"if you run, he will chase you"

So I think it's interesting how living with four strong believers can be so distracting.

Jacob was saying the other day that when he was living with non-believers, he was constantly in prayer and living as fully dependent on grace. Now, living in close quarters with four other christian guys, the quiet study and reflection suffers. What is it? Is it the fact that we share rooms so there's not much privacy and peace during much of the day? Or is it the very fact that we're all believers? With other believers around you, lifting you up and affirming you, what is there need for prayer? And yet, it should be the opposite. Living in community, everything should point us to the cross, through encouragement, through rebuke, and everything else. That's why fellowship is a means of grace, because it can show you your sin and then show you Christ's sacrifice. But at the same time, for me, it's in the times of loneliness, melancholy, and unfamiliar surroundings that I see God the clearest and I'm fully alive and secure in Him. I guess that's the tension. You need to live in community, but at the same time you need the times of solitude and reflection. The "be still and know" times.

I'm convinced that to live as a follower of Christ on this earth is to live a life of tension. To live a life of tension means that we're never going to be fully at peace and at rest here in this life. And why would we? We have all of eternity in the very presence of God. Why should we worry about our little piles of shit we cry over and obsess over all day long? Sometimes I think the American ideals of security, comfort, and convenience cause us so much of the time to lose sight of our callings here on earth. When it gets tough, we doubt it. I work toward comfort and security when I need to prayerfully work toward my calling.