New Zealand or BUST! Why go...not to escape reality, but to find it...to see hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty...to have the courage to turn against habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living...to be wild at heart.

I have little to report from the last couple of days. My camera works again, and I got a bit sunburned yesterday. I am having a good time, and the building projects are coming along (some pictures will show up soon!) I thought that I would share a bit from my personal journal entry for the day. Part of why I came to ENZED was a spiritual journey. I have found that many of the people I meet here are quite New-Age. I like this--it is giving me a lot of material for thought:

Jan 23^rd,

We have a new guest--Micki from Sweden. He is an interesting fellow--artist turned Yogi. He gave me a good book to read. It is called Illusions, and might be a harbinger of the Matrix movies (very "there is no spoon" if you know what I mean).

I quickly hit a wall when all the transcendental stuff comes up. I wish there were some bridge for me to cross with it. Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have interesting thoughts and even beautifully expressed truths within them, but many of the basic precepts are diametrically opposite to my way of thinking.

There is am escapism built into them--by FREEING ourselves from this reality, we encounter the truth. I believe that we tend to accept many falsehoods in life, but I believe that God has placed within our world the basic tools to make reality self-evident over time. It is not throwing off the chains of this reality that leads us to truth, it is Christ who leads us to truth by His authority over this reality and His ability to creatively and intimately communicate to us about the illusions that hold us captive.

This is the real difference in Christ-following. We need a Guide to show us the way, the truth and the life worth living. Without that belief in a personal and loving Creator, it IS necessary to escape from this reality to find "truth". The language in which truth is written can only be deciphered when we have a Translator. One who understands the vocabulary and linguistic rules thereof, and who has the means to effectively teach us how to read it.

Thanks to Christ the work of truth translation has begun in us and will continue to be unveiled until all our illusions pass away!