The Early Life of Indiana Jones (1915-1920)

In just 5 days and 20 some hours, theaters everywhere will be crowded with people to see Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. With the release only a few days away, I figured that I would post a couple of blogs looking back at the fictional life of Henry Walton Jones, Jr. and the very real word in which his character lives. As you read through this you will see the names of many historical figures. Next to these names is a bracket with a bit of info. I encourage you to look these names up and learn more about the interesting people that Indy ran into during his many adventures.

I started this look back yesterday by profiling Indy's life from his birth in 1899 to his young teenage years in 1914. Today we pick back up in 1915.

Sometime in 1915 or early 1916, Indy and his father have left Utah and moved back to Princeton. By February 1916, Jones was working as a soda jerk and going to the local high school. The prom was approaching, and he hoped to get a nice car to drive his prom date in. The engine was broke on the car he borrowed, so he took it to Thomas Edison (1847-1941: an American inventor who developed the phonograph and the long lasting light bulb), who offered to fix it for free. However, Indy soon uncovered a plot by the Germans to steal some secret plans Edison had been working on for a new motor. Indy and girlfriend Nancy Stratemeyer were eventually able to locate the plans and trace them to Edison's assistant, who was then taken to jail. In an expression of his gratitude, Edison loaned Indy a Bugati, which Indy then took Nancy to the prom in.

In March, school was let out for spring break, so Indy and his father took a train to New Mexico to visit family members. Once at their destination, Indy and his cousin Frank secretly hitched a ride south across the border to "see the senoritas". Caught in a border clash with Mexican revolutionaries, and impulsively trying to get back a screaming woman's stolen dresses, Indy took off on horse back after the receding marauders. Hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched, Indy was captured and almost shot; however, at the last moment he was released by Pancho Villa (1878-1923: a Mexican Revolutionary general).

He joined this army of revolutionaries, playing a part in the Mexican Revolution of 1916. It is during this time that he met a Belgian man named Remy Baudouin, and the two quickly became friends. After learning the truths about revolution and warfare, and becoming disillusioned, Indy decided to join Remy in heading for the Great War (World War I) in Europe, a war he felt had to be fought. After settling a score with an old enemy, Demetrios, and recovering an Egyptian artifact that had been lost to Howard Carter and Indy during his first archaeological adventure in 1908 (see yesterdays post), Indy and Remy left Mexico in April, departing from Veracruz for Europe and war. (While Indy heads to Europe, Indiana-the family dog-dies.)

After a brief stopover in Ireland in time to witness 1916's Easter Rising (a rebellion staged in Ireland in Easter Week), and engage in fisticuffs with future Irish Prime Minister Sean Lemass (1899-1971), Indy and Remy reached London, England and the recruiting office of the Belgian Army (as this was not only Remy's country of birth, but the only army that wouldn't ask awkward questions about age) in May. Enlisting under the pseudonym Henri Defense, Indy, along with Remy, settled in to wait for their call-up papers. Indy spent this time falling in love with the young suffragette Vicky Prentiss, but his proposal was rebuffed and, heartbroken, Indy joined a newly-married Remy at the train station to head for Le Havre, France and basic training.

After seeing action first at Flanders, France, where all their superior officers were wiped out, Indy and Remy were sent to join with French troops at the Somme (France) in August. Here, Indy and Remy were subjected fully to the horrors and pressures of trench warfare, and were engaged in several pushes, a gas attack and the terror of German flamethrowers. Mistrust was rife in Indy's unit, but after some initial difficulties the unit pulled together enough to take their target. Victory did not last long as German reinforcements were quick to swamp the combined French/Belgian defense and Indy was swiftly captured while most of his unit was killed. Remy vanished in the confusion, apparently hit.

Indy was sent to a prison camp, where he joined an escape attempt already in progress. However, he was quickly recaptured and moved to a maximum security prison at Dusterstadt. After many escape attempts Indy, with the help of Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970: 18th President of the French Republic), broke free and, after a brief flirtation with the idea of heading home to America and continuing high school, rejoined what was left of his unit, including a recovering Remy, who Indy was happy to see still alive.

