The Cause

Classical Sociological Theory is one of the most interesting and difficult classes I've ever taken. When I first began studying sociology, I thought that all of the stuff I was learning about was pretty bogus and obvious. But when the theory of it all is examined, it becomes a beautiful and intricate discipline. The specificities of sociology are deep and wide.

One of the elements that define relationships among or between concepts within the theory is a lack of spuriousness. If a theory has spuriousness, it means that an unforeseen variable is having some sort of effect on the variables that are being examined. Here's an example. In the summer, people eat more ice cream. Also, the crime rate is higher in the summer than any other season. So, does ice cream cause crime? No. There's a third, spurious variable playing into the relationship. People eat more ice cream when it's hot, and the people commit more crimes when it's hot. Conclusions like the one that says crime is a result of ice cream consumption are based on a problem of causation.

When Moses stands before the burning bush, God tells him to take his sandals off because he is standing on holy ground. Why was the ground holy? God was there. It's not because Moses took his sandals off. If we come to that conclusion we have a problem with causation. Moses didn't do anything to cause the ground to be holy, God did. God caused the ground to be holy by being there.

In Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a slave who is offered forgiveness from his massive debt, but does not offer his fellow slave forgiveness from a very meager debt. When word of this gets back to the master who forgave the first slave, he throws him in jail until he can pay everything he had originally owed. Jesus then says that His Father will treat us this way if we do not forgive our brothers from our hearts. This is a difficult passage to accept, and many people interpret this to say that if we don't forgive people, God won't forgive us. But if we come to this conclusion, we have a serious problem with causation. Our works can not cause God to do anything. In fact, it's the other way around completely.

The master offered the slave forgiveness first, yet he refused to accept it. Therefore, when it came time to forgive his brother, he had no forgiveness to give. You can't give something that you don't have. If we are to forgive our brothers, or even more, our enemies, we first have to claim the forgiveness we need. It is only when We take the gift of forgiveness God is presenting us that we are able to genuinely give it away to our brothers. If we choose not to do so, we are truly imprisoned by our own selfish pride. Thus, God treats us exactly how we have chosen to live; God will not release us from a jail within which we choose to live.

There are many other instances in scripture where it is easy to take what is written and interpret it in a way that makes us responsible for God's blessings. The Beatitudes are another prime example. They say:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Again, we have the tendency to confuse the causality. It is easy to believe that if we become merciful, peacemakers, poor in spirit, etc., then we will be blessed. But the truth is, Jesus is making us into these things, and we are blessed because we accept that transformation. These promises stand no matter what we do, it is only our place to accept or deny their coming in our lives.

The ground would have been holy even if Moses had not removed His sandals. His action was actually a reaction to the presence of the Most High God. Likewise, our forgiveness of others is a reaction to the forgiveness that we have received. If we have truly claimed such a thing, how could we not forgive our brothers?

Isn't it comforting to know that God's Kingdom is still moving no matter what we do? When things are going well as far as we can see, it's popular to be proud of what we've done. But what about when things are going badly? I fall often into the trap that if I don't do what I had planned to do, the Kingdom of Heaven would fall into chaos, and the Movement that Jesus started would be no more. But the ground is still holy. God is still moving. Jesus is still shaping us. The Kingdom is still prevailing. We can not forget what is causing this Kingdom movement in the first place.

One of the best parts about the whole Story is that God is using me and you and all of us to do His work, even though He could do it Himself. What an extravagant way to say "I love you!" Stories often go to great lengths to convey simple truths. God is causing a story to unfold all around you. He only wants you to be a part of it.

Come and See

I started running a year and four months ago. When I first began, I couldn't run a mile, and I would get winded very easily. On Monday, I ran eight miles in a time that I would have never thought possible. I just got up with my room mate Scott, and we ran. Eight miles later we were done. That being said, I didn't just wake up and find myself able to run eight miles. I had to learn. When I first started running, running eight miles was something that was outside of my experience. I've been throwing this idea around in my head for a while now.

