This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
This video captures what I think heaven should look like.
finally. i made it to the mountains. i made it where my heart feels “home.”
The Everybodyfields, “So Good to Be Home”
Today feels like fall. I am really missing home today. I need mountains under my feet, fresh air in my nostrils, my brother’s laugh as he leads me on a daring new hiking trail. I always feel nostalgic at the end of summer, so I guess today is my day for remembering and maybe a few tears. Good tears. And I will see my family soon.
this flower refuses to be the norm. and it is stunning.
why does this exist?
i miss new york everyday.
Last night, I forced myself out of my house and into a local gathering of young, Christian-ish 20 somethings that meet once a week for music and a message from a speaker. I had heard a small bit about it and had my own, stubborn assumptions. I sit far too long on my stubborn assumptions often times and I am very aware of the damage this is capable of. Thus, the forcing of myself out of the house and into the very environment I secretly wanted to prove my cynicism (or is it sometimes the recognition of facts?) very wrong.
I was okay with the usual Christian culture jokes. I was okay with the cool synth. keyboard sounds introducing the ending music portion of the service. I was okay with the colorful lights and the big projector screens. I mean, whatever. I really do not know the hearts of the people standing on the stage and all around me. I’ve seen this environment before and I don’t feel like it’s worth the number one spot in religious argument topics.
What caught my attention was the announcement made just before the service’s departure: an opportunity to meet with kids of lower socioeconomic level on that Saturday to pass out school supplies and, in the words of the speaker, “build relationships.”
My first thought? “There sure as hell better be a few people ready to step it up and get into the homes and lives of these children.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where did that come from? What could possibly be going on inside of me to produce such a bitter retaliation? I certainly wasn’t expecting it.
I mean, looking back now, I suppose I have a few ideas. I am really burnt out on these ‘one-day-church-handout’ mission trips. You get enough of those going and the church is viewed simply as a resource, or nice people that give you things you cannot afford yourself. I suppose, if anything, I can see these short-term trips as a preview of what long-term work should look like and, for that, I can be grateful.
I have also only just recently returned from living in an environment where these “handouts” are being invested in fully by a consistent group of people that believe in the full worth of broken lives, the redemption that is available to all.
So with an announcement like the one I heard last night, I think the people, or the church, needs to decide: do you want to be the a resource alone or do you want to be the living existing body that walks alongside the “handouts?” Where do I stand on this? I can preach all day, but in reality, I am just hopping from place to place, not really fully in one community as of yet.
Retaliation can birth truth if you look at it closely enough.