In an effort to get out of the trenches, Indy joined a courier unit attached to French High Command in September. When forced to deliver orders that would result in the pointless death of thousands of his fellow soldiers at Verdun (France), Indy sabotaged his own bike, thereby postponing the massacre, at least for a week or so. This action got Indy fired from courier duty and thrown back to the trenches, rejoining Remy.

While on leave in Paris in October, Indy engaged in a tumultuous sexual affair with Mata Hari (1876-1917: a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I), a first for young Indy. While it ended badly, Mata advised Indy to request a transfer to the somewhat tamer fight in East Africa. Indy followed her advice and, with Remy in tow, arrived on the African continent in November 1916.

Indy was promoted to lieutenant, and assigned to a unit near Lake Victoria (Africa). Indy's ego and haste, however, led to the two getting lost in transit, and while trying to get back to their unit and avoiding a court martial, Indy managed to get caught up with a team of old men under British Command, the 25th Royal Fusiliers. Here Indy was tricked into helping destroy a giant cannon mounted on a train and also fooled into kidnapping the German military genius Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964), whom they were eventually compelled to release.

Jones and Remy finally managed to make it to Lake Victoria and join their new unit. During October, Indy and Remy join what Indy believed to be a fight for the indigenous population against the German aggressors. Indy quickly became a skilled, talented and rather vicious officer. During one charge, he disobeyed direct orders, continuing the charge despite an order to retreat. Because of Indy's quick thinking, however, the battle was won and he was subsequently promoted to captain, much to the chagrin of Major Boucher, his direct superior. His unit's next mission was to march across the Congo to retrieve a weapons shipment that ran aground in West Africa. The unit set off, and traveled through Christmas 1916 and into the first weeks of 1917. Unfortunately, the entire unit became seriously ill, and only a fraction of the unit survived. With the death of Major Boucher, Indy assumed command. However Indy had come to realize that this fight in Africa was between White men, fighting for African land, and began to wonder what he was doing there. Devastatingly at the units destination they were denied extra troops for the journey back and, still feverish and exhausted, Indy and a dozen men headed back onto the river.

Indy and his men promptly fell to the fever, but luckily were rescued by the doctor and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), a German who ran a hospital in the jungle. Indy initially distrusted Schweitzer due to his nationality, but soon saw reason. From Schweitzer Indy learned lessons that would turn his life around: up until meeting Schweitzer, Indy thought he was becoming a man that would demand respect, a military man whose life revolved around orders and discipline. Schweitzer taught Indy a reverence for life and he and Remy pledged themselves to ending the war and the bloodshed.

To that end Indy and Remy joined the Belgian secret service before forging their own transfer to the far more efficient French secret service. The two were split up, Remy being sent to Brussels to become the French contact with the Belgian resistance, known as the White Lady. Indy was shuffled around to various fronts and missions, as French intelligence initially knew not what to do with him. After a brief sojourn as a reconnaissance photographer with the American volunteers of the Lafayette Escadrille, Indy was assigned a series of courier missions, such as a defection plea letter for the aircraft designer Anthony Fokker (1890-1939), and a desperate attempt for a separate peace with Austria. Indy then spent a few months in St. Petersburg, Russia in the Analyst Department, and he and his friends there become caught up in the Bolshevik revolution.

A promotion to military intelligence saw Indy back in Western Europe, and then as the main French agent in Cairo (Egypt), where his skills were brought to bear by his old friend T.E. 'Ned' Lawrence in the liberation of Beersheba in Palestine. Later, while in Italy, Indy struck up a rivalry with Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961: an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist) for the affections of a beautiful Italian girl, who eventually married someone else, leaving Indy and Ernie with a lasting friendship.

