I have been studying the book of Micah quite a bit lately. I suppose part of my fascination with this book is the similarities that can be drawn between Micah's world and our world. Micah, according to Daniel J. Simundson, felt compassion for the poor and dispossessed, and held the leaders responsible for their suffering. Add to this the picture of a society where the rich and powerful used their influence to exploit the vulnerable and to create even greater inequalities of wealth and influence. Sounds quite similar to today.
I think about these similarities and I think about Micah being ostracized from his community and eventually killed, Jesus was killed for his stand against these same things in his day, and now you and I are still faced with these same things. I think about our definition of evil and sin. I think about how I define those things as separation from God. Not that anything is evil because of what it is, but in that it separates us from God. What would our church, our community look like if everyone worked as hard at drawing close to God as they do at separating themselves from God?

I got to spend some time with a very dear friend the other night. They moved out of the area and I haven't gotten to spend any time with him for over a year. My heart lept when I saw him in church last Sunday. I'm not sure I realized how much I missed him. There is really no reason we should be good friends. He is heterosexual, I am not. He is much younger than I. He is helping to raise a family and struggling in a new job, not leaving a lot of time for extra people or things in his life. Yet, we connect. We connect on a level that is different than the "Hi how are you." sort of thing.
It's almost like we connect without words. Scary sometimes, I see my mistakes in him. I see a drive to get things done to the exclusion of family sometimes. I see a person on fire for justice and the love of God, who must feel that sometimes the entire world is going in a different direction. I wonder if God sees us in that same way sometimes. So happy when we take the time to return for that momentary peace. I wonder if God's heart jumps with excitement when we return to look anew at what God might desire for us. I wonder.....

I was talking with a 13 year old the other day about death. She said to me that death is the absence of life. When I asked her to explain that to me. She said something like this.

Life and living are so much more than existing. Lots and lots of people and things exist. They breath in air, eat and drink, do all those things that are considered evidence of life, but they don't really live. They are so busy being who someone else wants them to be, that they don't know who they are. They get so tangled up with what someone else expects and wants that they forget about who they are. It makes me sad that some of my friends will only wear what they think someone else like even if it is itchey or something.

I wonder how many of us are actually walking dead? What would it take for us to actually become alive in our own skins?