Drink from the fountain of youth and never age again.

Currently chillin in the foyer of my Santorini hotel. Very nice and quaint family run business, everyone is friendly and the facilities aint too bad. The accommodation on the Greek Islands has been a step up from the London to Athens trip and the dynamic of the group is also very different. London to Athens was all about the sites and the culture while the Greek Islands is all about the party. I don't prefer one over the other they are simply different.

I feel overwhelmed with the amount of growth and learning that has taken place in such a short space of time. Im usually given plenty of time (often too much) to process, analysis and understand this new information but on Contiki I struggle to even have enough time to sit down and breath for more than 5 minutes.

There is a saying that a boy prayed and prayed for a bike and never received one. He then learnt how God worked and went out and stole the bike and prayed instead for forgiveness. This always makes me chuckle at how true it actually is however, it is written that when we accept Jesus's sacrifice and submit ourselves to God that we die to our old ways. That we die to our old sin. It is easier to steal the bike than to accept Gods greater wisdom that instead of a bike we should have a skateboard or a pair of runners. It requires faith, abundant faith. In fact a faith I believe is only possible when God blesses us with it. Failure to have faith is constant. To me, it is what I do when my faith falters. Do I keep the stolen bike, steal another one when this one breaks or do I return the bike and come to the father on my knees and ask once again for forgiveness?

I'm reading an Autobiography of Ghandi. He believes that God will ultimately judge a man based on the character of his heart. I definately agree with this. My father is not legalistic. He will not hold back his grace from those who have a pure heart because the circumstances of their life have burned them away from the 'process' of Christianity. He says that the only way to the father is through Christ, which leads me to believe Christ must have to have a relationship with an individual form them to enter heaven. Does this not leave room for those who are spiritual but not 'christian' to have a relationship with Christ without even knowing it? All this gives me is more questions and the answers I don't believe I will find. Spirituality seems to be a very personal thing and we must be careful how we introduce others to Christianity. To deny all other spiritual activities is to step outside what we have experienced ourselves and claim we know more than we do. There should never be any condemnation nor judgement in how we interact with others we do not consider saved.

Controversial? I think so. A final representation of my personal views this is not, only the current state of my argument which will more than likely change as I grow in the fruit of Wisdom.