As the war drew to a close, Indy saw missions in Eastern Europe. At one point, he was engaged to Molly, an American school teacher in Istanbul. Tragically, however, she was killed by a bullet meant for Jones. Indy's depression was somewhat lifted by his reunion with Remy; and the war's end found the two on assignment in the trenches to arrest an Indian officer. This snowballed into a post-war quest for Alexander the Great's lost diamond, the "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" (a quest that would continue for over 15 years). The adventure took them from Alexandria to India and on to the South China Seas. However, after an illuminating run in with the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942), Indy realized that finding the diamond would have very little impact on his future plans, which was to finally start studying as an archaeologist. In fact, by continuing this wild search, he was only delaying what he had wanted since the age of nine. So he and Remy parted ways, with Remy's obsession with the Peacock's Eye leading him to unknown ends.

Indy headed home, but before he reached Le Harve for the homeward voyage he was brought on to work as a translator at the Paris Peace Conference, where his disillusionment with the war and politics became complete. He saw not only the seeds of a second world war, but also a war in Vietnam and every conflict in the Middle East for years to come. Indy was finally ready, after four years, to head home.

Indy's homecoming found his father emotionally unmoved. Henry Sr. acted as though nothing had transpired. This seeming lack of emotionality did not, however, outlast Indy's declaration that he would not be studying in Princeton, as his father had wished, but rather in Chicago. Indy left his father cold, and would not speak to him again for years.

At the University of Chicago and under the tutelage of Professor Abner Ravenwood, Jones studied archeology alongside Harold Oxley. During his off-campus hours, Indy waited tables at Colosimo's Restaurant, and frequented jazz bars with his reluctant roommate Eliot Ness (1903-1957) and jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). With Ness and Ernest Hemingway, Indy investigated the murder of his boss, nearly ending up a victim of Chicago's nascent mob families.

During the summer of 1920, Indy earned money for his tuition in New York theaters and back west in Hollywood where Indy took a job working for Carl Laemmle (1867-1939), head of Universal pictures. There while trying to get Erich Von Stronhiem to finish his film he encountered Irving Thalberg (1899-1936: an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures), Jack Warner (1892-1978: the President of Warner Brothers), and John Ford (1894-1973: an American film director famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach and The Searchers and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath).

As the 1920s come around, we find Indiana Jones much different than when we left him yesterday. While traveling around in the midst of World War I, Indy has experienced alot. Now we leave him as a student of archeology at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Professor Abner Ravenwood.

Tomorrow we will take a look at Indy's life from the years of 1921 until around the summer of 1935.

The Early Life of Indiana Jones (1899 - 1914)

With the new Indiana Jones movie coming up in just a few short days, I figured that I would post a couple of blogs looking back at the fictional life of Henry Walton Jones, Jr. and the very real word in which his character lives.

For those who are not very familiar with the Indiana Jones films or the hit TV show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles the next three posts are a look at Indy's life from it's start until 1935.

On July 1, 1899, Henry Walton Jones 'Junior' (aka Indiana Jones) was born in Princeton, New Jersey to Henry Jones, Sr., a professor at Princeton University, (born in Scotland, in 1872) and Anna Jones (born in Virginia, in 1878).

Nothing is really known of young Indy's life between his birth and May 1908. One must assume that his childhood up to this point was fairly typical of a young boy at the time. In 1908, Henry Jones, Sr. embarks on a two-year lecture tour around the world together with Anna and Indy. From here onward, young Indy will encounter plenty of life experiences that will shape his life and mold him into the man we come to know and love when we see him in the movies.

In May of 1908, while traveling with his family, Indy meets his tutor, Helen Seymour, in England and travels to Cairo, Egypt, where he meets T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935: a British soldier renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18) aka: Lawrence of Arabia. Once there, Indy becomes involved in discussions about archeology, mummies, and the afterlife. He also travels to the Valley of Kings where he meets Howard Carter (1874-1939: the archaeologist who would eventually open the tomb of King Tutankhamon). Later, young Indy explores a tomb from which a fire-eyed Jackal is stolen. Later that month, Indy and his family travel to Florence, Italy where he and his mother meet Puccini (1858-1924: an Italian composer). Indy is tutored in basic physics (the laws of attraction) as his mother and Puccini deal with their own awkward romantic attraction.

