Overanalyzing movies for a deeper meaning is a favorite past time of mine. I usually do it as a joke, to get a rise out of my literalist friends, but occasionally I stumble upon something that resembles truth. In a recent conversation with a friend (Joey5 shout out) about the movie ET, I realized that it really might be a beautiful example of community. Let's look at the facts.
A little boy discovers an alien and decides they should be friends. Their community of two is precious, indeed, but soon they cannot do it by themselves. So Elliot enlists the help of his siblings, Drew Barrymore and unidentified 80s male child-psuedo-star. The three of them share their specific gifts with each other to continue the course of work to help the poor alien creature. They are brave and reckless, living full out for their dream (right...this isn't a stretch at all...). The ending (I won't spoil it for any of you...but it may or may not involve a flying bicycle) requires the help of a larger group of people, all working together for a common goal.
So this is community. There are layers for sure, but there is a sense of solidarity, while each person plays out his/her own part of the plan. Like a body, right?? Community=body.
So let's stop trying to hide the alien all by ourselves and ask some friends for help. Yikes, this might be a terrible analogy. Hope it was worth it, Joseph Penta.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
life as i know it...
the truth is, i am seeing that i don't really know life. or at least, not life to the full as Jesus talks about. it seems to me that we have perverted the idea of Christian living in our capitalist, individualistic American society. i am not turning "anti-America" or whatever, i am just talking about things that i get caught up with myself.
as you probably know, or don't know, i am a fairly independent person. i live by myself, i like to go to the movies by myself, i would rather spend an evening reading alone than going to a crowded bar, or something equally as overwhelmingly social. My second sentence as a child was "i do it myself" (right after "i want a bite"). i have always lived under the assumption that the best version of myself would be independent, self-sufficient, and every other synonym you can think of.
i am beginning to see that this goal of self-sufficiency is to my detriment. i am being hard-core convicted by GOD about this. the rebuke is coming from all sides. my eyes are being opened to the fact that the full life Jesus talks about cannot be achieved alone. we need a community of believers.
communion, community, body of Christ. i don't think it is a coincidence that Jesus talks about the bread and the wine in terms of His body and also the believers in terms of His body. not only are we to partake of the Lord's Supper, but we are also to partake of each other. no, i am not referring to cannibalism, but i am talking about being in tune with the church, the real church, the body of Christ.
so, what does real community look like?? i don't know. but let's find out together. (that's for any of you apple folks out there). i think that Acts (the book in the bible) is a great place to start. or any of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). read the words of Jesus about community. read the words of the early believers who were living in community.
i am currently reading The Irresistible Revolution, which i think is a great resource. it gives a picture of what a community might look like. but i don't think all communities need to be so extreme, if you will. they will, by nature, be revolutionary though. i mean, really, really sharing life together is going to flip our worlds upside down.
think about it this way...we look at the individual as the strongest entity. we secretly (or outright) look down upon people who "need a helping hand." does that even make sense?? we might preach mottos like "strength in numbers" but yearn for a solitary hero to emerge and win the battle. the bible says that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. when we reinforce levies we want to double the steel, not just use one sheet.
this kind of thinking needs to cease. i am talking to myself here. i take pride (read: i am prideful) in doing things alone. i love telling people that i'll go out to dinner by myself or that i drove by myself across the country to move alone. i need to shed this disease of self-sufficiency and dive into the truth of community.
Jesus wants us to be together. He wants us to be together in loving, sharing, and supportive communities. this also doesn't just mean people who are like us. we don't want the body of Christ to be all thumbs or all ears or all wallets. GOD wants us to experience Him in different ways and He wants His people to come together because of His love for us.
this may seem old hat for some of you, but i am going through a revolution and i want my community to join. so let's share life and experience the fullness that Christ wants us to have.
as you probably know, or don't know, i am a fairly independent person. i live by myself, i like to go to the movies by myself, i would rather spend an evening reading alone than going to a crowded bar, or something equally as overwhelmingly social. My second sentence as a child was "i do it myself" (right after "i want a bite"). i have always lived under the assumption that the best version of myself would be independent, self-sufficient, and every other synonym you can think of.
