What's in a Name...

I write monthly for my church's newsletter, called "The Bridge Builder." This is an article from the March 2006 issue explaining why I chose to name my column "The Far Country." I liked the theme so much I carried it over to my blog. I hope sharing it sheds some light on the title in your browser whenever and however often it points to my small corner of the "Web we've weaved."

I like music. Toby McKeehan (the artist formerly of dc Talk fame now known as "tobyMac" [no relation to the artist formerly known as Prince and is now known as Prince again]) stated, “Music takes words to a place where words themselves cannot go”. Music touches our souls with beauty and inspiration in unparalleled ways.

I picked up a CD this week [March 2006] that has me wandering a bit dreamily: “The Far Country” by Andrew Peterson. Its title and theme are based on a quote from Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (ca.1300 A.D.), “God is at home. We are in the far country.” In my wife's and my search for the place where we can realize what God has placed in our hearts for our family, we are consistently challenged with the awareness that while we can and should live the full Jesus-life here, there will always be what Peterson pens as the “ache for what is lost, as we wait for the holy God”. We Christ-followers are truly not home, until “we see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2).
In my third month of writing this article, I’ve finally settled on a name for my humble musings in our monthly publication: “Life in the Far Country”. I like its significance because I wholeheartedly believe in living the “abundant life” Jesus promised in John 10 along with the fact that we, as the Body of Christ in the world, are a testimony of life to that dying world; and yet we needn’t look too far to remember that we are not home…we are “longing for a better country – a heavenly one” (Heb.11:16). May God be pleased to continue to form Jesus in us on our journey together to our home – our journey together to Him.