Call it coincidence, but for some reason I’ve been seeing a lot of transsexuals lately.  Granted, I live in LA, but still—even here, they’re not the norm.  The one I’m touched by this hour is sharing a coffee shop and sitting across the room.  He’s dressed in cowboy boots and I guess what you’d call a midriff showing tube-top,” alongside a thong accented backside, wrapped in a mini-skirt.  Suffice it to say, he stands out a bit.  Minding his own business and reading a wedding magazine, of all things, but his demeanor is as gentle and unbothersome as they come.  And yet most who’ve crossed into our vicinity the past twenty minutes or so, have been visibly bothered.  How can a man so quiet open a story so loud?

Last night I watched Amistad.  (Yeah, I know.  A decade late.  So it goes in my life.  I still don’t have a digital camera.)  Actor Anthony Hopkins played what I’d consider a brilliant role of Former President John Quincy Adams.  In a most telling scene, he taught of stories and that in the end, regardless of the journey, it’s the better man’s story who’ll win the race.  (I actually found the film to speak a quiet obvious message of Jesus’ story being that which wins, but maybe I’m biased.)  

“Story” isn’t a word or concept foreign to us as go’ers of this generation, but at the same time, I find its territories of insight ceaseless in a constant readiness to tell anew.  I guess part of that follows the idea of a larger Story being eternally in motion, so that no story we know ever holds the full, or final chapter.  God is always at work, and always at work on a larger Story than we could know.

My first niece was born last night at 12:01am.  Avery Elizabeth.  I’m ecstatic, and have already been the possessive aunt who calls every five minutes for the update (sadly, Rhode Island isn’t close to California).  I want every chapter.  Every page.  Every new twist of this new life’s story.  And right now, I have similar emotions to the man across the room.  I curious what his story is?  I wonder what he’s wanting to say, or wishing he’d said, or wishing someone had said to him at this point in his story?  I wonder what he wants?  And I wonder if what he wants seemed so beyond words that drastically changing his identity seemed a helpful end, and beginning, to telling his story?

I think one of the greatest mysteries we've been invited into is hearing another’s story.  But the temptation seems to be already knowing it—we think we know what to expect and what such outfits usually unfold.  But I wonder what it would look like see every story and every hour as a new Avery?  As a new page of content.  As a new life.  A new chapter ushering us into new ways of Love.

I was driving on the 110W this morning and saw that there were two H.O.V. lanes.

I don't usually stay-up this late, and definitely don't usually have anything sensible to write this late, but tonight I'm filled with the fullness of a rich evening, so wide awake.  Shared an outdoor dinner with dear friends, Bob and Sandra (who housed me for my first six-weeks in LA, beginning exactly 2 years ago, to the day!), along with their son, Steven, another friend, Erin, and two folks from Pretoria, South Africa.  The night nibbled and rambled and sipped toward the stroke of midnight, and yet it was one of those eves where time's presence felt absent.  This crew does life in such a unique and peculiar and passionate way that they can't help but leave one inspired.  So yeah, anyway, just grateful this evening and stuck with a spirit too alivened to sleep. 

I couldn't sleep so decided to get across town before traffic.  Not much open at 5am but coffee shops.  And I like coffee shops, and the 5am silence when I'm up to hear it.

Figured I'd crank out some good reading and writing.

But apparentely Richard couldn't sleep either.  He wreaks of homeless and talks of business.  Seems to know every face that passes and likes to talk about every face that doesn't.  Says he's had cancer for twelve years and was in prison for six.  He details cars for a living and knows uncanny details that would leave Jepordy champs speechless.  "Shares peace with pot."  Loves Jesus, but won't call himself a Christian.  "Spiritual," he says, "but right when you claim a damn religion, people the Truth."

Richard hasn't stopped talking for close to an hour.  In fact there's no way I could've grabbed ten minutes to write this had some seemingly well-known woman with a dog shown-up. 

His phrases make a lot of sense, but when you try to string 'em together, they're absolute garble.  Every sentence seems to summarize a point of his sixty or so years.  I guess in some ways this makes him seem holisic, able to integrate his span of living throughout his present.  But in other ways, it makes him seem really isolated, unable to hold enough awareness of his present, to have any holistic semblance of his past.

 



 

Um, yeah, so apparently Californians are into Independence Day.