i am beginning to see that this goal of self-sufficiency is to my detriment. i am being hard-core convicted by GOD about this. the rebuke is coming from all sides. my eyes are being opened to the fact that the full life Jesus talks about cannot be achieved alone. we need a community of believers.
communion, community, body of Christ. i don't think it is a coincidence that Jesus talks about the bread and the wine in terms of His body and also the believers in terms of His body. not only are we to partake of the Lord's Supper, but we are also to partake of each other. no, i am not referring to cannibalism, but i am talking about being in tune with the church, the real church, the body of Christ.
so, what does real community look like?? i don't know. but let's find out together. (that's for any of you apple folks out there). i think that Acts (the book in the bible) is a great place to start. or any of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). read the words of Jesus about community. read the words of the early believers who were living in community.
i am currently reading The Irresistible Revolution, which i think is a great resource. it gives a picture of what a community might look like. but i don't think all communities need to be so extreme, if you will. they will, by nature, be revolutionary though. i mean, really, really sharing life together is going to flip our worlds upside down.
think about it this way...we look at the individual as the strongest entity. we secretly (or outright) look down upon people who "need a helping hand." does that even make sense?? we might preach mottos like "strength in numbers" but yearn for a solitary hero to emerge and win the battle. the bible says that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. when we reinforce levies we want to double the steel, not just use one sheet.
this kind of thinking needs to cease. i am talking to myself here. i take pride (read: i am prideful) in doing things alone. i love telling people that i'll go out to dinner by myself or that i drove by myself across the country to move alone. i need to shed this disease of self-sufficiency and dive into the truth of community.
Jesus wants us to be together. He wants us to be together in loving, sharing, and supportive communities. this also doesn't just mean people who are like us. we don't want the body of Christ to be all thumbs or all ears or all wallets. GOD wants us to experience Him in different ways and He wants His people to come together because of His love for us.
this may seem old hat for some of you, but i am going through a revolution and i want my community to join. so let's share life and experience the fullness that Christ wants us to have.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
March 2...71 degrees and sunny
So I have been kind of fake writing a book. Mostly just writing a lot of my thoughts down in a cool notebooks and trying to tie things together. But one theme seems to resonate through the whole project, and even into journal entries dating back to last spring. The search for significance that we all come across. I think it is a pretty strong urge inside all of us (us being my generation) to find our purpose or significance. But it seems that everyone I talk to has an idea of what their purpose should be. It is as if we are searching for a purpose that fits into our idea of what we should be doing in life. We don't want to accept that perhaps we were meant for something different from what we want.
It is all well and good to want certain things in life, but when we start rejecting or minimizing our accomplishments something has gone wrong. We cannot say that we haven't found a purpose just because whatever purpose is put in front of us right now doesn't fit into our "plan" for our lives.
Which brings me to another point. We are so trained to plan ahead. Planning is a good thing, and you all know that I love me some good planning. Even if I do something seemingly spontaneous, usually I have a plan behind it. But I am looking around at my friends and seeing this need for planning paralyzing them. And this is why.
You want to plan, but you can't plan if you don't have an end goal. And that end goal is usually what you think your "purpose" is. So without finding a purpose that fits into your paradigm, you can't plan, which means you stay stagnant. But what if you won't discover your purpose until you take a step forward. It is ok to move ahead without a long term plan. It is ok to try different paths to see if they work or not. Just don't let yourself get stuck in the "I chose this path so I must stick to it" mentality (like I did for awhile here in Nashville). It is ok to change your mind.
As we all take steps forward in life, the significance of those steps will eventually be revealed. And that is our purpose. GOD calls us to abide in HIM. And HE is a living and moving GOD. HE is not stagnant...so neither should we be stagnant. Let's keep moving and discover what life has for us. It isn't enough to sit by and say "wouldn't that be nice if that happened or if that were true." Make it happen. Make it true. Trust that GOD will guide you if you remain in HIM.
