Day 243 - back from vacation ...maybe.

Day 243 and I'm back!
Yep 2 months off ...one for vacation as we travelled Scotland and Spain; one for catching up having been gone for four weeks!
Glad to be back - a good discipline.
So, we are on this daily blog of how deliberately I am following Christ.
Just read today that Archbishop Desmond Tutu is going to slow down now he's at the age of 79. Yesterday I finished the final book written by Dr John Stott ...at the age of 88.
Makes me feel a bit of a wimp for taking a two month break.
Of course, you might be saying 'well you only took a break from blogging about your christian living, you didn't actually stop doing it.'
Right?!?!

Existentially I was always doing it. Honestly.
But do you ever wonder how much of it you are actually doing.

We've just finished another August pierce the heart message series. Week after week I pounded myself with what following Christ, being part of His Church should look like.and every Sunday afternoon I lazed on my sofa watching the new English Premier League football game while munching on the remnants of my leftover Scottish chocolates.

Yep .....existentially, but honestly?

65 days away from blogging and I wondered how deliberate was I?
Not that I was deliberately not following Christ. Of course I continued my spiritual disciplines - maybe even sharper away from my desk.
But maybe I'm rethinking a bit what deliberate following is.
If I haven't helped a neighbor, or cared for an orphans, or shared my faith, fought for justice, or been humiliated for Him ....am I deliberately following.

I'm nicely following.
I could be contently following.
Maybe I could say I'm willingly following.
But deliberate?

Deliberate has intensity and action implicit in it; it's also connected to obedience, else what's the deliberate defining!

Now I sat in a Spanish cafe at midnight supping a San Miguel and counselling a friend on his spiritual journey.
I attended 4 different churches, of 4 different traditions on 4 different Sundays and enjoyed each worship experience.
I read 7 books - mostly on theological matters.
I had quality time with my boys talking life and faith.
I prayed.
I journalled.
I felt His presence.

But the core of what Jesus seems to indicate is following Him ......I didn't really do (except my giving to the poor continued courtesy of direct deposit!).

So Day 243.
What today have I done to deliberately follow Christ?
2:17pm .....still hoping it will happen.
This vacation mindset has to change.