dirt road musings

Today I decided to go for a random (well, random with a point) trip today. After church, I found myself flying (well, driving) south. Where but to the very nice town of Kyneton, for reasons I cannot publically disclose on my blog ;)

I was following this map the lady at the information centre gave me to a place called Newham. Newham is a town near Hanging Rock, and I'd say barely 20 people live there. The significance of this town is my great great grandparents were married there, in the towns only church, which is now closed. Newhams has scary public toilets, a school, a nice playground, and one shop that's closing down. It's my kind of town, but we'll get back to that!

Going back to the map - the map wasn't very clear. All of the road names were different and strange, and I ended up getting lost. In fact, I spent a lot of time on old dirt roads with cows staring at me like they'd never seen a car before.

While getting back on the right road, it appeared to me that this is what life is like in this modern day. We get lost when the information given to us is not accurate, if we're given a copy of a copy it looses it's originallity. I think specifically with different translations of the bible. I was in a bible study the other day, and just the difference in the 'modern day' text to the 'older' texts. Perhaps it may be easier to understand, but we seem to loose some deeper meaning! And it frustrates me. gr!

I guess that's also the importance of being real, and the importance of letting God's accuracy shine forth, so that we dont become 'lost' like I did today.

Am I making sense? probably not!

Anyway, back to Newham. It made me think of how much of a country girl I really am. Recently I was reading my friend Luke (of the nice feet variety)'s blog, and initially in this post, Luke suggests that we long for something more than just a small town, that we often want more opportunity, and as human beings, we long for something bigger. He uses the example of Bendigo vs. Melbourne. There are parts of me that wants to get up and enjoy the big life of a bigger city than Bendigo. Perhaps that's a natural instinct that has been put into me because I grew up in a small town that had little opportunity.

In 12 months (if all goes to plan) I will have graduated and will be able to start thinking about a teaching job. This, of course, does mean, that there is a very good chance that this job will not exist in Bendigo. That means, indeed moving. And you know what? On one hand I want to spread my wings to somewhere like Melbourne (maybe like, somewhere in the outer east), but the other hand longs to go somewhere nice and small. Newham, like my home town, just felt right there at home. Much more picturesque than Pinnaroo :P

I want the husstle and bussle, but I want the serenity. And, no, a skyline of buildings in a smog filled sky is not serenity.

Something else I did today was put flowers on my aunties grave. Luckily, Kyneton is full of daffodils at the moment, so I picked one, along with a lei that Mez gave me for Valentines day.

Looking at all of these things to do with my past, marvelling at God's beautiful hidden creation that is so unseen unless you're lost in the middle of nowhere, I remenisced about a verse my pastor was talking about this morning (in Luke 9 NKJV):

59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

How often is it that we can dwell on things that are 'dead' in this world. Where am I focussing my attention? Why can't I ust get on in the work that God has for me to do? So many times God will have something for me to do, while I have my head up in the clouds. My focus is elsewhere, and I don't see the urgancy nor the timing in which God has given.

"Oh, but God, that's a really nice boulder."

Meditate on that verse for a while. See what that means for you. Come back and tell me.

(sorry if this post was too Sammy-esce and didn't make sense. I might come back to this and elaborate. ahg!)

In summary, this post was about:

• When information is not accurate, we can get lost.
• Humans long for something 'more' than what they're in. Whether it be location, or just for growth. This is a healthy desire that God has placed within us. Isn't that great!!?
• Sometimes we can get sidetracked from serving the kingdom of God, because we are serving something 'dead'.