It’s strange how you don’t realize how much you’ve missed someone until you see them. It feels foreign, because you can no longer miss them (due to their presence), but you do feel the emptiness that they were not or are not present more often, as if their presence would have heightened each past experience.
My friend dropped some bombshells on me tonight. she got engaged last week and the wedding will be here in OC on the beach. one. she is moving to the east coast and will be attending Harvard law in the fall. two.
she will be the first person I know personally who will have completed both med school and law school. I love listening to her talk about life. it makes me happy to see someone so invigorated by simply living out what she feels called to be.
on nights like these I do a lot of listening. it is my pleasure to hear how God moves and how our reactions lead us to places like tonight, sitting in the cold, grateful for each others company, and looking toward the future.
I’m happy to be where I am right now. it’s a great feeling, but I know it won’t last.
While I left my house for a week, one of my closest friends picked me up & took me out for lunch. He grew up with parents very similar to mine, & almost every time we meet up, he talks about family. It’s a very sensitive topic to me. He tries to convince me to leave my family behind & to live my…
driving for miles with this weather is dangerous. I’ve been thinking too much about friendships and boundaries and love and music and futures. it’s always the same. by this time, I know almost every line to drake’s ‘take care’ and I start from the beginning. by the time I am in cerritos, play crack the sky is on pandora. in walnut, I listen to the radio and realize what a terrible decision that is. hours later I am leaving the office and heading home.
the notion that no one is there for you is a lie. the truth: no one can be there for you all of the time. I know that now. but what I understand more and more is that you can never depend on someone to always be there for you. life is best lived with others, yes, but oftentimes life is lived alone. we must realize this and be ok with it. we are not so young anymore. please understand.
I could never. I could never hold you.
Five days underwater near your island off the coast. I know five ways you were my lover, incantation of the tide in rhyme
I’m finding it hard to find time for anyone in my life right now. this makes it hurt more. even if I never make it the way you wanted, I know that you will love and support me. that is enough.
what do you know about family?
from a friend of a friend.
Sometimes people wonder why I take so much time to criticize Mark Driscoll & John Piper. “Wouldn’t it be better simply to ignore them?” they ask. There are numerous reasons why I address these Christian leaders, but I’ll only list two. First, I believe they are genuine brothers in Christ; therefore, I respect them enough to engage them. Driscoll certainly appeals to a demographic that many pastors fail to reach, and in Desiring God, Piper contributed to the evangelical world by repackaging Jonathan Edwards & C. S. Lewis in a manner that gave those authors’ ideas a greater general reach. Second, whether I like it or not, they are very influential. People pay attention to what they say, and unfortunately, a good amount of what they say is not helpful. I write in hopes to give voice to what so many of my brothers and sisters are thinking and to offer a critical—and hopefully, helpful—counterpoint.
My biggest beef with Piper & Driscoll is that what they are most vocal about are issues that paint them not as champions of the gospel but legalistic vanguards of what they believe to be the purest form of Christianity. To a certain degree, I believe this is an outgrowth of their emotional makeup and dysfunction as well as their general temperament and faith upbringing, so I do empathize. However, being leaders, they should be aware that their tone and the issues they prioritize affect their followers. Sadly, I find many of their followers mimic the general prideful and caustic rhetoric to a T.
Case in point is John Piper’s tweet, “Farewell Rob Bell.” I have read Piper’s clarification, but I find the whole explanation extremely tortured and terribly defensive. That he would fail to grasp how that tweet would be taken is beyond my powers of comprehension. Without context, people have limited options as to how to understand that tweet. It would have been much wiser of him to write a nuanced blog about Rob Bell, and then point to that blog via his tweet (which, by the way, is a method he’s employed before). I do not agree with Rob Bell, but one thing Piper should realize is that thoughtful engagement generates respect and a critique that is taken seriously. He would do well to learn from Tim Keller who writes he has met many—including atheists, liberal Christians, and folks from other religions—who hold opposing beliefs that are worthy of respect and engagement. Piper’s rep said, “Reformed Christians, or should I say, Christians, need to have their focus on the truth of the Gospel and Hell, not be distracted by a rock star talking about love. Who does he think he is, Bono?” To reduce a belief that Bell holds to this caricature does no one any good. You always represent the other’s arguments in their “strongest and most positive form.” Knocking down strawmen helps no one, is infantile, and shows a lack of critical and rigorous engagement. There are many universalists in America, and if Piper and Driscoll want to be heard, which I do believe should be their goal, they need to do better.
Tell me about your family drama. I’ll tell you about mine. and then we can both thank God we never had to kill any of our parents in the name of self preservation.
