Inside Out

Inside out.

     Just what does this phrase mean to the average person, is it something to be avoided, something one does not look forward to. The thing most people think about in this regard is in the clothing that they are putting on that day. The last thing that we want is to be seen in public with our labels and seams showing to the world. What is inside should always remain inside, out of sight to the world. Right?

     Now on that level this may be true , although it's not as important as some believe. The world in general is often not observant enough or caring enough to take notice. But what about being inside out in other ways, there are some species in the world that are able to actually turn their bodies inside out as a means of self defense. I guess that they feel that this makes them ugly enough to scare of whatever is threatening them. But, for most of the world, being turned inside out has a rather negative connotation, usually leading to death or some other nastiness.

     I sometimes wonder about the positive nature of having the inside on the outside.

     Think about it.

     What about trees. We all know and usually enjoy trees, they provide us and many other things with cooling shade and protection from the hot sun, or strong winds, or even sometimes prying eyes. They provide the air we breathe even. Yet for many of us the most important aspect of the tree is the fact that the inside, when on the outside , is the wood that has allowed us to survive and thrive all throughout our time on this planet. Here the inside on the outside is the right side.

     Now what about us? As a species. What about our insides, not the physical aspect, that's too obvious. What do we have inside that is so different from the rest of the world. Your mind is inside, your thoughts, and ideas, and feelings are inside. Almost everything that is most important to each individual is inside. Hidden away, deep inside. The heart is inside as well, both the physical and spiritual. Right?

     I think that most people would think that this is the way it should be, keeping all our labels and seams out of sight from the rest of the world.

     But is it, really?

     There is also a rather significant spirit dwelling inside us, as well, the God Spirit. And as Christians we should be very aware that it is there. We have to realize that this means that the Spirit of God is inside us and because of that we should be very representative of God. Deep within, deep inside us is a 'living spirit' that is us.

     Now what would happen if we were to let all of this stuff out. Where our minds, our thoughts, our inner most being would be seen and heard and maybe even understood by those around us. Projecting our insides out. Would we be who the world was expecting us to be, or someone else entirely. If we were to live with our insides on the outside what would happen? What would happen if everyone could see and experience everything that everyone could feel and think, including the God Spirit. There would be no hiding. We would be dealing in honesty all the time, no lying, or cheating, nothing hidden within. God has always lived in this manner, with Gods Spirit in us should we not also be doing this as well?

     I know that living like this, in this world right now, is really a pipe dream in reality, but what if we could.

I like to dream.

Don't you?

ICHTHYS

ICHTHYS, or The CHRISTIAN FISH

This was a symbol used by early Christians to express their faith in public

and as a means by which they might identify each other in a world where it was

deadly to be known as a 'Christian', for both the individual and any family or friends.

The Greek letter 'I' referred to Jesus or Iesus

as he was then known;

the 'CH' to Christos or Christ;

the 'TH' to Theou or God;

the 'Y' to Yios or Son;

and the 'S' to Sotter or savior.

The meaning then comes out as “Jesus Christ God Son Savior”. Even today most only recognize the symbol for what it represents not what it actually means.

A Christmas Memory

Isn't it funny, the kinds of things that you can remember when there really isn't any reason to really remember them. This is the situation I was in when I was asked for one specific memory from a past Christmas.

The first thing that popped into my mind was Christmas morning 1960. I was 4 ½ years old and hadn't started school yet but wanted to more than anything else because everyone else (that counted) was there already.

Well Christmas morning was your normal crazy event that I think everyone enjoyed because I can remember the huge pile of paper that my sister and I got to clean up, after all the gifts were opened. The pile was bigger than I was.

Anyway there are three things that I can remember specific to that morning, the first was asking my parents how Santa got the presents into our apartment. You see we lived in a basement apartment and there was no chimney. Everybody knew that Santa always came down the chimney because all the stories said so. Well the explanation was simple, I was told that we had a magic chimney and fire place that only Santa could open and it was right there in the wall next to the window. End of explanation.

The next thing of importance was the yellow, red, and blue plastic cement truck that I got. It was big enough that I was able to put almost anything in it to mix it up.

Now the last memory that is also the sharpest is of the new pencils, big pink eraser,silver pencil sharpener, and most of all the two BALL POINT PENS. I had never seen such things as these and just knew that they were something special. One was blue and the other was green, they were of the retractable type (that I knew nothing about) with a wide bright silver band around the middle, just cheap plastic pens that everyone but me knew about. Well dad had to show me how to write with one and it was so awesome that I spent quite a while 'trying it out' on any piece of paper that I could find, even the new truck. Got in trouble for that one.

Mom suggested that I try the other one out for a while or I would use up that one so I went and found the other one in my stash. I found it and I couldn't get it to make any kind of mark at all, I called mom and told her that it didn't work but she and dad were busy and told me to wait a minute.

Well being like any almost 5 year old I wasn't willing to wait and thought of something that should make it work. I went over to my stash and tried to “sharpen my new pen with my 'pen'cil sharpener. That's what you did to get pencils to work. That should work, right? Nope, I put the pen in and gave it a good twist and heard a good loud crunchy grind in my hand and new right then that I should have waited. My parents came out of the kitchen just at that time and found me just standing there pen in the pencil sharpener being very sad over my brand new broken ball point pen.