Narratives from NTE.

Continuing on from yesterday, writing about the conference today.

The main focus of it was about being "In Christ", and what that meant. It was a phrase used a fair bit by Paul to describe his fellow Christians, and it pops up reasonably frequently.

The basic explanation of it was this: imagine you went to go to Melbourne on a plane. You get to the airport, you can see the terminal from the airport. Now, would it help your goal to get to Melbourne if you decide to submit yourself to the plane, and put yourself under the plane's authority? Would it perhaps help if you become inspired by the plane, looking out of the terminal and thinking, "If only." Or would it help to follow the plane - to see which direction it goes, and start walking in that general direction?

Not particularly. No, you get in the plane. That's what helps. And then, the question of "Did you get to Melbourne?" is actually part of the larger question of "Did the plane get to Melbourne?" If you are inside the plane, the answer to both is going to be the same. It's the same for us as we're in Christ.

Also, a bit of an extension of the metaphor; imagine now that there are two people boarding the plane. One has done it a million times before for business, doesn't think anything of it, probably pops in a sleeping pill and wakes up when they get there. The other has never been in a plane before, and was given this as a holiday by their children. They've been looking it up on Wikipedia and Encylopaedia Britannica beforehand, making sure that these things actually stay up. And when they're on the plane, they're constantly asking the hostesses to make sure that everything's OK.

Which gets to Melbourne? The question is redundant. As long as the plane got to Melbourne, both of them did. It didn't matter that one had complete faith and one had barely any; what mattered was that they were in the plane. And that's the same with us, for being in Christ.

After that particular talk, by the way, I came up with a couple of things: firstly, "Christian person" is, fittingly, an anagram of "A person in Christ". Also, see if you can get this related word puzzle: ADNOTAM - CHRIBUTST. If no luck, try this: ADNOTAM - CHRIBUTST. It means "Not in Adam, but in Christ."

So yeah, the conference was good. Had some interesting discussions, met some interesting people. Twas good.