Day 28-2, August 28

Day 28-2, August 28

We liked the Stillspeaking devotional this morning in our prayer time.  Martin Copenhaver talks about how none of our families are normal.  “The Bible does not hold up an idealized picture of family.”  The Bible depicts all the drama that we know from dysfunctional families.  “Yet it is exactly in those flawed places that the Spirit of God can move and where we can catch a glimpse of grace.”

I took a walk adding mountain trails to the trek around Christmount.  I was reinforcing some of the things I learned yesterday in identifying plants and trees.  I ran into a couple from Atlanta who are in a transitional move to Black Mountain.

“Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t,” is a memorable ad line for Almond Joy candy bars.  It also illustrates our need for interaction in community and our need for silence in secluded places.  DB tests the limits by declaring that, “Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community,” and in the very next paragraph, “Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.”  Disciples of Jesus need to find a healthy balance between aloneness and community.  Jesus often went off to be alone.  But when he ascended into heaven he left behind a community, not a doctrine.