unedited version

It seems everywhere you look, our culture is longing for true community. This is from John Mayer's blog: "This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right." He continues to say that he longs to be authentic and I think he incapsulates the human desire to be fully known.

Frederick Buechner in Telling Secrets says "the central paradox of our condition--that what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are--even if we tell it only to ourselves--because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing."

The kind of community where we can truly be our "unedited" self should be found so profoundly in the community centered around the gospel of Christ. Unfortunately Christians can be really good cover-up artists. But if the gospel is true and we are all collectively worse off than we ever thought yet more accepted than we ever hoped to be because of Christ - we of all people ought to be the most authentic, free and unedited.

better than useful

I meant to write earlier about the Transforming culture symposium at our church but April has absolutely been a slammed month for us. All of the speakers were outstanding and I enjoyed interacting with some of the people who came to the symposium. Andy Crouch kicked off the symposium with a brilliant message on culture, art, worship and obedience. I sat next to Jonathan Dodson who took better notes and blogged about them. You can read his thoughts here. Crouch's most profound point, in my opinion, had to do with uselessness. We don't like the idea of uselessness, but art itself "cannot be reduced to utility" as he said. He claimed that art is not useful, but it is better than useful. Then he connected that same idea to the fact that the church is actually a patron of the useless. Worship, community and prayer are not useful, but they are better than useful. It was a brilliant message and I look forward to his new book coming out.

Nouwen

"It is hard for me to forgive someone who has really offended me, especially when it happens more than once. I begin to doubt the sincerity of the one who asks forgiveness for a second, third, or fourth time. But God does not keep count. God just waits for our return, without resentment or desire for revenge. "
- Henri Nouwen The Road to Daybreak

I was reading Shaun Groves blog and came upon this great quote from Henri Nouwen. If you haven't ever checked out Nouwen, get the Prodigal Son and In the Name of Jesus to start.

busy, poor, tired, etc

I thought Shaun Groves post on college students was interesting. Just like his post, I totally thought of myself as tired, busy and poor in college. Today, I look back and I wasted so much time, spent money on random things and took a nap a day. Now I realize that poor is not eating hot pockets, but working as a rickshaw driver in Bangladesh. And my view of tired and busy are very different now too. The stats in his post were pretty wild. This heightens how difficult the transition is from college to the "real world."

A Robust Gospel

My friend Matt sent me this article from Christianity Today by Scot McKnight. He has 8 points about a more Robust Gospel. Today I had the awesome opportunity to share the gospel with someone who visited the Gathering. It is always amazing to be reminded what good news the gospel is in its story, its forgiveness, its reconciliation, and its compelling vision for us and for all creation. The gospel is the power of God for those who are being saved!

Redemption Stories

I am excited about our new series at the Gathering on Sunday nights starting this week March 2nd. I am particularly excited about hearing testimonies of how God is redeeming people within our community. Here is the blurb for our redemption stories:

The longing for redemption and healing is one of the most common themes of movies, music, and art. Culture communicates about the brokenness of our world and the desire for redemption. The story of the Bible is that God Himself has come to rescue and renew the creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. When God’s story of redemption intersects with our stories – the entire course of our life is changed.

Quirky Movie Taste

With the oscars coming up, I figured I should write about a few movies that I have liked this year. I have a baby, so most of my movie watching is through Netflix, so I apologize if I am behind on the times. I have learned after my last blog on a movie (Lars and the Real Girl) that I have quirky movie taste. But recently I have found many others who like these films. Obviously, there are things that I don't like about these movies (disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer), but I am drawn to movies like these because they communicate so much about our culture and also are usually in some way redemptive.

1. Juno. They take a very serious subject and at times make light of it. But the writing is pretty hilarious and Ellen Page does an incredible job. There is so much to say about this movie. I think it communicates the longing for meaning and redemption and the many places we try to find it.

2. Once. This is a story told through music in Ireland. I wonder how many people who "used" to play the guitar picked it back up after this movie. Great story and well done.

3. Reign Over Me. I always like Don Cheadle. This was a movie that I didn't hear about until I rented it. I thought it was very a very compelling story about healing for both characters.