And maybe our purpose, our significance, is to learn to trust GOD and live our lives for HIM, whatever that looks like. Think about it. It really is mind blowing.
So I have been kind of fake writing a book. Mostly just writing a lot of my thoughts down in a cool notebooks and trying to tie things together. But one theme seems to resonate through the whole project, and even into journal entries dating back to last spring. The search for significance that we all come across. I think it is a pretty strong urge inside all of us (us being my generation) to find our purpose or significance. But it seems that everyone I talk to has an idea of what their purpose should be. It is as if we are searching for a purpose that fits into our idea of what we should be doing in life. We don't want to accept that perhaps we were meant for something different from what we want.
It is all well and good to want certain things in life, but when we start rejecting or minimizing our accomplishments something has gone wrong. We cannot say that we haven't found a purpose just because whatever purpose is put in front of us right now doesn't fit into our "plan" for our lives.
Which brings me to another point. We are so trained to plan ahead. Planning is a good thing, and you all know that I love me some good planning. Even if I do something seemingly spontaneous, usually I have a plan behind it. But I am looking around at my friends and seeing this need for planning paralyzing them. And this is why.
You want to plan, but you can't plan if you don't have an end goal. And that end goal is usually what you think your "purpose" is. So without finding a purpose that fits into your paradigm, you can't plan, which means you stay stagnant. But what if you won't discover your purpose until you take a step forward. It is ok to move ahead without a long term plan. It is ok to try different paths to see if they work or not. Just don't let yourself get stuck in the "I chose this path so I must stick to it" mentality (like I did for awhile here in Nashville). It is ok to change your mind.
As we all take steps forward in life, the significance of those steps will eventually be revealed. And that is our purpose. GOD calls us to abide in HIM. And HE is a living and moving GOD. HE is not stagnant...so neither should we be stagnant. Let's keep moving and discover what life has for us. It isn't enough to sit by and say "wouldn't that be nice if that happened or if that were true." Make it happen. Make it true. Trust that GOD will guide you if you remain in HIM.
And maybe our purpose, our significance, is to learn to trust GOD and live our lives for HIM, whatever that looks like. Think about it. It really is mind blowing.
Monday, February 04, 2008
what really matters...
So some of you know about my health scare recently. If you don't, sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't want to raise an unnecessary alarm. I went to the doctor about a week and a half ago and we found a lump in my right breast. She thought it was just a cyst but want me to get it checked out. It was something I had noticed before, but been told by a doctor that it was nothing. So naturally I get a little freaked out that now I have a doctor telling me to get it checked out.
So I have an ultrasound and schedule a consult to plan a biopsy. I was pretty freaked out for about a week, but I am much better now. All of the doctor's I have talked to haven't been worried and think it is just a benign tumor. So I'm not worried anymore.
But I started thinking, what if. What if it had been cancer. What then. And through a lot of prayer and contemplation and talking with people I came to the conclusion of, so what. We can't control some things that happen to our physical bodies and in the end, that physical condition has no eternal consequence. The only thing that matters is that GOD loves us. And how we glorify GOD during our trials and struggles is what has eternal consequence.
This isn't to say we won't get scared or mad or sad. But we can do those things and love GOD at the same time. We can acknowledge that HE is in charge and that HE knows and we don't have to.
This doesn't just have to apply to being sick. A lot of us are in places where we are wanting something more. Some different significance or some different relationship. We can want those things, definitely. But remember to glorify GOD during those circumstances. HE knows what we need and that is all that matters. Wanting something to be different isn't going to change it. But living a life that is focused on GOD and how HE wants us to live, that will change things.
So some of you know about my health scare recently. If you don't, sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't want to raise an unnecessary alarm. I went to the doctor about a week and a half ago and we found a lump in my right breast. She thought it was just a cyst but want me to get it checked out. It was something I had noticed before, but been told by a doctor that it was nothing. So naturally I get a little freaked out that now I have a doctor telling me to get it checked out.
