Meeting up with old friends

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to see April Romine and she thrilled me (kinda) with the idea of doing a facebook page. My initial reaction is whoa, hang on there, that's all I need, one more thing to do--especially since trying to get that darn website up...and that utube channel thingie going. I really am lucky to do this blog (maybe I should get Dillion to help, he's on that whole computer generation thing...hmm). So I bravely jumped on the task and I have been thrilled to find some of my Multnomah friends there. It is exciting to see what God has been doing in their lives and the different paths they are on.

It also reinforced a message that I have been saying for sometime now. And that is, (yep, you guessed it, my soapbox coming out), we have to chose between intimacy and isolation. I believe that these are the most important questions we will face in our lifetimes. The first and primary question has to do with intimacy with God or isolation from God. This has implications for not only this life, but for eternity. But I am also talking about the choice of intimacy or isolation between people--our community that surrounds us. It is our wiliness to be comfortable with sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly (and we all have elements of those things within ourselves) and also giving acceptance to those to share their "stuff" with us as well. The problem originates from the fact that the very place where this should happen (the church), it doesn't.

I think that the emerging of websites like Facebook or Myspace point to the haunting loneliness that nags at us. That's one of the reasons that I place such an emphasis on mentorship--on building relationship within the community around us. We have to be havens of rest and safety--we have to be ready to accept "the good, the bad, and the ugly" in others, (and to be comfortable enough in our skin to experience the same with them).

I would like to leave you with two challenges. First, to be brave enough to be accepting to someone and share with them, and two, if you find that is painful for you--if you are tired of the rejection that you have experienced in the past, but want to experience the healing that i am talking about, please contact me.
In His Grace,
Mark