Time Travel
While we were in Ethiopia (and, yes, I will post on that soon) a funny thing happened. One of the people on the trip (who shall remain nameless) reminded us of someone from back home (who also shall remain nameless). The only difference was that the person on the trip (Nameless Guy #1) seemed like an older version of the guy from back home (Nameless Guy #2). The running joke of the entire trip was that Nameless Guy #1 was reallya future version of Nameless Guy #2 who had traveled back in time to go to Ethiopia with us. I have to admit, I was a late convert on that joke, but by the end of the trip the evidence was pretty compelling.
That said, today has been kind of a time-travel-sort-of-day for me. The whole day had traces of the late 90’s and the early 2000’s part of this decade. In no particular order, we were part of a worship time with Darrell Evans at River of Life, I got a message (in response to my Tweet about Darrell) from my good friend Brent Owen, and I met a guy who was part of a camp I counseled at one time in the late 90’s. All of this has got me thinking about life back then…how I knew basically nothing, how immature I was, and how the Lord still used me in spite of all of my fraility.
I’ve been trying to get back there lately, to that state of living. Christy and I talk a lot about how those years were some of the most fruitful times of our lives. I’m trying to crack the code of what changed and how to change it back. Up until today I felt like remembering those days was just me trying to get back to “the good ole days” but after tonight, I’m not so sure. Maybe, just perhaps, the Lord is actually the one trying to get me to remember the early days. After all, he’s done it before, right?
I’m Back…
If you haven’t caught the twittering going on lately, I’ve been back from Ethiopia now for about one week. There’s been a lot of catching up and transitioning going on, so I’ve been pretty silent here.
Ethiopia was amazing. I will try and post some stories and photos soon, but I want to tell the stories in a way that’s fair for those who have been supporting me in prayer and through finances first. Fairly shortly I will be writing an article for the House of Friends July (or August) newsletter, so I may post that here as well. Thank you to everyone who encouraged, prayed, and gave to make this last trip possible. It was definitely not in vain.
In the Lord, I need to get back into the secret place in a major way. I’m realizing that I rely on the relationships around me as a primary conduit for revelation, insight, and motivation. And while I wholeheartedly believe that the Lord uses relationships for that very purpose I’m realizing I have grown lazy in actually hearing from Him on things that are important. I’ll probably have to confess that to my group of guys in the morning.
Lastly, I’m going to try and post here more in the future. I won’t say how often my goal is lest I fail to make it and look like a fool, but I will tell you I want to post here more than I am. It’s good to be back!
T
Deep Thought While Watching Star Trek
My wife and I went and watched the latest Star Trek movie last night, not because we’re “Trekkies” but because we thought J. J. Abrams would do an amazing job. The movie was good and J. J. Abrams did not disappoint.
But while I was sitting there I had a thought that I think would be helpful to share. It’s hard to deny the impact that Star Trek has had on us as a society. If you scour the internet there will be no end of articles about how the technology we “saw” in Star Trek has become what we use. This article has a great summary of some surprising ways Star Trek changed what we do.
But what struck me was how much the ideology of Star Trek has become part of our society, even more than the technology. We shouldn’t forget that the point of Gene Rodenberry‘s show was to show humanity working together beyond their boundaries to better mankind. This is why Star Trek was the first T.V. show to have an interracial kiss and why all the members of the Enterprise are from distinctly different nationalities. Rodenberry also intentionally created a world where human beings had stopped believing in anything beyond science. His depicition, no matter how comical at times, has very subtley shaped society.
So here’s my deep thought: This man created a vision of the future and sold it to the Earth in such a way that we have begun to build towards it. How should our vision of the end of the Age and the Kingdom of God change the way we live in society now? How shoud it cause us to live our lives differently?
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 