In this moment... anything is possible!

This is not the easiest blog to keep up! The page was established to go along with my third book "The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian." The idea was for an interactive blog, where book readers would come to share their thoughts about faith, and where the author (that's me) would respond, facilitate conversation, and generally engage in dialog with readers.

Nice idea, but it hasn't happened. Almost no-one has come to the page in response to the prompts inside and on the back cover of my book. So... what to do? Here the page sits, and it does generate some occasional traffic.

I was thinking about this just a couple of days ago at Appomattox, the site of the final series of battles and maneuvers that marked the end of America's Civil War. I was wondering about what message to share on this blog - and it has to be different, not the same as my daily musings at A life Examined....

Appomattox was a chance to begin over. In fact, the terms Grant offered Lee were amazingly generous. Soldiers from the North shared food and supplies with Confederates. President Lincoln looked for unity and forgiveness and reconciliation. There didn't have to be any more hate...

But once the ball got rolling, and Lincoln was assassinated, and the tendency of people to act selfishly kicked in, and politics began to have their way, well, things didn't go so much as planned at the outset of peace.

Look at the photograph! Imagine that road, lined with 6,000 Union soldiers. Now see if you can add in 28,000 Confederates, marching along to lay down their weapons and their ammunition and their battle-flags. Now see if you can visualize General Chamberlain as he orders his men, "Present.... arms!" And 6,000 Yankees lift their weapons in respect to the defeated Southerners.

In that moment, anything was possible.

Isn't it like that when we chose to follow Jesus? We limp into the presence of God, defeated and desperate. Then, instead of contempt, Jesus lifts us up! Our spirits are restored and - in that moment - anything is possible...

So why do we back away from reconciliation and continue to isolate ourselves? Why do we continue to limp along like we have no resources at our disposal? Why don't we live in the fullness and the joy of the renewed relationship? Why are we afraid to change?

These are some of the questions we must face if we are to move away from a part-time faith and into Real Life With Christ.