Thought process:  Warning, the following may be tough on your brain.  

Sitting all night in Chicago. Yeah in Chicago. The O’Hare oasis as a matter fact. The Lord brought me to a parking spot just before rush-hour. Unless you’ve tried to do that with a 53ft trailer, you have no idea what a miracle it is. Thank you Lord Jesus.  

Why would anyone seriously choose to live here. I break it down to the elemental things, it has to do with distractions. They prefer a busily entertained life to following cows around in the pasture.  

Warning leap of thought:

God is not a distraction.  

(That would be the reason why most of the billboards around Chicago have to do with sex, luxury, gambling or alcohol. Oh yeah, there is the occasional “make you feel guilty” billboard. Hospitals, oh yeah, hospitals are a Big thing. And I can’t leave out the governmental mandates to be happy. Apparently God’s not allowed to be the God of Chicago. It beats me to death to figure out how a city, that has to be so well organized, can worship chaos.)

He himself, in Jesus, is life. Religions are distractions. But Jesus is the center of every religion.  (just leaping from one rock of thought to another.  Following me this morning takes a little bit of agility.)

This is not to say that every religion recognizes or worships the living God’s holy son. But Jesus provides life. Man’s interpretation of Christ’s sustaining is called religion.  

A thought I had earlier:

You can tell someone that Jesus is the son of the living God. They might nod, meaning they understand. But learn to spend quality and dedicated time in prayer with him and the meaing changes exponentially.  He is no longer just an invisible figurehead, he becomes the source of your very life. Gladly our personal religion gets tossed out the window. In its place comes a living faith.  

(here’s a bit of a rub for you: The living faith I’m talking about is not based on opinion. It is based on the words of the Bible and constantly compared to those holy words. If it weren’t, it would be no different than any other religion; filled with opinions of Man.)

There are fanatics of every distraction, from religions about God to football 🏈 🙃, and every conceivable aspect of life in between. But the true fanatics of Jesus know what I’m talking about. Once he touches your soul personally, you never forget it. You don’t have to memorize a personal religion anymore. You’ve arrived at the place that surpasses them all.  

Sorry if this is disjointed. I didn’t intend to write a 300 page book. But to explain all this would surely take at least 300 pages. The mind can put things together in a much smaller space.  

Happy assembling.