Stuck in a moment.

This is my first post for some months now and I'm feeling a renewed sense of freedom within myself and within my writing. About twenty minutes ago I deactivated my Facebook account, which happened quite spontaneously, but the thought of doing so had been floating around for a while.

In a time when I am in deep thought about life, vocation, faith, relationships and trying to read as much as I can within as diverse framework as possible, I was finding that the facebook phenomenon was tricking my mind and persuading my thoughts in ways which I believe are unhealthy.

My mind, as strong as it can be at times, is also prone to looking at others' lives and wonder why mine isn't the same. The temptation to slide into comparison mode is too easy for me at present.

I am, most of the times, disturbed by the amount of mindless dribble that ends up on the forum and the amount of time I was spending on it, or anticipating a response from something I had posted. An almost narcissistic cloak was draped around me waiting for a large number of "Likes" or "Comments". I can understand why the very new (in terms of history) social media is going to and more than likely is right now, impacting our culture's psychological health.

So I am left wondering, if I distance myself from this media which I have generally held a love/hate view of, what can I do, or rather, what can I do in place of it? And with these questions I believe the fundamental question of why I was on FB in the first place needs to come into play. This question haunts me much like hearing the question, "why did you start smoking in the first place?" Smoking and Facebook, both addictions, I feel work on similar parts of our person. They can make us feel good about ourselves. Knowing now what we know about cigarettes, will our culture in twenty years know the harmful effects of such mediums and start telling us to 'Quit!'?

Well for now, I simply wanted to put my feet back in the water. As I am currently off the world's largest social networking site, I may be less heard and seen and with this I am kind of glad.

This is my page with my thoughts, but as always, I welcome feedback, comments or whatever providing respect is the atmosphere in which these are offered.

Till I find my poncho....

Who are we?

As someone who would identify as "Christian", I am consistently finding myself in the state of questioning, asking myself, who am I and how do I live authentically as a follower of Christ? The days of 'going to church' are more and more a notion of the past, so I am left wondering what is left. The New Testament teaches many things about Christ, who He was/is, what His message was/is and how we as his loyal subjects, friends and lovers fit into the picture.

It takes generations upon generations for a society to be transformed. I would say (as would many others) that as much as individuals can be socially, religiously and politically conditioned to believe certain things, we as a collective body of believers, known also as 'the Church' have been conditioned over the past seventeen hundred years to conform to what man has built, instead of a mystical, spirit filled, Kingdom oriented life.

Conformity in and of itself is not always a 'bad' or negative thing. I believe conformity to noble and pure expressions are not only necessary, but also beautiful reflections of God. But when it comes down to the church, the way we meet, the way we serve and the way we worship, there should always be given the space to ask the vital question of "WHY?" Why do we do the things we do? Why do we believe the things we believe? Do they correlate not only with the teachings of Jesus, but also the person of Jesus?

I have not written in this blog for some time, partly because of apathy, party because of busyness and partly because I've kept my questioning to myself. I am not sure how many, if any, read this blog, but even if no-one out there glimpses here, I am satisfied in the fact that I am able to continue seeking out God's kingdom, even through personal thought, reflection and continual seeking of truth.

Till I find my poncho....