Sunday, August 13, 2006

Hunger and Thirst

I was up at my caravan at the coast for a couple of days this week, taking long walks and thanking God for wonder. I've also been thinking about Jesus' words:
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled".
Al was showing me this in The Message which reads:
"You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world."

I'm loving trying to get to grips with this. I think it relates to my post below. Instead of trying to stop the wrong things we're doing we should concentrate on doing right...hunger and thirsting for right. Then we will see change on the outside. Pretty simple in theory. But what is right? loving God, loving our neighbour, fighting for justice, looking after the poor, being righteous but not self-righteous. I haven't figured much of this out yet but answers are overrated anyway.

8 comments:

roast honey said...

Well put. Sometimes questions don't raise answers, they just raise more questions. There's nothing wrong with that.

Zico said...

Questions are easy, it's just the answers we have a problem with.

Anonymous said...

I finally was able to read all your postings since you left the First Nations one. I am inspired about the questions that you are asking, what you are learning about yourself and what it means to grow in the people designed us to be. Continue to seek Him and He will make you into the man of God that He desires. I just finished a month of camps and in one week will head home. Like you I think that I need some time to reflect on all that the Lord has been teaching me. I am enjoying the OT with fresh eyes. Just finished Hosea and am learning more about the character of God. Take care and email me when you get a chance. Temera

emma said...

I read a comment you made on someone elses blog and clicked on your profile thingy to see if I knew you... I don't think I do but I did notice in your favourite movies section a lot of good films... Have you read a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldridge? If not I would recommend it to you! He mentions almost all of your favourite filsm in his book which is about being a man the way God made you to be a man. Anyway, it just struck me!
Have a nice day!

graham said...

alright john,
thanks for the comment some cool stuff on ur blog too, and a click to brian's blog lead me on quite the 24-7 blog merrigoround ;) but i eventually came back to leave a comment, beattitudes stuff really hit me on retreat i did down in manresa in dublin, they have stain glass windows painted by evie hone(who is well know in stain glass circles apparently :) anyway i found myself lost in her beattitudes window and could sit of a long time considering them, i agree but we should definately focus on positive attributes to aspire to not sit cutting lumps out of ourselves.

like if you sat in watching an ok tv program instead of going out dancing, and then for the next wk you are thinking about how average the tv show was you prob will try and find a better show next time, but prob fail and watch another ok tv show, whereas if you thought about how good dancing is then come friday you'll be busting for the dancefloor.

J-Mac said...

Emma,
Yeah I have read that book. I thought some parts of it dripped with cheese but underneath there were some great snippets. And yes, he uses many of my favourite movies!

Graeme,
Love that illustration though I'm a drummer and we are notoriously bad dancers!

J-Mac said...

I have put a link on my blog to yours for my ease of use. Hope that's ok...I'm new to this caper.

Anonymous said...

Hey,
Your right man, there are no easy answers just a journey, one step at a time. Thats why we have each other iron sharpens iron and all that! Maybe we should be upholding each other bearing others burdens as well as our own.