A sandbox life

Over the past 3 months I've enjoyed playing a PC/Mac game called Terraria. This is a sandbox game which means it is made more for exploring and being creative rather than having a player completing traditional 'levels'. I've enjoyed exploring without the pressure of a structure in things, being able to make buildings and creations out of the blocks of the world but in reflection I've seen that as the game has no specific goals - like the end of a level or beating a boss and progressing in the game - that it's easy to spend a lot of time just playing it. With no fixed end-points, game-imposed goals or targets I find it hard to play for set times without the aid of our egg timer. In short, I need goals. I need something to aim towards.

In further reflection I wonder if this is true for our lives as a whole. Can we live contentedly with purpose if we have no end-game goal, no target to work towards? For example, I know I work better when there's a deadline on coming up, or even if a job needs to be done by the end of the day. But are these goals and targets placed in my life by work or society's view of life sufficient? What if you woke up and those waypoints in your life are gone? What then?

I think we're made for purpose - we need something solid to live for, something certain - and for me, that's Jesus, the relationship he wants to have with me, and the promise of a future with him when he comes again. Sometimes I think we set our sights too low in our targets. Are we too easily content in the familiar things in our lives?

In playing Terraria I've been reminded it's easy to live a sandbox life - content to live in my me-bubble of contentedness - and miss the potential of life outside it. The risk of real life, the love and the hurt of real life, the reward of real life. For me that real life is a life where I know Jesus. What is it to you?

TheWeeScottie

There in the garden

Yesterday morning I was thinking about Cat being away on the international outreach in London and I was struck that what they are holding out to these international students is not a faith system, or an ideology or religion, but Jesus. And that will start or continue a journey for all of them that brings them to either accept or reject the claims of Jesus recorded in the bible. Though in truth, as a Christian I believe that our choice to walk away from a relationship with God began in a garden, many years ago. How amazing it is that he still pursues us to restore it now!

There in the garden

There in the garden,

my shame complete.

I chose to take what

I did not need.

For all the riches

that I could want

had been given me in God

A piece of fruit

my biggest fall,

yet not the fruit

but my all in all

was what I lost

that cursed day

I chose myself over my god.

For the life he'd given me was good

though lacking every modern thing

In the garden, I walked with God,

After I only walked in sin.

There on the hilltop,

my anger raged

against a man from Galilee

As he lay there

nailed to a cross

he bid his Father forgive me

and with a cry

he breathed his last

yet there was love there

in those eyes.

I'd been so lost

but in that moment

I was no longer despised.

For the life he'd given up was good

so blameless that he took my sin.

On that hilltop, I looked on God

the God who took away my sin.

There on that mountain

when Christ returns

and every eye at last shall see

my sin forgotten,

my life restored,

he shall return in victory.

And this old Earth

shall melt away

restored to how it once was made

no longer strangers

but sons we'll reign

beside our God.

For the life he's given me is good

it will not tarnish nor grow old

but but ever draws me on to his day

when he will glorious, return.

TheWeeScottie

Everlasting God

Some thoughts on how God is trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) a couple of Sunday mornings ago prompted me to write a poem. And it is this amazing truth of God being Father, Son and Holy Spirit that sets him apart for me as a Christian.

Everlasting God

There in the beginning

Before all things were made

Father, Son and Spirit

the one-ness of God displayed.

Enjoying each other

sufficient together

the Trinity lived as one.

The everlasting God just was,

The Father, Spirit and Son.

There in creation

the whole world was yours

created by your hand

alone as sovereign God you stand.

All power was yours

yet you chose to create

a people t call your own.

The everlasting God worked there,

The Father, Spirit and Son.

There on the beam of the cross,

you were there in all, God.

Though we heckled and spat on

the lamb that you sent down

and Jesus contained my sin,

while the Father was forced to forsake

and the Spirit waited to come

the everlasting God,

spent for humanity.

There at the end of the age,

sin then no more,

the Son will return

as burning hearts yearn.

Victory complete,

the Everlasting God still will be!

Satan defeated,

and us with God united,

for all eternity.

TheWeeScottie

Good shepherd

Hey guys, I've been out of the blogdom since before Christmas but have been writing mostly poetry in the time gone by so I thought I'd post a couple of poem while I think through what my blog is for.

The first is about shepherd who finds on returning to the sheep pen that he is missing one of his sheep. Such is his love for that sheep that he leaves the other 99 and goes after the 1 that is missing. Such is his love. This is the story.

The good shepherd

The rain fell fast

and the wind blew cold

as the shepherd huddled

inside the sheep fold.

He counted once

and once again,

just to be sure

all his sheep were home.

But where 100 should be

only 99 stood,

So, taking his crook

and donning his hood,

He closed up the gate,

his love burnt like the sun,

and leaving the rest

he set out for the one.

The good shepherd walked

out into the dark night

searching the hilltops

by the guttering moonlight.

Every pasture he checked,

then when all those were through,

to the back-ways he went

looking pleasant and green

but easy to get lost

and lose where you'd been.

As darkness drew closer,

the shepherd ploughed on

the love in his heart

was the light that he shone,

til far in the distance

a faint bleat he heard

bursting into a run

by his lost lamb's cry, spurred,

and there on a cliff

was the sheep that he sought,

bedraggled and wet,

forlorn and distraught.

Then onto his sholders

the good shepherd hung

the poor tired sheep;

its master had come.

And back to the city

the good shepherd ran,

such was his joy at finding his lamb.

For though it was lost

in the darkness, alone,

the good shepherd came

and brought his lamb home.

TheWeeScottie

Compassion and restoration

When John the Baptist's disciples come to Jesus to ask if he is the one who was to come, he tells them to watch and report back what they see:
'And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.'
All the things Jesus tells them to report on are restorations: the blind have their sight restored, the deaf have their hearing restored, the dead have their life restored and in the same sentence, the poor have the good news preached to them. Because this is a type of restoration as well, the poor in spirit have the life-giving good news of the gospel spoken to them. Their spiritual needs are ministered to, as much as the physical blind, deaf and dead. As Jesus meets their physical needs, he also goes on to meet their spiritual needs. Jesus knows what they truly need, but also that the physical is comfort for us. In the previous chapter we read that Jesus had compassion on a widow whose son had died and brought him back to life. This wasn't just a show of power, this was compassion. This section in Luke paints us part of a picture of who Jesus is; compassionate, knowing our needs and seeking to meet them as they truly are.

TheWeeScottie