Along for the RIde

I should fairly warn you: This post is long and it’s not uplifting, but it is honest. So read only if you are prepared for an ending that doesn’t feel like an ending because this is an ongoing thing and it will only be resolved in time. I went out for a run today for the first time in almost two months. The air was freezing and I have so many other things I could be doing, but I decided that today was the day to get myself back on track. I knew that I needed to go to the battlefield, which is my longer run, and a route I would normally save for when I’ve been exercising regularly. As I started running, I looked for any excuse I could find to allow me to turn back. When the air started to make my asthma flair up, I wanted to quit. I wanted to stop sucking in air that cut my lungs like shards of glass, but I kept going. Then, when I’d completed 1 mile and my app told me my average pace and how long it’d taken me to get this far, I wanted to turn back. My time was less than stell...

I spent half my week working on an exegetical paper for Mark 3:31-35. 31  And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.  32  And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers [and your sisters] are outside, seeking you.”  33  And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  34  And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,“Here are my mother and my brothers!  35  For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” We were asked to look into four different aspects of this section but there is one that stood out to me most: the theology and truth Christ spoke into my heart through studying this passage. Jesus introduces this radical new idea of family.   The blood family unit is no longer the core foundation for what it means to be family.   Jesus experiences aliena...