L13: Stay

"Abide in me"

One year ago today, exactly, I turned in a 100 page dissertation on what it means to abide without actually talking about it for more than a sentence or two. It is simply to be, to strip away all we know, all we see, all we think, and most importantly, all we assume, and to simply be.

Today, I went to a Bible study in which we discussed what it means to "abide." I gave it my best shot, but the leader was looking for an answer, and thus "we" decided it meant doing something more than simply being..."bible study, prayer, practicing love."

Nothing against those, but I don't think that's what abiding is. It is to simply be, to exist. To abide in something is to exist in a state within that particular thing's frame of reference.

What I did discuss, at length, in those 100 pages, is the necessity to decenter, and that, truly, is what abiding is.

"the dude abides" because the dude found a way to be the perfect hero without any actual action, to exist in a truly decentered state.

We abide in Christ because we have decentered all else and put him at our center...our only center. Everything else, yes, even all we do for him, is and, if we are abiding must be, periphery.

One year may pass, but I could still write about this stuff forever.

-Zack

"I need more now than philosophy; some god in outer-space doesn't mean anything to me"
-John Mark McMillan