In September of 1908, Indy visits Paris, France and meets Norman Rockwell (1894-1978: a 20th century American painter and illustrator) in the Louvre. They sneak out to streetside cafes where they meet several other artists. In November, Indy meets Princess Sophie (1901-1990), the daughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914: an Archduke of Austria-Este whose whose assassination precipitated World War I), at a riding school in Vienna, Austria. Sophie becomes Indy's first love but he is forbidden from seeing her again. Despite this, Indy sneaks into Belvedere Castle to see Sophie and exchanges gifts with her.

In September, 1909, Indy returns to Africa with his father to visit a plantation near Nairobi. While there, Indy meets Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919: the 26th President of the United States), who is on an expedition to collect specimens for the Smithsonian. Indy helps Roosevelt out when he and a local boy go looking for a rare gazelle, Burton's fringe-eared onyx. The safari teaches Indy a great deal about the relation between man and nature, and Indy actually discourages Roosevelt from shooting too many of the endangered gazelle.

The start of 1910 finds Indy in Benares, India where he learns a great deal about the various religions of the world. He has a discussion with Krishnamurti (1895-1986: a popular writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects) and Annie Besant (1847-1933), the leader of the Theosophist movement, about the Buddhist, Christian, Hindy and Moslem faiths.

Continuing his travels eastward in March, 1910, Indy next finds himself in Peking, China. Unfortunately, he becomes very sick just after visiting the Great Wall of China. A cold rainstorm and a carriage accident only worsen his condition. After much debate about the merits of Western medicine versus Eastern medicine, Indy is treated by a Chinese doctor. Somewhere around the same time, the family journeys through the countryside of Russia where Indy runs away from his father and meets an 80+ year old runaway, fabled Russian novelist and troglodyte Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910).

A few years later in April of 1912, Indy visits England and is invited to high tea with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930: a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes). Soon after, Indy travels on the ill-fated ocean liner, the Titanic. He and his tutor, Helen, narrowly escape the fate that claimed more than 1,517 lives.

Shortly after this, tragedy strikes the Jones family when Anna Jones contracts scarlet fever and dies.

Indy returns to the United States in June, 1912 while his father lectures in Boston. He travels a bit with Helen (it is her first time in America) along the New England coast and engages in a treasure hunt after hearing tales of Captain Kidd's exploits. Later that summer, in Utah, Indy acquires his famous fedora, some initial experience with a bullwhip and a lifelong horror of snakes. Indy also discovers that many treasures do not end up in museums, but rather in the hands of private treasure hunters when the Cross of Coronado is taken from some Indian ruins.

For the next two years Indy goes on many more adventures with his father, as his father has taken up quite an obsession: a quest to find the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper.

We end this blog in 1914, a year which saw the First World War escalate, the invention of the first true television, and Babe Ruth playing his first year of professional baseball. While the character Indiana Jones is the creation of someones imagination, the times and places in which his life is set were as real as the history books.

Tomorrow we'll see about Indy's life from 1915-1920.

Why I Hate Church Denominations

I have been involved in the "church world" for all of my 24 years of existence. For the first 20 or so years of my life I was involved in the Free Will Baptist (FWB) "Church" that my parents raised me in. When you are raised as strictly in the church as I was, you are kind of brainwashed into believing whatever you are taught. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Much of what I was taught throughout my early and teen years was true. However, there were certain things that were taught and believed that were not in line with the Scripture. These things were taught because it was what the National Association of Free Will Baptists (NAFWB) dictated to be true. All of these things were based on Scripture in some form, but only in the sense that it was how the powers that be in the NAFWB saw fit to interpret the Scripture.

When I got to a certain point in life I began to read the Scripture for myself, not in the light of FWB interpretation, but in the light of Scripture for Scripture. When I did this, God revealed to me in his own words what He thought about many topics that the FWB teaching did not agree with what the Scripture teaches.

Unfortunately, many people are still in this realm of believing what is dictated to them instead of reading the Scripture and actually taking God at His Word. Have you ever wondered why Scripture would say something that seemed contradictory to what your denomination teaches? I sure did. From some simple do's and don'ts to important theological truths, the FWB had brainwashed me into believing what they said about any particular topic.