So I have an ultrasound and schedule a consult to plan a biopsy. I was pretty freaked out for about a week, but I am much better now. All of the doctor's I have talked to haven't been worried and think it is just a benign tumor. So I'm not worried anymore.
But I started thinking, what if. What if it had been cancer. What then. And through a lot of prayer and contemplation and talking with people I came to the conclusion of, so what. We can't control some things that happen to our physical bodies and in the end, that physical condition has no eternal consequence. The only thing that matters is that GOD loves us. And how we glorify GOD during our trials and struggles is what has eternal consequence.
This isn't to say we won't get scared or mad or sad. But we can do those things and love GOD at the same time. We can acknowledge that HE is in charge and that HE knows and we don't have to.
This doesn't just have to apply to being sick. A lot of us are in places where we are wanting something more. Some different significance or some different relationship. We can want those things, definitely. But remember to glorify GOD during those circumstances. HE knows what we need and that is all that matters. Wanting something to be different isn't going to change it. But living a life that is focused on GOD and how HE wants us to live, that will change things.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
life plans...
So I turn 24 on saturday. What is that?? 24 sounds so grown up and adult and I am so far from that. I started thinking about it today and did a quick check-up on my life. Is this where I thought I would be at 24?? I ran through my old "life plan" from high school to see how I measure up to my old expectations. My life right now is not even close to what I thought it would be at this point.
While I did graduate from college, it was not the college I thought I would attend. I am not married, and definitely not to the guy I thought it was going to be. I don't own a house and Lord knows I never thought I would be in Tennessee about to move to Nashville. And then there is the teaching thing. 7 years of my life I thought I was going to be a teacher and it has been almost a year since I realized that wasn't going to work out for me.
So instead of being a William and Mary grad, Mrs. Jonathan Allen (don't worry, he knows), high school English teacher, living in my house in Virginia...
I am an alum of two rival schools, single and dealing with feelings for a guy who is proving himself to be pretty disinterested, soon to be unemployed from two jobs, and moving from Nashville after 3 or 4 months to New Orleans, where hopefully I will get a job I love and an apartment by myself that I can afford.
After all that, all I can say is...thank God our plans don't always work out.
HIS timing is perfect and mine is not. HIS plans are perfect and mine are not.
It's going to be a good year.
So I turn 24 on saturday. What is that?? 24 sounds so grown up and adult and I am so far from that. I started thinking about it today and did a quick check-up on my life. Is this where I thought I would be at 24?? I ran through my old "life plan" from high school to see how I measure up to my old expectations. My life right now is not even close to what I thought it would be at this point.
While I did graduate from college, it was not the college I thought I would attend. I am not married, and definitely not to the guy I thought it was going to be. I don't own a house and Lord knows I never thought I would be in Tennessee about to move to Nashville. And then there is the teaching thing. 7 years of my life I thought I was going to be a teacher and it has been almost a year since I realized that wasn't going to work out for me.
So instead of being a William and Mary grad, Mrs. Jonathan Allen (don't worry, he knows), high school English teacher, living in my house in Virginia...
I am an alum of two rival schools, single and dealing with feelings for a guy who is proving himself to be pretty disinterested, soon to be unemployed from two jobs, and moving from Nashville after 3 or 4 months to New Orleans, where hopefully I will get a job I love and an apartment by myself that I can afford.
After all that, all I can say is...thank God our plans don't always work out.
HIS timing is perfect and mine is not. HIS plans are perfect and mine are not.
It's going to be a good year.
Friday, January 04, 2008
gonna be some changes made...
Maybe it is the spirit of the New Year or maybe I have just finally gotten my head out of my ass. But I made a major life decision on Tuesday. In late February I am moving to New Orleans for good. Or at least as "for good" as it gets in my life.
I want people to know and understand that I have no hard feelings about Nashville. I needed to move here. It was a necessary step in my life. Or maybe this is my narrative anesthetic. I could be just making up a story to make myself feel better about a decision. But I don't think so. I think moving to Nashville made the decision to move to New Orleans more significant. Before, I thought I just needed to move for a change from Colorado and now I realize that I am not wandering aimlessly. My wanderings have a purpose and an end goal. New Orleans.