There was a man who, in the early 70's, wrote a book called Rules for Radicals. The man's name was Saul Alinsky and his book was about how to organize people to enact or prevent change in a society. When it came to tactics, Alinsky had numerous rules for would be organizers to keep in mind as they attempted to "stick it to the man." One of his rules was to "never go outside of the experience of those you're working with." To illustrate his point, he told story of how, in a fight against the Kodak company, he and 99 other poor ghetto dwellers purchased 100 tickets to a symphony orchestra being sponsored by Kodak. Before the show, the 100 protesters ate beans for 3 hours, then went to patronize the show. The beans had the exact effect that you are thinking, and the concert had to be cancelled due to farting. Kodak was furious but completely paralyzed. What Alinsky and his followers did was completely legal and totally nonpunishable. Yet one of Kodak's main cultural structures had been completely compromised. Alinsky's thinking was that there are very few ways a bunch of poor folks from the ghetto could fight Kodak; there were just not many means available to Alinsky's following that were "within their experience," or within what they could do with what they naturally possessed. But Alinsky's plan- farting up an orchestra hall- was well within their experience. But there was also something else: the tactic was also outside of the experience of Kodak.

In the book of John, the entire ninth chapter is dedicated to a story about a blind man that Jesus heals to "display the work of God in him." After the man is healed, he ends up before the Pharisees to give testimony to his healing. When the man tells the Pharisees how it went down, they are baffled. "How can a sinful man do such things?" Jesus is completely outside the experience of the Pharisees. Jesus is a sinner, and a sinner should not be able to heal people. They bring the formerly blind man's parents in to have them try to clear things up, but to no avail. Desperate now, the man Jesus healed is brought in once more and is told to "give glory to God(a saying that meant you better tell the truth)," and tell them who opened his eyes. Then the man says something truly amazing, "Whether He is a sinner or not, I don't know: but I was blind and now I see!" The man ends up being thrown out of the synagogue for testifying to this Jesus that was outside of the experience of the Pharisees.

The formerly blind man had experienced Jesus, and this had profoundly changed the way he lived(he was blind but now could see). Yet when he tried to explain Jesus to the Pharisees, they threw him out because what he was saying wasn't compatible with what they knew. We can only testify to what we know. We can only explain and act within our own experience. That goes for Christians and non - Christians. Therefore, it makes sense that when we try to explain our experiences with Jesus, they are sometimes taken as unbelievable or incompatible. As flawed and broken humans, Jesus is outside all of our experiences.

In John chapter 10 Jesus calls His followers sheep and tells those listening that His sheep will know His voice. He knows His sheep and those who don't believe Him are not His sheep. Jesus says that those who are His sheep will recognize that He is the Messiah simply because they are with him, following him around. That's what sheep do, they follow the shepherd who protects their lives. But this is problematic for the Pharisees who don't believe Jesus is the Messiah. The things that Jesus says always confounds them or just plain rubs them the wrong way. None of them would ever claim to follow Jesus, heck, most of them try to kill Jesus throughout the book of John. But therein lies the problem. The only way to understand Jesus is to experience Him. The only way to come to God is to journey with Jesus. This is why Jesus never tried to convince anyone of His divine nature. He simply told them to "Come and See." We are always invited to experience Jesus firsthand, and as it turns out, this is the only way to make sense of Him. It's only through following the shepherd that the sheep realizes it's need for rescue.

This is the great thing about the Christian story. It's not a story about Jesus that we look into and make sense of. The story of the Bible is the one that we are living. It's a story about Jesus and us! When we look at the stories of Jesus in scripture as if we're looking through a window, it will never be practical. The gospel is meant to be lived. The truth is meant to be experienced, not examined.

Here's where we fail as Christians many times. We try to prove Jesus to people. We're afraid to sit and talk with them because we won't have enough evidence to win some argument on why they should convert. This is silly. It's like expecting them to wake up and run eight miles when they can't run one yet. It's a journey. So, instead of trying to prove Jesus to people, lets invite them to come along. Let's invite them to experience this Love. Let's tell them straight up that this is the only way it'll make sense. Better yet, let's bring them into our journey and go with them and Jesus. All it takes is inviting them to "come and see" this Jesus for themselves.

