You are not "You" Part 1

You are not “You.”

You are not your own, you where never meant to be.

Your identity, your ego, your personality, your free will;

Your name, your face, your body and mind, your story, your memories;

Your wants, your needs, your desires, your faith, your very life—

As if these things were truly yours to own, as if you were completely in control and the center point of existence.  As if all of these God-given things were handed over to you to do with as you please, to identify as you will. 

You are not You, You are not your own, you were never meant to be.

Paul sums up the declaration of Christian living quite nicely in the following:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2.20)

'Encouragement' Note #1

This morning as I was simultaneously covering my daily bible reading and listening to my iPod on shuffle, George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” came up.  Not the over-produced and somewhat dated-sounding version that Phil Spector nearly ruined on Harrison’s 1970 album of the same name, mind you.  Rather (to my ears) the definitive version that you can find on the second disc of the Beatles’ Anthology 3.  George sings the following, accompanied by nothing but a clean tremolo and reverb-laden electric guitar.  .

Now the darkness only stays the night-time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
It's not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

Granted, I’m cherry-picking lyrics here, and may even be guilty of taking these words out of their original context. However, I’ll take encouragement where I can find it.  And despite the fact that “this too shall pass” isn’t officially in the bible, it’s a simple shot of wisdom and comfort that all Christians should remind themselves of daily.

It reminds me of Jesus’ promise that we have all heard so many times, and yet continue to forget:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11)

Whatever you are going through today, if you are suffering or frustrated or depressed or hurting or whatever, just remember it won’t last forever.  God strengthens us through these ordeals that cause us suffering.  They will pass. 

Peace in Christ,
Mark Wylie

For better or for worse, here we go...

Another blog to clutter up the infinite world wide web, I suppose.

Oh, well….Here we go.

I am starting this blog for one reason and one reason only:  I can’t help it.  Paul claimed in 2 Corinthians “I believed, and so I spoke.”  As such, I can’t keep quiet any longer.  I may currently be a recruit firefighter, but I am and will always be a minister at heart.  When I left vocational ministry back in 2009, I vowed to be ‘silent’ for a time.  That time is now over, I’m afraid.

I am currently, technically, unemployed.  Well, I am indeed “employed”, I just don’t get paid for what I do.  I am a recruit firefighter with the Southwest Adams County Fire and Rescue Dept., a small department in north Denver just under Westminster in unincorporated Adams County.

I used to be a vocational minister, with nearly 10 years of experience.  I have 3 masters degrees, one in education, one in “religion” and one in theology.  Of course this makes me the odd bird on our engine crew when I am on shift.  I will turn 37 at the end of October.  Technically I am too old to be doing what I am doing.  To say the least, I am an average ‘rookie’ firefighter/EMT at best, but other than being a minister, I can’t imagine doing anything else.