Mission to the Czech Republic

**I actually wrote this a while ago, and the part about fullness in Christ has been on my mind again lately. And since at the moment I'm too lazy to rewrite another entry, I figured copy/paste would suffice for now. Oh, and I added more pictures from the bike trip. Enjoy.

A good friend of mine once told me how she loved outdoor jackets. Every time she saw someone with a new ski jacket or wind breaker, her own North Face suddenly seemed outdated. It was, as she explained, “fleece envy.”

I have since adopted the term myself to describe my unjustified craving for various outdoor wear that I may or may not ever use for its intended purpose. As I browse through racks of Mountain Hardware, Patagonia, Arcteryx, and Marmot, I picture myself dangling from a rope, clinging to the side of a mountain somewhere. Or plowing across an open field on a mountain bike. In all honesty, this cool looking outdoor apparel will most likely be used to brave the dangerous 5 mph winds as I hike to the nearest tram stop.

But there is something exciting about a new jacket. I love how the fleece is smooth and soft, not picked with little balls of fuzz. And for probably about two weeks, I’m thrilled at every opportunity to wear it. But then, the novelty begins to wear off. It becomes just another item in my wardrobe, and a few months down the road, I see the new fleeces from the spring collection and decide that the orange one is just what I need to bring a little excitement to my life.

This morning I was listening to a sermon from a pastor named Matt Chandler in Texas whose podcasts are becoming part of my daily routine. He was preaching out of the wildly popular book of Ecclesiastes, about how, according to Solomon, everything in life apart from God is meaningless. Although we hate to admit it, our lives are often nothing but monotonous routine. Every Monday I get up, eat breakfast, teach, eat lunch, plan, teach, plan, eat dinner, shower, and sleep. And guess what I do on Tuesday? No trick question there. Apparently I try to bring change and excitement to my life by adding more stuff, and I have an emotional attachment to my C&A hat. It seemed a little extreme to me at first. Come on, I mean, I needed that hat! My head would freeze otherwise! But when I stood back and looked, I saw that he had a point: I don’t buy things because I need them, I buy them because I want to change things up a bit, you know? Make my day a little more exciting.

I did it again today. I finally went into the store with mannequin that just returned from climbing Everest, and found myself debating how much I needed the lavender fleece hanging on the sales rack. And then I heard Matt’s voice in my head from one of his sermons, (sounding strangely like Ron Burgundy): “I need new jeans. I can’t wear these old ones because they’ve absolutely disintegrated.” Really, what’s wrong with the other three jackets I brought with me? Is my life really so absent of fullness and purpose that I need an article of clothing to give me a reason to get up in the morning? (Or at least go outside?) I certainly hope not, and I do tell this story lightheartedly, but I’m beginning to see the futility in striving for change and excitement in the wrong places. I’m not sure I was even consciously aware of it before. But I know that Christ alone can bring about change, bring about hope, and bring about love and grace and all those other gifts that make life exciting and FULL! Solomon had it all: wealth, power, land, wisdom, parties, and in the end, it was all…meaningless. So this week I pray that my time here would not be. That my pursuit of Christ would overpower my pursuit of pleasure apart from him…and my pursuit of imitation sheep fabric.

“I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.”
-John 10:10

# posted by Jessica @ 12:33 AM