Philippians 3:16 extorts us to "live up to whatever truth we have attained." We can only testify to what we know. We can only act within our experiences. We cannot expect uneducated ghetto dwellers to fight a legal battle against a monstrous corporation for the same reason we can't expect anyone to be "reasoned" over to Christ. So let's go. Maybe it's time we discover what this "full-life" Christ is offering is all about.

The Story - Conflict, or You Will Not be Spared Part II, or What Happens When You're Pregnant

Your chase will birth only conflict. You will not be spared. This is how you will be made.

Talking to people is something that is difficult for me. You may think that is ridiculous(if you know me), but people have always sort of freaked me out. I never really know what to say to people, and jokes have always been an easy way out of a situation where I can't find the words. So I became known as funny. I got so good at being known as funny, I came in second place in a stand-up comedy contest. I lost by half a point, (some would say) because of my personality, but second place isn't so bad. Unless the competition only has two contestants. Not so impressive now, eh?

Let me take you back to my senior year, only for a moment I promise. In January of 2007 I began feeling God put the idea on my heart of looking into youth ministry. At that point, I was already accepted into Shippensburg University, all ready to start my computer science degree(which requires other stories). I thought to myself, "This is just a stupid thought; a random firing neurons that seeks to ruin my life. I will never be a youth pastor." I told myself that everyday for a while. I just didn't have what it takes, or that's what I thought.

I won't get crazy with the details, but beginning with those thoughts, God has brought me on an insane journey of difficulty. It has been a journey that brought me into the knowledge of who God really is. It has led me up mountains, into books, and close to people that really love Jesus. Now I call myself one of them. I associate myself with those who are trying to follow Jesus wherever He takes us. Before, I only looked at Jesus through a veil or a window. Now my feet long to fill the prints left by His sandals.

Those who follow Jesus do not and will never live an easy life. The teachings of Jesus stand in stark contrast to the ways of the world, and in our culture it is easier than ever to produce death with our lives. And that's just it. When we encounter conflict on earth, it can produce one of two things. Life or death.

The strange yet fitting metaphor I've found for conflict is pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, I am not, nor will I ever (for very good and obvious reasons), be an expert on pregnancy. But I have found that even in scripture, pregnancy and labor and labor pains are made reference to multiple times when there is great conflict. In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus talks of the end times when there will be earthquakes, false prophets, wars, famines, and wickedness - all of which, He says, should be taken as labor pains. A birth is coming. New life is coming.

When we experience conflict, God is giving us a chance to birth new life into our lives. But, like pregnancy, this will be difficult and will hurt. Sometimes it will hurt really badly. If we only press on; if we only continue through the pain can we receive the life.

But what happens when we abuse the potential for life? What happens when we deny and resist what God is doing in our lives? Death. We may not even realize it sometimes. Subtle things we do can impede the ability for that life to come forth, eventually turning it into sin. There are plenty of things one can do during a pregnancy to make the outcome grim. When someone is pregnant, they must be disciplined, so as not to take anything away from the life that is planned.

Our God is a God of life, not death. He is a God of the living. Be assured, God wants for you only to experience life, but He does not bring it to us on a silver platter. God's life must make it's way through a broken world into our broken lives; it's not an easy journey. Like the people of Nazareth, often we expect Jesus to step into our lives, work a few miracles, and make everything nice and peachy. No way. Following Jesus is about as difficult as having a child.

Jesus comes to give life, and not just any old life; life to the full. Don't expect life to the full to come easy. Don't expect life to the full to come strolling into town to fix your life. Expect a road of suffering. Expect a story worth reading. Expect a life without guesswork. Only the assured rock beneath our feet supporting our shaking legs.

You Will Not be Spared

My hometown is a place called Chambersburg. Chambersburg is (unfortunately, in my opinion) a former small town. I've lived there all my life, aside from the time I've been a student at Shippensburg. But Ship is only twenty minutes outside of Chambersburg, making weekend visits quite prevalent. The city has grown as I have. As far back as I can remember, the place has been under constant construction. When you live in Chambersburg, it's hard to go anywhere without hitting some sort of road reconstruction, new building being established, or new development of some sort. The catch-22 with Chambersburg is that people flock to it because it is a conveniently located small town, but because the people flock to it, it is no longer a small town.

