lost in the shuffle

lost in the shuffle, originally uploaded by philbenner.

so i was going through some of my old photos on flickr [flickr.com/pbenner] this morning and ran across this one. i got to thinking as i sat here... how often does this actually reflect my faith and the faith of us in the US where so often we can segment our faith from the rest of our lives.

i find myself often pushing Jesus to the side like some abandoned relic of a past emotion or experience, while all the while claiming to be his disciple. this is particularly on my brain because as a staff we've been talking a lot lately about true discipleship and the reality that if we really followed Jesus like the bible calls us too we'd live radically different lives. i'm working on that... i think god calls us to a higher life, but one that in the end is the life of fullest satisfaction, not necessarily ease, but peace, love, and hope. my prayer is that i could keep the resurrected christ in my sights as a hope of the future glory and the reality of a bigger life. my prayer is the same for all of you...

much love friends