In the end, I am not saying that denominations are bad or that you should not be a part of a denominational body of believers. I am simply encouraging anyone who happens to read this to challenge what you're taught in the light of the Scripture. Does it line up with the whole of Scripture. Sure, a verse or two on any given subject could be used to make a doctrinal position but when you put 20 or 30 verses together does the doctrine still hold up? Seek out God in His word for yourself and do not be deceived my man's interpretation. If you do this God will show up and likely rock your world by breaking down the walls of wrong teaching and doctrine and He will probably change the way you think on many teachings you now hold dear.

I think that my next post will be about how it is not even Biblical to "go to church". Think on that for a couple of days. Leave any questions and/or comments after the tone...

(The Tone)

Wednesday is the Slowest Day of the Week

Today is April 30, 2008. It's another Wednesday.

This day that is so inconveniently positioned in the middle of the week always seems to pass by as quickly as a snail crossing the road. Nothing usually happens on Wednesday. Every other day usually has SOMETHING going on.

Sunday - Body Gatherings (aka going to church); NASCAR races; occasionally wrestling PPVs; Mom's biscuits and gravy

Monday - No work; friends coming over to watch WWE Raw

Tuesday - New DLC for Rock Band; usually meet w/ friends at Starbucks;

Thursday - watch my friend's band play

Friday - Get paid; buy CDs; find out what next Tuesday's Rock Band DLC will be

Saturday - Weekend fun, Nationwide Series race

What day didn't I mention? Oh yeah...the one that has nothing happening to remember it by. Oh Wednesday, how I hope you go by quickly. Come Thursday, come.

HillRod, BaRock, and McCain-amania

Last night on WWE Raw, all three of the mainstream Presidential candidates made pre-taped statements to pander to the wrestling fanbase for votes. Hillary, who called herself HillRod (like "HotRod" Roddy Piper) and Barack, who asked the question "Can you smell what BaRock is cookin'?", both look totally out of place speaking to a such an audience. We already know that Barack doesn't like a lot of wrestling fans since a lot of us are "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion." Hillary is too high class (in her own mind) to be able to relate to a wrestling crowd. Meanwhile, John McCain, who spoke to all of the McCain-amaniacs, let us know that he was ready to "lay the smack down" in the "cage match in November." He also said he hopes to hunt down Osama bin-Laden and introduce him to the Undertaker! When I step back and take a look, John McCain is the only choice for wrestling fans (not to mentions those who love babies and enjoy not having to defend their homes against insurgents everyday).

"The Vicar of Christ" is in America and the red carpet is out.

It has been roughly 215 days since I last posted a blog on here and I figured it's about time to get this going again. To any one who has ever read my blog here I thank you and encourage you to check back a little more often as I plan to be posting here on a regular basis again.

This entry will not be long but I've been thinking about this for a few days.

On April 15th, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in America to begin his six day visit to the States. This is his first visit to the U.S. since becoming Pope on April 19, 2005. Since coming here he has been formally received at the White House, met privately with U.S. President George W. Bush, celebrated Mass at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium, and addressed representatives of US Catholic Universities in a speech at The Catholic University of America. Before he goes back to the Vatican, he will travel to New York City, where he plans to address the United Nations, visit the World Trade Center site, and celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium.

Since his arrival, the Pope has been covered almost non stop on our nation news networks. Entire Masses and prayer services have been shown as the news recognizes the seeming importance of this visit.

While watching some of this coverage, I was kinda awe struck by all of the hoopla being given to such a massive figure in the religious world. Throughout this I began to think about the return of Jesus Christ to earth. If you think they are covering the Pope up one side of his butt and down the other, just wait until the King of Kings and Lord of Lords shows up on the scene. Imagine his visit to America for the first time after his return. What will Lou Dobbs and Anderson Cooper say? Think about the Saviors first interview on Larry King Live! I wonder what Hillary and Barrack would do to try and get the spotlight back!? The coverage will be massive no doubt, and while I'm slightly interested in the Pope coming to America in the light of the historical significance, I most certainly will be on hand to greet Christ in the sky when he calls his people up to welcome him. All I can do is hope that someone sets my DVR to record the bodies bursting from the graves and all of us flying upward to be transformed into our new glorified bodies!