Jesus' hometown was a place called Nazareth. I don't know much about Nazareth other than it must have been a pretty crappy place to live. So crappy was this place, that we have scriptural accounts of folks asking if anything good could ever come from it. When Jesus started His public ministry, He came back to Nazareth and preached a message in the synagogue. The message was some Old Testament scripture from Isaiah and said something like this:

"The spirit of the Lord is on Me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Isaiah 61: 1-2) Jesus then tells the people in the synagogue that today this scripture is fulfilled.

ALL RIGHT! The dude in the second pew back just had a revelation. "Jesus just said He is here for the poor, oppressed, blind, and the captive. Nazareth is full of sick and dying! Nazareth is full of the oppressed and addicted! Nazareth could use some of the Lord's favor! Nazareth isn't going to suck anymore!" The people of Nazareth were amazed that this was Joseph's kid, the carpenter who had left a couple months ago, but in their astonishment was belief in His words. "This guy could be the real deal. He can really help us!"

Jesus knew what the people wanted. He knew their hearts. I think that is exactly why He did the exact opposite of what they expected Him to do. Jesus tells them that no prophet is accepted in his hometown. He tells the people of Elijah and Elisha; Israelites who were sent not to Israel but to other people and places to do God's work. Elijah and Elisha weren't made to be Israel's "get out of jail free" card, but rather to advance God's story. Jesus was in the same boat. He was not back in Nazareth to save them from their mess. He was there to proclaim the good news. Jesus was saying inadvertently "The year of the Lord's favor has come, but it's not going to look how you think it is."

Needless to say, the people of Nazareth were a bit upset. Upset to the degree that they decided together, "we should throw this man off a cliff." They chased Jesus to the edge of the cliff, but in a perfect example of biblical awesomeness, Jesus somehow inexplicably slipped right through the crowd and was on His way.

Nazareth apparently had a bunch of problems. When the people who lived in Nazareth saw Jesus, they saw Him as nothing more than a way out of those problems. Here we begin to understand again that Jesus did not come to make our lives cake. Nope. We still have a lot of problems. What Jesus did come for though was to "proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Jubilee! Jesus has come to free you from what holds you back from God. Nothing "bad" here on earth can hold us back from God. It's only sin. But with Christ we are free from that. Christ gives us the happy ending we want so badly.

The people of Chambersburg are really no different from the people of Nazareth. Jesus is saying the same things to my people as He said to His people. Jesus is still here in this town, preaching the message "I've come to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor!" Can you hear it? It may be hard to hear in Chambersburg because of all the hustle and bustle of our small-town-no-more lives. We would do well to slow down and listen to Jesus.

Also like Nazareth, people in Chambersburg will hear the message proclaiming God's favor and think "Finally, it's my time! Finally, I don't have to be poor anymore! Finally, I won't be addicted or oppressed! Finally, my life won't suck anymore!" And, like the people of Nazareth, when Jesus tells us that's not the way it's going to be, we will reject Him. In our anger and confusion of this Jesus not being who we thought He was, He will slip right through us and be on His way, yet His message never changes.

Maybe Jesus has slipped through you in your own confusion or anger. Now is the time. Chase Him. Run after Him at full force and do not slow down. But with each step you take, know that your whole existence will be a perilous journey back into life. It will be a test that requires assurance of your answers. It will be a series of pen strokes that compose a reality of God's will.

Your chase will birth only conflict. You will not be spared. This is how you will be made.

Marching Band

I love marching bands. I love the way they look when they move together, the hypnosis of their ambiance flowing along; the sound is addicting to me. Add a marching band to anything and you have me. Sold.


OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

A while ago Ok Go released this video for their song "This Too Shall Pass." If you watch the video and read the previous paragraph you will understand why I (and now you too probably) was totally obsessed with the video. I think I watched it everyday for nearly 3 weeks. It demonstrates so well why I love marching bands so much. It starts out small, with only one instrument playing, and by the end, a huge beautiful collaboration of musical expertise!

It's poetry really. Think about the marching band for a moment. It speaks a lot about life. Not just one person playing, but a whole group of people playing together to create beauty. That's life right there. What if in that Ok Go song, the guy with the drum had just walked around the whole time singing and beating on his drum by himself? It might still sound good, but there would be so much missing. We need the rest. We need the whole band.

