living...

"If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for." -Thomas Merton

I've thought about this quote quite a bit recently. On one hand, it provokes a lot of reflection and searching, say, for those that are seeking to be Christ-like, to better themselves, to contribute to a higher good. In another way, I feel that many people in the world wouldn't give it much thought. Their answer, if truthful, would be that I'm living for myself and that's exactly what I want to be living for...

On further thought, if any of us are honest, we're mostly living for ourselves. The difference? That last bit... what is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for... perhaps suggests that what I'm living for and what I want to live for are two different things. Those of us who've gotten a taste of who God really is... who've gotten a glimpse of Jesus... realize that living for ourselves is a losing battle and that there's something else to live for that's worth the struggle, the pain, and the dying necessary to break us out of our brokenness.

On a lighter note... I'm sitting in my office, waiting to train one athlete today... playing with an MP3 player I got for Christmas that I'm not sure I can use with my Mac laptop... and I've started re-reading Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. Good stuff. Not much else going on... I have about a movie and a half left from yesterday's harvest from the public library. And, I guess I should try to do some homework...

Hope you're well...