My landlord told me he was leaving town for the weekend.  And they never leave town.  "Too many loud pops," he said, throwing his hands in the air.  I thought this was his Romanian way of saying Americans get a little giddy about their freedom day and go watch fireworks.  And well, this is what he meant, but by fireworks, I don't just mean the grand show at the local park, or the downtown celebration following the parade.  I mean like whole neighbhoods (namely mine) with whole driveways stuffed with grandma, grandpa and cousin Juanita, seated in lounge chairs, lap chairs and those long inflatable bench chairs...all for the fourth of July!?  I've never been in a war scene, but if I were, I think this is what it would sound like.  Loud, really loud, bursting flames of light scattering the sky.  I feel like I should hover against a wall like we did for tornado drills in middle school.  The moon is really rad tonight, but it's hard to find its crescent, given the thousands of brighter moons distracting its view.  Oh shoot, and now Dirty Dancing music is being sung by some far off stereo system.  This is crazy.  The people across the street just brought out their whole dining room table and are now salsa dancing in their grass.  Where am I!?  There are literally like hundreds of people lighting the air on fire in my vicinity.  Loud, hundreds of people.  Illegally loud hundreds of people.

Suffice it to say, Californians win the patroitism prize. 

As of tonight, I hope my house doesn't burn down.  And I'm proud to be an American (even though it's my Mexican neighborhood making all the loud pops).

The polarities of college ministry are often so extreme that it feels like we’ve gotta choose “one way” or “the other.” 

Local church vs. parachurch 
Discipleship vs. fellowship
Small group vs. large group
Singles vs. Marrieds.
Boundaries vs. freedom
Grace vs. truth 
Drinking vs. no drinking
Date vs. wait
And the list goes on…

So many questions and opinions, and yet so seemingly few agreed upon “answers.” So maybe—just maybe—our answers are somehow founded in our questions?  More specifically, maybe our answers are founded in questioning what we really believe.

Do you believe God cares about your campus more than you do today?
Do you believe He’s the one who’s actually transforming lives? 
Do you believe there is nothing you can do to enhance the process of your sanctification?
Do you believe God is enough?
Do you believe God?

No matter where you land, your “answers” here unveil what I believe as the true questions. It’s no mystery that college ministry struggles to find answers.  So maybe we’d find it helpful to start staking more in our questions (of belief, namely), than continuing to struggle for “answers.”  To truly see, I wonder if we might benefit from the unseen; to truly know, I wonder if we must cooperate with fears of the unknown; and to truly believe, I wonder if we’ve gotta start risking pride and exposing unbelief?

I went to a really bad church a couple weeks ago.  And it made me wonder why people go to really bad churches.  But then I forgot to write about it.  And so now, after returning from a healthier church experience, that title from two weeks ago is still on my mind.  So I've just decided to use it.  Even though it doesn't pertain.

I've been on a bit of a church hiatus.  Nothing against a particular church, per se, but more so have just been enjoying the space and permission to explore what "church" might be in the first place.  I've dabbled in different known congregations, as well as simply showed-up to completely unknown ones.  (Like literally, I just get in my car and drive until I pass a church with a relatively near-by service time.  I've done this twice.  Once was amazing.  Once sucked.  They both served nutter-butters after the service.)

"Church" is the most fascinating and sad and hopeful and hopeless concept to me right now.  Not sure what that says about me (probably that I'm a nerd and a seminary student), but for whatever its worth, its teaching me a heck-of-a-lot about God.  And I like that.

Later.

If you know a purpose behind what you're facing, I think you're a lot more apt to face it in hope.

Always seems like summer holds these grandiose plans for relaxation, but somehow you get to August and feel sunburned and more tired.  So far for me, summer has been a messy transition where rest has looked pretty restless.  One day has seamlessly rolled into the next and I don’t have a gage on the last month.  And ironic, or causal, or coincidental, or affectal, it hit me en flight home from a wedding this weekend that I've also been out of sync with God.

Though I tend to buck most “traditional customs” of being in relationship with Him, it dawned on me that some of the more traditional disciplines of Christianity took hold for a reason.  Something of their end brought focus and enjoyment, for a time, to their means.  And if I’m honest, I can’t help but wonder if something of their lacking in my summer living is affecting my synclessness?  I’ve not been attending church regularly.  I’ve not been journaling much.  Serving has been sporadic.  And spending time with God’s Word has been sparse.
 
Am I saying I’ve done something wrong, or not enough right, so am therefore "out of sync?"  No!  I'm a big believer in God having me where I am on purpose, and also Him being at work where(ever) I am.  But, I am saying there’s something to be said for the gift of spiritual disciplines.  There’s something to be said for intentionality and structure and commitment in our relationship with God (or anyone).  You’d think I’d have this down after two years of graduate level study with it, but I don’t.  I’m still learning.

I’m aware that structuring discipline into my summer won’t promise an end, but I’m also aware that sometimes I don’t need an end; just a beginning.