Often times when a person is just playing the clarinet or the trumpet or any instrument for that matter rehearses the piece by themselves, the music doesn't even make sense! A novice musician might think, "this is just random noise!" But the skilled musician knows that when all of the noise comes together, it makes goodness.

In the book of Romans, in chapter 14, Paul tells us to pursue what promotes peace and to do what builds each other up. Everywhere in the Bible there are messages that point to us working together to further God's kingdom. You weren't meant to go it alone. You were meant to be part of the marching band of humanity. There is nothing wrong or sinful about striving for God by yourself, but it certainly isn't meant to be that way forever. When we come together, it makes goodness.

Maybe what you're doing now doesn't even make sense. Maybe it just sounds like random notes on a page. Just wait. Just wait until it all comes together. I promise; when it does, it'll make more than sense, it'll make poetry. It'll make for some great stories.

The band marches onward. The story continues to be written. It is a continuous motion that blurs the lines of beginning and end. You are playing an instrument. How does it fit in with the rest of the band? Life sounds better together. We fit together like poetry. Beautiful.

The Story - You

Hosea was just your average Jewish guy. He lived an average Jewish life(probably), doing average Jewish stuff. This all changed though when Yahweh, the God of heaven, told Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea does it(man, I wish I knew his thought process), and he and his wife Gomer have three children. When each child is born, God steps in again to pick the names for each child. The first child, a boy, is named Jezreel, because God is about to avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and somehow put an end to the house of Israel, the people chosen to be dedicated to Yahweh. What a downer of a birth.

It only gets worse. Hosea and Gomer have another child, a girl this time, and God says to name her Lo-ruhamah, meaning "No Compassion." God says to name her this because He will no longer have compassion on Israel, saying that He will certainly take them away. At this point, another child probably doesn't sound like the best idea, but lo and behold, bouncing baby number three is born. This time, another son named Lo-ammi, meaning "Not My People." God says Israel is not His people, and He is not their God. Whoa. Chapter 1 of Hosea; the quintessential "bummer" for Israel.

Humanity has come a long way. Time flows onward; story after story is written. People live and die, everyday. Sometimes I think we forget about this; that every one of the countless people that have walked on this ball of dirt has a story. You are part of that.

In the book of Romans, in Chapter 11, Paul gives us some insight into the crazy plan that God has weaved to make sure that you, no matter who you are, can be reconciled back to God. God chose his people and called them Israel(wrestles with God), and since then, God's plan has unfolded in such a way that there is a way for all to return. I dare you to read about it.

This is a story about God and you. The whole Bible attests to it. All of scripture is screaming to you, trying desperately to let you know that every breath you take is of infinite importance. Let no one say that you are worthless. Your value has been set by the one who set all things into motion.

The Story being written is a love story; that's right, God writes romance. It's a story about how things started really good with us and God, and ended up really bad. It's a story about how God wanted us back, even after we traded His love for our own selfishness. It's a story about how that selfishness has persisted in every generation of people on earth, but God never got sick of loving us to the point of giving up on us. It's a story about coming home, life being unfair, and the captivation of hearts both divine and human. No one out there is telling a story like the one God is writing. And like I said before, my God is a God of happy endings.

Let me go back to our friend Hosea, who has to be sweating bullets after the events of chapter 1. Chapter 2 begins with a (very graphic)rebuke of Israel's turning away from God. After the choking words of despair though, comes a message of hope. Israel will be forgiven! In fact, things will be better than they were before! Verses 14 - 23 paint the beautiful picture of God's grace and forgiveness. And guess what, Jezreel(child #1), who before represented bloodshed and vengeance, now represents new life!

It gets better. God will have compassion on "No Compassion"(child #2), and God will say to "Not My People"(child #3) "you are my people!" Hosea sleeps well for the first time since chapter 1.

This was a prophecy, told by Hosea the prophet, that was fulfilled by Jesus. Now all of us, those who were once not God's people, have the opportunity to be God's people. Those of us who God would not have had compassion on now are able to receive it. God wants you back.

