I have blogged for a few years now.  However at best I am an irregular blogger.  After a two month break I have decided to try again.  The truth is I missed it.  Writing is a good discipline and I have found the blog to be a help to me in my process of working out what it means for me to follow Jesus.  As well through the blog I have been able to collect articles and media related to issues that interest me and may be of interest to the community and city I live with. 

Perhaps what intrigues me most about blogging is what is most difficult about blogging.  Blogging creates the opportunity to engage a wider community of people in conversation.  Putting thoughts in print allows other people to push back, agree, or develop further the ideas under discussion.  To me ideas are fair game.  Liberty afords us a privledged space in which people can be respected and ideas can be considered and critiqued. Blogging at its best creates space for liberty to flourish.  Please join in the conversation if you are helped, irritated, delighted, or confused by what is written here.

Some of you my have checked in on me at craigobrien blogs.  Please change your feeds to receive from www.urbanfoot.ca