Random Update #5

Writer's block... I don't feel I have the ability to write at this point but I don't want to completely neglect this blog. It's happened from time to time but I've always gotten over it before so this is probably not the end of Northwest Anglican. The "update"...

1. I had a good two weeks at home for Christmas break. The high point (or points) was 4 snowboarding trips I made with friends and family to Mt. Hood. On New Year's Eve I was on the mountain with a brother and a friend snowboarding (in the rain) until 2AM on New Year's Day.

2. Over the break I attended the Apostolic Lutheran Church in Hockinson and then met with the pastor during the week. It was a good experience. I hope to worship there again.

3. Lately I've been reading Memoirs of Early Christianity in Northern Lapland as a devotional book before I go to bed. The stories are interesting and there are some wonderful exhortations about the Gospel which renew my hope and remind me of how wonderful and merciful my Lord Jesus Christ is.

4. I'm on my family medicine rotation now at Riverside Community Regional Medical Center. It's been a good first week in which I've gotten to do and see a lot. On Tuesday I assisted on a circumcision.

5. As is often the case when I quit writing, this time has been for me a time of spiritual struggle. I read something which seemed to speak to my condition lately. I don't agree with every sentiment expressed but I think this article by Michael Spencer offers a corrective to some falsehoods often believed and preached in the church. Here's a quote:

I fall down. I get up….and believe. Over and over again. That’s as good as it gets in this world. This life of faith, is a battle full of weakness and brokenness. The only soldiers in this battle are wounded ones. There are moments of total candor- I am a “wretched man” living in a “body” of death. Denying this, spinning this, ignoring this or distorting this reality is nothing but trouble in the true Christian experience. The sin we are killing in Romans 8 is, in a sense, ourselves. Not some demon or serpent external to us. Our battle is with ourselves, and embracing this fact is the compass and foundation of the Gospel’s power in our lives.

Read it all here.