a man of constant sorrow

You know when a blog entry is a big blob in your brain and you don't know what it looks like until it comes out--and you need to write it or it weighs heavier and heavier? Well, this one isn't like that. I just started with a title that came from the song lyric in my head at this moment. And here i go with my thoughts.

I'm thinking about all my friends who are very far away, about to be very far away, or just returned from being very far away. It's a large number. I think i'm really glad about that, because that means that i have friends who know (or are discovering, or have discovered) the value of being someplace utterly and completely different from home, and of getting to know the people and ways of that someplace. Sometimes it's not fun when a lot of them are gone simultaneously, though.

I'm also thinking about change, and how it is sort of like rain: when it's here, there is no end to complaint, but when it is absent it is longed for. Many times it is welcome and then becomes uncomfortable, or it just comes at inconvenient times and then is praised in hindsight. I think this is where we're supposed to learn to praise the Lord in every situation, whether it feels good at the moment or not.

Since i just finished reading The Idiot by F. Dostoyevsky (an excellent book and phenomenal author) i am also thinking about compassion. But that takes a lot more wrestly sort of thoughts that i may write about later, but maybe not.

And here is where i will leave you. Remember that Christ had constant sorrow, and constant compassion. And that's good.