Our Next Adventure

Have you ever jumped from some place really high and there's a point midair when you feel like you really should have hit water by that point? That's kind of what these last two years have felt like. When I left Concoxions, it was truly a leap of faith. I knew that I was being called into something else but I didn't know exactly what. There has been much wandering, difficulty, lesson learning, and the testing of patience in that time. A serious test of patience. It's like I leapt and I just kept falling, drifting.

Things Unseen

As I have been watching the Olympics these last couple of weeks, it's hard to ignore the seedy underbelly of the games. People will be quick to point out the rampant commercialism of the Olympics. Or the corruption that has been associated with IOC. Others will remind that thousands of men, women, and children on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum were displaced from their neighborhoods to build sporting venues that will likely sit vacant after the flame is extinguished. How could you like the Olympics?

The Bureau of Helping

Clerk: Next. 

Christian: Hi. Uh...I don't know if I'm in the right place. You see... 

Clerk: Do you have your paperwork? 

Christian: Uh...yes! This right here. I'm not sure if I completely filled it out right. I'm not even sure what a CI-83 form is...

Clerk: Compassion Index Form 83. 

Christian: What exactly is this place? 

Clerk: We're here to make sure you don't help the wrong people in the wrong way.

Divide/Unite

I wonder if he was tired or angry when Jesus spoke of casting fire upon the earth. He sounds fed up. It's one of those moments when he makes us uncomfortable. When he reminds us that he is not just the smiling, laughing guy sitting with the kids and holding a fluffy lamb. Even that first statement shows that I'm trying to make some sort of excuse for him. "Surely something was bothering Jesus." We're quick to make the teacher more palatable.

A Babel to Our Religiosity

The heat of the words cannot be ignored. Not here where there is a church on every corner. If you stacked them up they would touch the sky. But the words from God scorch the earth. Sacrifices and offerings can be traded for hymns, praise songs, and tithes.

11 Years

And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me
 -"Swallowed in the Sea" by Coldplay

Unless it's a parody, I probably could not write a song a hundred miles long. But if I wrote down everything that Elizabeth Anne Cox means to me, it would run to Nashville and back a thousand times.

Break On Through (To the Other Side)

Have you ever been stuck? I don't mean like just stuck in traffic. I mean spiritually, emotionally, existentially frozen in place (which, now that I think about it, there are actually times that feeling has coincided with being stuck in traffic). It is The Worst. In fact, it completely rejiggers your conception of what The Worst is. The problem is not so much in the situation. On paper this listlessness is not as bad as having your arm cut off in a freak chainsaw accident. Yet that internal recognition that something is off and things won't click into place no matter how hard you try; that feeling is pretty awful.

Sacred Songs

I still remember the pang of guilt when I bought my first "secular" album. I didn't grow up in a fundamentalist household, but I held myself to a high standard. In retrospect, it's funny. The Joshua Tree has more spiritual content than many of the Christian albums with which I grew up. But as I purchased that CD from my local Best Buy, I felt like I had crossed the Rubicon. I did not realize that I would find God on the other side.

Still New Every Morning

Is it possible to love a bus stop bench? At the very least, I feel great affection towards one in particular. I wrote about this bench a couple of of years back. It's located near Belmont University in Nashville. I see it whenever I go for a run while visiting town. The thing I love is the graffiti on the back of the bench. Several years ago, someone sprayed the jubilant message, "Hello New World!" Seeing that always made me smile. It gave me a thread of hope. Is it possible to love a bus stop bench? If so, I have loved that bench.