Why name a blog "Beyond the Ruins?" First, I love ruins. The picture at the top of my blog was taken by my wife as we were on a ferry from the famous Iona Abbey back to mainland Scotland. What I love about that picture is that it is so full of life - fresh green grass and ivy thriving against the castle whose walls barely stand. If you look closely, just to the right, you'll see a large white celtic cross. Amid the ruins at Iona stand dozens of magnificent celtic crosses, and here too, amid other ruins, the cross still stands.

Second, there are several images I hope to evoke from the title to this blog which highlights what I hope to focus on. The first image is spiritual. We, as those indwelt by the Spirit of God, have been newly created - the old has gone and the new has come.  The Christian life, therefore, is a life beyond the ruins; or, to quote Paul, our life is hidden with Christ in God. 

The second image I hope this will evoke is that while we are new creatures, we live in a world which still groans under the weight of sin. Our life, in other words, like the stark white cross, is lived amid the ruins of the world, but is lived as new - as representatives of another realm. I lived in Scotland for four years, and in that time my wife and I travelled all across the country. We saw dozens of castles, cathedrals, churches and abbeys barely standing. These structures were once considered impenetrable. They were indestructable, and now they are piles of stones tourists sit on to eat their picnic lunch. 

Living beyond the ruins is a call to live beyond one's natural strength and ability - and to seek the strength that is known only in weakness. Beyond the ruins is akin to beyond the grave, it is a parallel call to live the resurrected life, because we have died with Christ, therefore let us live with him. For the material realities we give ourselves to will one day be a pile of rubble, the question will always be, did we build kingdomly, with material that will last, or not?