I have found that a lot of people do not understand my draw to the Big Easy and honestly, it isn't something I can describe very easily. The truth of the matter is that I think anyone who wants to live in New Orleans has a mental illness, which is something I have suspected about myself for a long time. Now the diagnosis is complete. Basically, it is where I am the happiest. I have a group of peers who understand me and support me even when they don't. I have a church and a pastor who I know would do anything for me. I have a multi-generational community, that is real, not just people I say hi to on Sunday. I have a purpose in New Orleans. I can create significance down there.
I have been struggling with this idea of significance for the past year. I guess my phrase to sum up 2007 would be "what is significance?" Significance can be found anywhere. You don't need to be "changing the world" to be significant, because the truth is, if you are living your life for God, you are changing the world. You are impacting lives around you and spreading love.
For some reason I haven't been able to do that in Nashville. I have felt stifled and drawn into myself. I haven't been able to reach out the way I know I should. New Orleans gives me that freedom. I don't know if it is the people down there or the atmosphere of the city, but I feel more alive when I am in New Orleans than anywhere else. I have known that since the first time I set foot into that city a year and a half ago. It has just taken me this long to realize that it is where I should be.
How amazing, that I can know these things about myself and about my life, but not understand what steps to take. When I left New Orleans for the first time, moving there seemed like an impossible dream. Life has taken me on many different adventures since then and I feel primed for this move. I don't want to wait another minute. So I will wait two more months!!!
Maybe it is the spirit of the New Year or maybe I have just finally gotten my head out of my ass. But I made a major life decision on Tuesday. In late February I am moving to New Orleans for good. Or at least as "for good" as it gets in my life.
I want people to know and understand that I have no hard feelings about Nashville. I needed to move here. It was a necessary step in my life. Or maybe this is my narrative anesthetic. I could be just making up a story to make myself feel better about a decision. But I don't think so. I think moving to Nashville made the decision to move to New Orleans more significant. Before, I thought I just needed to move for a change from Colorado and now I realize that I am not wandering aimlessly. My wanderings have a purpose and an end goal. New Orleans.
I have found that a lot of people do not understand my draw to the Big Easy and honestly, it isn't something I can describe very easily. The truth of the matter is that I think anyone who wants to live in New Orleans has a mental illness, which is something I have suspected about myself for a long time. Now the diagnosis is complete. Basically, it is where I am the happiest. I have a group of peers who understand me and support me even when they don't. I have a church and a pastor who I know would do anything for me. I have a multi-generational community, that is real, not just people I say hi to on Sunday. I have a purpose in New Orleans. I can create significance down there.
I have been struggling with this idea of significance for the past year. I guess my phrase to sum up 2007 would be "what is significance?" Significance can be found anywhere. You don't need to be "changing the world" to be significant, because the truth is, if you are living your life for God, you are changing the world. You are impacting lives around you and spreading love.
For some reason I haven't been able to do that in Nashville. I have felt stifled and drawn into myself. I haven't been able to reach out the way I know I should. New Orleans gives me that freedom. I don't know if it is the people down there or the atmosphere of the city, but I feel more alive when I am in New Orleans than anywhere else. I have known that since the first time I set foot into that city a year and a half ago. It has just taken me this long to realize that it is where I should be.
How amazing, that I can know these things about myself and about my life, but not understand what steps to take. When I left New Orleans for the first time, moving there seemed like an impossible dream. Life has taken me on many different adventures since then and I feel primed for this move. I don't want to wait another minute. So I will wait two more months!!!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
the past year...
i feel so blessed because this year i get to start out in new orleans, the place where so much of my heart yearns to be. people keep asking me when i am going to move here, and i am trying not to make plans. in my thinking about this future year and whether it may or may not bring me to new orleans for good, i can't help but realize how much happened in this past year that was totally unplanned at this point a year ago.
