Manna, Transcendence, and Naked Beginners

Sin is deceiving. It tricks humankind into believing that by pursuing our fleshly desires, that we will expand the size of our life and get what we always wanted. What falling mankind tends to do is forget the big picture and worry about the petty things in life such as the car we drive, the job we work, and the husband we marry. These things are all important! BUT! When we make these things our daily drive, that is when we have cut ourselves short.

Transcendence: the state of being beyond and outside of the ordinary range of human experience.

As children of God, we were made to be part of something BIG!!!! We all desire this type of life. We want to be a part of something special, surreal, and magnificent. Something outside of the norm and something that is life changing. Often times we think those magnificent and glorious things can be found by worldly gain. We forget that only Christ can provide us with that type of lifestyle. Only HE can make us part of something important. This is where transcendence comes in. As a Christian, we are naturally granted the ability to be in a "state of being beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience." God grants us that privilege. But down through the ages, we have cheat ourselves out of such a blessing. Only Christ can fill the gap in our lives that we search all over for. We try to force-fit other things into Christ's spot, but we come up feeling even more empty than before.

An example of this in the Bible is when the Israelites were wondering in the wilderness. The reason they even considered to go back to Egypt was because they were tired of the manna. They were worried about their menu! "The flavor of a God-provided food rose to such a level of importance that they were actually able to look at Egypt as a place with a better menu, rather than the place of slavery and death that it actually was." (quote from Quest for More by Tripp)

This is what we do! We let petty things such as menu, clothes, jobs, sex, money, who drank the last of the OJ, or who forgot to dry the sink mess our day up and control us. We allow these types of things to rise to a level of such importance, that we end up shrinking our lives to such a small size.

"When the enemy somehow tricks you into squeezing the size of your life to the size of your personal dreams, wants, and needs, he has got you right where he wants you," says Tripp. It's a deceitful trap that we, as Christians, must be aware of.

In Genesis 3, there is a disastrous story of two people who were offered "more" and ended up being served way less than the glory they were intended to receive. Adam and Eve listened to the deceitful talk of the devil and fell into the trap of forsaken transcendence. The "more" Adam and Eve were meant to experience was replaced with a worthless "more" provided by the world. They were left unfulfilled.

Just like them, we will be unfulfilled and will never taste the glory we were meant to experience if we search outside of Christ. This IS a struggle! The evidence is everywhere and I see it in my own life. It scares me. What is the "less" that you settle on? I ask myself that same question. What captures our attention and draws us away from the all satisfying Christ? What glory will we live for each and every day of our life? Are we living for the glory of Almighty God, expanding our life's border as far as the Lord allows them to reach? Or are we shrinking our lives to the measly boundary of our own fences and trashy kingdoms?

Let our prayer be that we experience the true transcendence meant for us and that Christ would help us let go of the "less" we hold so tightly to.

I want so bad to experience God's best for my life. Only then will I find true joy and fulfillment. When the "less" in my life is where it needs to be (WAY below Christ's place) then Christ will have his deserved position. God, help me to allow you to be my "more."

Daily Shame

Here is a Marietta story of a certain trial I suffered through every day for the last few weeks, ESPECIALLY THE LAST ONE.

*themes music begins*....picture creepy, spooky music...

Every day it was harder to bear and my heart broke in two. I faced it every morning, afternoon and night, and sometimes even in between! During breakfast, I would suddenly get an insecure feeling that washed over me. I suddenly wondered, "Is there something on my face?" "Is my hair sticking up?" "Is there a gigantic booger hanging out of my nose?" I wanted to weep incessantly, but I didn't for fear that my campers wouldn't love me the same. The feeling would go away after a few minutes and I could smile again. But I knew deep down that it would come back to haunt me. When leaving the dining hall, after emerging out of the double doors, a wave of shame washed over me once again. I could barely keep my face from contorting because of my humiliation. My campers sometimes would hold my hand to help me get through the challenge. They began to catch on by the middle of the week. Thank you lovely campers :)

Soon enough, random campers would come up to me and look me in the eye, saying creepily, "The duck flies as midnight." I could almost feel my skin crawl. Like a bolt of lightning, the feeling washed over me again. I would frolic away in sadness and my campers would trail in behind me. Soon, I started trying to put a curse on them by saying, "The alligator lurks at dawn." Sadly, it didn't have the same effect on them. They just laughed and pointed, and stared. I wanted to burst into tears, but held back.

*dark voice* "The duck flies as midnight." Right at that moment, several pairs of eyes would stare me down and penetrate to the depths of my soul. My loyal campers tried to protect me, but there was only so much they could do. A couple of them even started to laugh....I felt betrayed. I collapsed to my knees and woke up in the hospital....*beep*.....*beep*.....*beep*....
*music fades*
Alright, well this story is only about 10% true. Let me explain. Kaylin and I started a tradition type of thing where I would tell all my campers to stare at Kaylin and see how long it took her to notice. She did the same back to me :) Several times, I would leave the cafeteria with my campers and Kaylin's cabin would be waiting outside the door for me. Well, the last week, her campers were pros at staring. She would say the code words, "The duck flies at midnight" and they would all stare immediately. Almost like robots. During meals, I would get that "feeling" that someone is looking at you. I felt the need to hide behind my campers. Haha! Well, one day, one of Kaylin's campers came up to me and looked me straight in the eyes and said with a straight face...."The duck flies at midnight." Totally confused, I stammered and replied..."Well the alligator lurks at dawn." She laughed uncontrollably and I felt lost and confused. My campers were confused too...it was quite hilarious. Finally, they told me what that meant and that it was their code phrase. It was like a revelation in my life. I finally understood. It was awesome!!!


Here is a picture of Kaylin's whole cabin who were so good at making me feel self-conscious :)

Here are two of the girls who were oober good at it. They would stare even if the rest of their cabin wasn't. The one of the left is the girl who first said, "The duck flies at midnight" to me :) The one on the right is her sister :D

For two friends....

Hello Crazy Daisy!

I haven't seen you in a while. Aren't I a terrible friend? Don't answer that. Did I neglect you? Don't answer that either. Do you still love me? Don't answer that.

Love even when it doesn't seem like it,
Becca Jones

HELLO BLOGGER FRIENDS! I'm actually talking to you now. *laughs* Okay, well two of my friends (Hannah and Kaylin) told me I need to post more.....especially about Marietta. I am taking them up on that, and I thought that actually posting my agreement would be better, because then I can be held to it. So, if I don't post.....yell at me! Okay, I can't actually post a legit one right now because I have to go teach, but I will hopefully get something this weekend. Happy Hannah and Kaylin? *smooch*

Hold me to this.....
Becca