What am I doing...?

I ask this question, because this is again the question I am asking myself almost constantly over the past few days (and for that matter few years). I think in its own way, the World Cup has brought up yet another challenging idea to me. What I'm seeing about the beauty of soccer, I mean football, and indeed why it's the world's game, is because all races, all creeds and all income levels play this stinkin game. There is no race barrier, no income barrier and no country barrier. It's for everyone. You don't need an expensive bike like in cycling. You don't need to shell out $30 every time you want to play like in golf. You don't need skis, and boots and poles and $100, like everytime you want to go skiing. You don't need to have shoulder pads or goalposts or hoops or ice or snow or water. You just need some land and a ball or a coconut. Barefeet. No problem. No money. No problem. You, some friends, some space and some make shift goals. Game on.

What it makes me realize is that I want my life to be like football, the world's game. I want my life to reflect a simplicity of action and thought which excludes no one. I don't want race, ethnicity, economics or politics to ever separate me from someone else. I think of the U2 line "where we live should not determine whether we live or die."

And, yet I want that simplicity to also reflect a passion and intensity that draws others in. Have you seen the fans at the World Cup... insane. I want people to be attracted to a lifestyle not my own, but of a greater love. The passion I dream others see in me is the passion gained through a philosophy and lifestyle of following Christ. I think of the rich man who asked Jesus what it takes to enter the Kingdom of God and Jesus simply answered. "Go and sell all your possessions and come follow me." Wow.

So, anyway, I'm just thinking. What can I do to seperate myself from the politics of this world and start living in such a way that is to live... fully alive I mean...? Or, as Paul puts it "to live is Christ and to die is gain."