Well, that is all for this post but more are sure to come in the days ahead. Until then, keep that finger on the record button, cause my next post could be about my trip to meet with the King face to face.

Sitting in Christ

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ,...raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
(Ephesians 1:17-21)

and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(Ephesians 2:6-9)

I am reading a book called "Sit, Walk, Stand" by Watchman Nee. The book is a study of Ephesians, which breaks the book down like this...

I. Ephesians
A. Doctrinal (Chapters 1 - 3)
1. Our Position in Christ (1:1 - 3:21)

B. Practical (Chapters 4 - 6)
1. Our Life in the World (4:1 - 6:9)
2. Our Attitude to the Enemy (6:10 - 6:24)

In the chapter titled "Sit", Nee talks about our position in Christ (1:1 - 3:21). Nee says

"Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move? But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big DO but a big DONE. Thus Ephesians opens with the statement that God has 'blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ' (1:3) and we are invited at the very onset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves."

Later on, Nee says

"no Christian experience begins with walking, but always with a definite sitting down. The secret of deliverance from sin is not to do something but to rest on what God has done...when you cease doing, then God will begin."

With this revelation God has shown me some vital concepts. In discussing a particular struggle I was going through, my pastor explained that I had three options...

"Irreligiously--you can justify continuing in this struggle: (There are a) host of excuses that justify our sinful thoughts and ways. This, obviously misses the mark on reflecting God's glory."

This is the philosophy that so many who struggle with sin choose. Ultimately they are choosing to not deal with the issue at all. As fallen, sinful humans we would rather go on sinning than change. Change means that we will have to hand over a part of our lives to Christ where we have previously relied on something else (a functional savior) to provide a quick fix in that area. Trying to justify a sin shows that we don't want to place our faith in Jesus in this area of our lives.

"Religiously--you can just try harder. But this leaves you to do so only in your own power that leaves you with a cycle of disappointment or pride, both of which will not please the heart of God."

This is the state I was previously in. I hated my sin and I agonized over it constantly. I fought, and wrestled, yet I never gave it to Christ. I tried to overcome with my own power. Each time I fought, I lost sooner or later. Never once when asking Christ to take it did I actually let Him have it.

Finally,

"Repentance--this is the only way to live in line with the truth revealed in the gospel. To confess where we do not live in line with the truth and to understand that if we walk after the Spirit we WILL NOT fulfill the lust of the flesh (Paul to the Romans). Seek strength and change from God alone because with him, all things are possible and you CAN DO all things through Christ that strengthens you. Simply confess and reckon your life in light of the truth. In true repentance you will grow to reflect the Savior."

I had already heard this alot in my life but I never got what it meant to stop trying and just walk in the Spirit. The part I was missing was SIT and REST!

Nee goes on later in Chapter 2 to explain

"The Christian's secret is his rest in Christ. His power derives from his God given position. All who sit in Christ can walk, for in the thought of God the one follows the other spontaneously. We sit forever with Christ that we may walk continuously before men. Forsake for a moment our place of rest in Him, and immediately we are tripped and our testimony in the world is marred. But abide in Christ, and our position there ensures the power to walk worthy of Him here. If you desire an illustration of this kind of progress, think, first of all, not of a runner in a race but of a man in a car, or better still, of a cripple in a power-driven invalid carriage. What does he do? He goes--but he also sits. And he keeps going because he remains sitting. His progress follows from the position in which he has been placed. This, of course, is a far-from-perfect picture of the Christian life, but it may serve to remind us that our conduct and behaviour depend fundamentally upon our inward rest in Christ."

This has helped me to just chill out in Jesus. As He moves, I move in Him.

To a people with a very "religious" way of life, commanded by very "religious" teachers, Jesus made them an offer. He said

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
(Matthew 11:28-29)

Jesus, I appreciate Your offer and I accept. Thank You. I Love You