I hope you who are reading this are never satisfied. I hope you continue, whether you follow Jesus or not, to wrestle with the story of scripture. I pray you don't look at scripture as a heap of distant history, but rather a story about God and you. God wants you to know what He's gone through to get you back, and to know that there is a happy ending waiting for you. We can't understand all the stories God has used or is using, but we know He is and we know why He is. Because he wants you back. Because you were made for this.

Romans chapter 11 ends with a verse that says from God, to God, and through God are all things. You are from God. You are to God. You are through God. So join us! The Story is better the more characters there are. Give God the pen and let the adventure begin.

The Story - Plot

I've been to Atlanta, Georgia two times in my life. The first time I went, I had just started writing, and was about the equivalent of a bone dry mop being thrown in a swimming pool. When you pulled me out, I was sopping wet with life and love, still thousands of gallons left for me to consume. I wrote every day, page upon page. I wrote names and places and thoughts and feelings and prayers. Atlanta trip #1 was where I discovered story.

While in Atlanta our group worked with an organization called SafeHouse Outreach. SafeHouse is a ministry that attempts to be the hands and feet of Christ to people on the streets. They work with churches and organizations throughout Atlanta to provide the gospel, food, addresses, and generally love to those who need these things. Their motto is "Sho Love." When volunteering with SafeHouse, this is what we did. We met tons of people, talked to them, prayed with them, ate with them, became friends with them, listened to their incredible stories. It was all very real. That's what I remember most about the first time I was in Atlanta. The people were real, the conditions were real, and to many who we chatted with, Jesus was so very real to them.

SafeHouse does a service every night before serving a meal. These services are usually just a speaker from the church or organization that is providing the meal, though occasionally there's some music too. One night while we watched on, a speaker told a room full of people on the street something along the lines of "accept Jesus and He will solve all of your problems!" The message wasn't exactly that, but I wrote down that the way this man talked made Jesus sound like a wad of cash.

Jesus is not a wad of cash, thankfully. He is much more than that, and no where in the Bible does it say that starting a life where you follow Jesus will make things "better." In fact, the Bible says that if we choose to give God the pen, the story he writes for us will often times be viewed as stupid and offensive. It may even drive someone to kill you. That is the fullness of the gospel. But it's worth it. This is what the story is about.

If you ever read any other part of this blog or even if you stop reading what I write right after you read this post, know this: this is the most important blog post I'll ever write. If you remember nothing else from reading this blog, remember these words: you exist to love and be loved.

We are already doing the second part. God loves us, no matter how we are. We see this through Jesus, God's son and God in the flesh who loved sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and even the religious leaders(though they made Him pretty angry sometimes). So, by looking at the gospel and seeing how Christ died for me, and you, and everyone, we can ask the question; why would God do that if He didn't love us? We are loved. The first part is the tough one. We are made to love.

In the fourth chapter of the book of the Bible called 1st John, we come to understand that God Himself is love. If God is love, then the only way to love is to do so through God. So... we need a way to do that.

Luckily Jesus Christ tells us that He is the way(see post #1). Accepting Christ and following Him to God is the way we love. The book of Romans tells us that if we confess that Jesus is Lord of our lives, and believe that God raised Him from the dead, we'll be saved. We'll have salvation.

Salvation is only where God begins writing the story though. Unfortunately, the church often times stops here. We have a "get em' saved!" mentality. Then, after salvation is attained, we leave people stranded, with absolutely no idea what to do next. The problem with that mentality is that you were not made to "get saved." You were made to love, and the decision to give God the pen and follow Christ is what allows you to do that.

Last time, I talked about how the story that God is writing is a big story that includes everyone's story together. That story is about how God is bringing everything back to Him. The conflict is that we have sin, and sin can't be in the presence of God. But we have a rescue in the form of Christ. Christ is who brings us back. Christ is who does the work of God. My God is a God of happy endings.

In Atlanta there are real people. There are real people living real stories, many of which are being written by God. Their stories are often hard to hear, but their lives reflect the hope that comes from following Jesus. They can see it, even though they have nothing. Hope. That's what I mean when I say God is a God of happy endings. This is what we wait and hope for; this ending of the story of redemption. This is the plot of the story God writes for each one of us. You were made to love and be loved.