i lived in three different places: colorado (maybe for the last time), new orleans (for the second time), and nashville (for the very first time). the circumstances that brought me to and from these places was completely GOD's planning. and i know that there was and is a purpose for each place in my life.
i grew up in my relationships. i think this past year was a significant time for me in realizing that my friendships have a purpose. while i love who my friends are, the purpose of relationship is not to just have fun. it is to recognize that GOD loves each of us and therefore we should love each other. there is a higher purpose to loving people than just "being their friend." we are called to encourage, teach, grow, and live together. sometimes this means letting go of relationships that are not glorifying to GOD and going deeper into relationships that are. it means calling each other out on hard stuff and reminding each other that GOD is bigger than it all. it means growing in our personal relationship with GOD for the purpose of sharing it with others. i feel very blessed to have the grown up relationships that i do now.
i realized that i am ready to meet my husband. before this year i was a huge huge commitment-phobe. i'm not saying i am prepared to jump into anything right this minute, but through so significant relationships in my life and the lives of my good friends i have realize that i am ready. GOD has prepared me for something, whether it comes in this next year, ten years down the road, or never, i know that my heart is in this place right now for a reason. i am ready, just waiting on GOD's timing now.
i learned what it means that GOD's timing is perfect and mine is not. a major life plan flew out the window this year. i spent the past seven years preparing myself to teach high school english, and i hated it. so everything has changed. if it had been my timing, i would have known i would hate it before taking all those classes, but GOD's timing was different. HE needed me to be in a certain place at a certain time. HE needed me to learn the lessons that i did during my student teaching. i probably would never have gone back to new orleans or moved to nashville or thought about grad school. GOD's timing is perfect. mine is not.
a lot more happened in this past year that i won't get into. what i have written is significant for me. if you should choose to read this, i hope some significance jumps from the screen into your life. if not, that's fine too.
dig it.
i feel so blessed because this year i get to start out in new orleans, the place where so much of my heart yearns to be. people keep asking me when i am going to move here, and i am trying not to make plans. in my thinking about this future year and whether it may or may not bring me to new orleans for good, i can't help but realize how much happened in this past year that was totally unplanned at this point a year ago.
i lived in three different places: colorado (maybe for the last time), new orleans (for the second time), and nashville (for the very first time). the circumstances that brought me to and from these places was completely GOD's planning. and i know that there was and is a purpose for each place in my life.
i grew up in my relationships. i think this past year was a significant time for me in realizing that my friendships have a purpose. while i love who my friends are, the purpose of relationship is not to just have fun. it is to recognize that GOD loves each of us and therefore we should love each other. there is a higher purpose to loving people than just "being their friend." we are called to encourage, teach, grow, and live together. sometimes this means letting go of relationships that are not glorifying to GOD and going deeper into relationships that are. it means calling each other out on hard stuff and reminding each other that GOD is bigger than it all. it means growing in our personal relationship with GOD for the purpose of sharing it with others. i feel very blessed to have the grown up relationships that i do now.
i realized that i am ready to meet my husband. before this year i was a huge huge commitment-phobe. i'm not saying i am prepared to jump into anything right this minute, but through so significant relationships in my life and the lives of my good friends i have realize that i am ready. GOD has prepared me for something, whether it comes in this next year, ten years down the road, or never, i know that my heart is in this place right now for a reason. i am ready, just waiting on GOD's timing now.
i learned what it means that GOD's timing is perfect and mine is not. a major life plan flew out the window this year. i spent the past seven years preparing myself to teach high school english, and i hated it. so everything has changed. if it had been my timing, i would have known i would hate it before taking all those classes, but GOD's timing was different. HE needed me to be in a certain place at a certain time. HE needed me to learn the lessons that i did during my student teaching. i probably would never have gone back to new orleans or moved to nashville or thought about grad school. GOD's timing is perfect. mine is not.
a lot more happened in this past year that i won't get into. what i have written is significant for me. if you should choose to read this, i hope some significance jumps from the screen into your life. if not, that's fine too.
dig it.
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