It was one year ago today that I posted my first thoughts on the "Out the Door" blog. Back then I was using Frontpage and designing the entire site myself. Now it's a whole lot easier since I let the smart people at Typepad to do the hard work.
In commemoration of this milestone in blogging history, here's how I introduced the world to "Out the Door" in "Get Swept Away" which was based on my tag line: "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Bilbo Baggin in The Fellowship of the Ring." Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Getting swept away with life can be either a wonderful adventure or a listless exercise in futility. Going with the flow may be easy but it never takes you where you want to be. Only dead fish always float down stream. It is my hope through this blog to encourage my readers to swim up stream. And to engage in a lifestyle that is in many ways counter-cultural, while at the same time interacting with our culture. Christians are to be in the world, but not of the world.
There are powerful forces at work in the world for good and ill. All human organizations and institutions can be instruments of either. Human structures; corporations, denominations, governments, labor unions, political parties, etc. are huge and often unaccountable. Therefore unless one is ready to fight their way over many obstacles, like a salmon struggling back to its birth place, there is little chance of making much difference in the world. But there is no greater adventure than getting swept away in God’s Kingdom’s work. It is a compelling urgency, a sense that “if I don’t do this, I will never have a sense of completeness.”
So join me on the adventure. There’s no telling where it might lead us.
happy anni, johnb.
Posted by: gavin | February 03, 2006 at 01:17 PM