You were made for this.

The Story - Characters

Sometimes when I don't have much schoolwork to do(and sometimes when I do), I like to walk to this place called Corner Coffee. These outings combine two of my favorite things; walking and coffee. One of the best things about Corner Coffee is that there are all kinds of people who frequent the place. At Corner Coffee, I've seen students, artists, lovers, coffee folk, scholars, friends, family, talkers, and loners, all flowing in and out and side to side. When you sit back in a chair and watch it all happen for a while(depending on the day and hour "a while" could be anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour), you start to get this amorphous feeling of home. Deep in my gut I always get this twinge of family.

There's no way I go to Corner Coffee enough to be considered family(unless I'm counted as some kind of zany uncle who stops by for Christmas). But that's alright. I go for the people. Well... the coffee too, but I'll talk about why that's important later.

Something as formal as a blog requires an introduction. My name is Matt Culler. I live and go to classes at a place called Shippensburg University. I live out my life in a stream of narrative, every step I take is the next letter written on the page; the words I speak are ink that falls from my mouth onto the leaf. Recently, I've discovered writing and how good it is. I believe in the power of stories.

I've come to see Yahweh as a God of stories. He wrote the Bible, which is a book of stories, and He's writing a story for my life and your life. These stories that God is writing are never just about me. That would be boring, and God is not boring. Each one has a diverse cast of characters. God loves characters.

Let me cut to the chase; I love people. I've found that the more I give God the pen, the more He writes my story in a way that draws me to people, and the more I interact with the other characters, the more I love them. At Shippensburg I have two majors, Psychology and Sociology. I study people and how they interact with each other. I came to Shippensburg as a computer science major. Why I am now a Psychology and Sociology major, I don't know. But I do know that when I gave God the pen after coming to college, He wanted me to learn about people. His story is so different than the one I would have written for myself. But it's so much better. My stories are great because of the people I've come to know.

In the book of Matthew(my favorite book about Jesus), a whole bunch of religious leaders are talking to Jesus about which law was the most important law to keep. Usually, Jesus responds to questions like this with some kind of story(God loves stories) or just another question. This time though, Jesus cuts straight to the point. He replies to them, "Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind."(Deuteronomy 6:5) But Jesus doesn't stop there, He goes right on ahead and rolls out commandment number 2! "Love your neighbor like you love yourself." (Leviticus 19:18) Love God first. Love people second.

What would Lord of The Rings look like if it was just a story about a short guy who threw a ring into a volcano. Maybe a bit exciting...but what about Sam? What about Aragorn? What about Legolas? What about Gimley and Merry and Pippin? These characters and their interactions with Frodo and each other are what made the story great.

We're called to love people. Every kind of people. Jesus even says later to love the people that wrong us. It's not easy to love people sometimes, but think of how many opportunities you have! Your story is probably full of characters you've encountered, and if you've given God the pen, I know for sure it is. So love them. Go places with them. Do things with them. Listen to their stories.

Being at Shippensburg has taught me about people. Formally by studying Psychology and Sociology, but informally too as I live and thrive with the campus. The quickest way to fall in love with people is to live among them. If I've learned anything from being here, it's that we need each other. Your story, and my story, and everyone else's story all come together to make one big story God is writing about Him and us. So it makes sense then. First we need God, then we need people. When it all comes together, it makes for some really good stories.

So, I go to Corner Coffee and feel a little sense of home. I look at people and imagine their stories. I think of the places they've been and the people they've been with. And now they're here. Somehow we're all there together, living our stories in the same location, if only for a little while. Then they're out the door again, off to the next interaction, the next sentence of their story being written. I'll stay a bit longer, relishing in the midst of the conversations and interactions. But soon I'll walk out the front door, back into a whole world of people doing stuff. Singing songs, dreaming dreams, living lives, and seeking seeking seeking.

We're all part of the Story.

Paragraphs and Pages

Relient K has a song called "Life After Death and Taxes." There's a lyric in the song that reads "this is how I choose to live, as if I'm jumping off a cliff, knowing that You'll save me." Powerful. Crazy.

In a book I read called Jasmine, there's a teenage character named Du. Du is an adopted Vietnamese teenager who's lived through the worst. We find out that Du has been tortured, held in a prison camp, shot, abandoned, and forced to be on the run as an orphan for much of his childhood. After coming to America and being adopted, Du attends a high school where his life finally has peace. The narrator, Jasmine, scoffs at the surprise of the school administration when they see that Du is "doing well." Jasmine suspects that the folks at the school believe that Du should do badly because of his past, yet she knows it is Du's past that allows him to succeed. She questions why Du would have a problem with an abridged and modified version of "A Tale of Two Cities" when he has already lived through hell. Jasmine explains to us that Du has "always shot with live ammunition; never been able to use safety nets; and has always lived without multiple choice."

Du has quite the story. After being adopted into a family that resides in a rural Iowa farm town, it is no surprise to find Du near the end of the book leaving home for a hitchhiking journey to Los Angeles to find his sister. There was more to be written for Du.

That is all fiction. Yet what is true for Du is also true for us. We've lived. We've been places. We've experienced tragedy and sorrow. We've seen the brilliant daylight of joy. We've tasted. We've heard. We know, albeit slightly, the mathematics of humanity. We're here. Thriving. And it is in this living that we find Matt Theissen, jumping off of cliffs. He is unafraid. Why? What brings a man who has lived, known, tasted, seen, experienced, to take such leaps? Theissan's cliff jumping is not safe. Du's expedition to Los Angeles, though we never learn of the result, is clearly risky as well. For both Du and Matt, the answer was not in front of them. It was at the end of a road of hardships. At the end of a whole essay of living.

Nobody likes the word essay. It conjures up images of tests we're never quite prepared enough for, trains of thought derailing, and the frantic scrawling of nonsense that somehow becomes coherent enough to earn you that precious "A," or in my case, that acceptable "B." But, an essay always starts the exact same way. A piece of paper waiting to be filled. Multiple choice tests are quite different. Placed in front of us is a packet of information with the correct answers laying right there for the taking. If only we can discern them. When we look at life, which way do we find ourselves living? I tend to lean towards the essay.

I see my life before me as a blank page, waiting to be penned out. I see life as more than just a series of questions and answers. Life doesn't come to me as chunks of words and sentence fragments, but as paragraphs and pages. Du's story had been shaped by his experiences in Vietnam, and would continue to be written as he sought out his sister in LA. Our story is shaped by what was written in the past and the pen keeps moving. There is a frightening inevitableness to it all.

When we look back upon the story that has already been written, what do we see? A life of greatness? A life of adventure? A life of meaning? I want to truly live. I want to fall backwards into the wind knowing there's nothing there to catch me. That's the kind of story I want. Do you feel that? It's the call that beckons us to jump off that cliff. It comes from deep inside of us. Our very soul longs for the adventure of full life. We can hear the call all around us; in the movies we make, in the ways we speak, in the songs we sing. We want more.

In the book of the Bible called John, Jesus tells us that He has come to give life. But not just regular life. Life in abundance. Life to the full. To live fully, we have to take the life of Jesus. Yet, we cannot have two lives. We cannot live our life and let Jesus live through us too. In short, we have to die. We have to kill the flesh and let God take the pen. Jesus tells us elsewhere in the Bible that He is the way, the truth, and the life. If we experience life at all, it's just a piece of Jesus.

The awesomeness of a story, the validity of an essay, depends on who the author is. I don't know about you, but when it comes to the story of life, I'm a terrible writer. So I gave God the pen. If you've ever read the Bible, you know that Yahweh is a God of adventure, joy, peace, and victory. He is a God who writes the kind of story we yearn for. Matt Theissen jumps off cliffs "knowing that You'll save him." He knows the full life Christ has given him. I'm discovering it as well.

Look at reality and see it for what it is. We live a life where we shoot with live ammunition. We walk tightropes with no safety nets. We live without multiple choice. There is no guesswork, only blank space that is quickly being filled with ink. These words make up pieces of the story God is writing with my life, if only when I allow Him.

What you read here is a series of thoughts that represent my dying and Christ's living. May you find Him in my words.