culturing //

"Culture is an outworking of our most deeply-held beliefs. It is religion externalized."

-Joshua Appel

 

everybody wants to be a culture-shaper.

Everyone wants to leave their mark on the world and influence those around them. As Christians, we are especially encouraged toward this. We look at the Great Commission, or the Cultural Mandate, & we immediately see a grand opportunity before us.

This is our chance, we think, to shake up secularism.

This is our excuse to go into their world and take dominion.

 

but what if that's not the only way to shape culture?

What if we can shape it just by following our calling?

 

God calls us to live in this world in different ways. He gives us different paths, and different responsibilities. He created each of us with unique gifts, and He gives us those gifts so that we might use them.

 

He also gives us different loves. He gives us passions--

the things that make our eyes light up, the things that give us joy. The things that we can bestow upon the world as evidence of His faithfulness.

 

what if that's the best way to shape culture?

To live relationally in a relational world,

using our whole lives to shine the light of what we love and who God has made us to be on others?

What if we were to merely follow our calling, take the gifts and joys and delights God has given us

and give them, in turn, to everyone we meet?

 

"A man skilled in his work will stand before kings."

 

we are Christians. We are God's chosen people, living in His world.

Everything we do in Him, in His joy, in His love, is faithful culture-shaping.

If we do what He has called us to, what He has made our hearts sing for,

He will use it.

a sweet perfume

the world smelled incredible today.

amid weeks and weeks of sub-freezing temperatures (and even some single digits), I had forgotten what the earth actually smelled like. I had forgotten the fragrance of the dirt, and wet streets, and thawed air. Today, standing on a street corner, it was like a new awakening. All of a sudden, as the 5 o'clock setting sun shone warm on my face, I smelled it all. With 50 degree weather came everything I'd been missing for so long.

it's these little specks of grace that startle me sometimes. Here I was, waiting to cross a street, ready to get in my car and drive home, just like any other afternoon. But this time, God woke me up a little bit. He showered on me another remembrance of His love, reminding me that in this gift of a universe, there is not only sunshine and warmth and glistening snow and majestic clouds, but also a sweet perfume in everything- right down to the dirt from which we were created.

He is too good to me, to us. But I guess that's the point.

 

a good night.

When all is said and done, the things you remember from college are not the studies. The things you remember are the good times. The fellowship, the food, the people you love.

You remember beautiful, shining winter nights, as snow falls lightly from the skies. You remember slippery drives back & forth through town, and sitting pressed together in warm restaurant booths with your friends. You remember skating on clear ice, under fluorescent lights, and spinning in circles until you collapse in dizzy laughter. You remember Elizabeth taking pictures and Annie asking with smiling eyes "Am I doing this right?" as she shows you her spin. You remember cold fingers, and clouds of breath, and scrambling to turn the heat on in frozen cars. You remember going to sleep with a happy heart, thanking God for his gifts.

What a blessing this place & these people are.

a moment

a little bit of my own poetry. //

a moment

 

Let me stand here, a moment

Gazing with near-unseeing eyes

Let me imbibe the way you look

The way you feel, the way you smell

Let me memorize this flash of an instant

Because I know

With our lives moving forward at a light year’s pace

Even if we move together, which is doubtful

We’ll never be here, again

Implanted in the earth, immovable bodies

With the world spinning around us, love drunk.

 

 

Love Bade Me Welcome

love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back//
guilty of dust and sin.//
but quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack//
from my first entrance in,//
drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning//
if I lacked anything.

"a guest," I answered, "worthy to be here,"//
Love said, "you shall be he."//
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear//
I cannot look on Thee."//
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply//
"who made the eyes, but I?"

"truth Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame//
go where it doth deserve."//
:and know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"//
"my dear, then I will serve."//
"you must sit down," says Love, "and taste My meat."//
so I did sit and eat.

-Love Bade Me Welcome, by George Herbert

Herbert does such an incredible job of personifying the guilty, ashamed sinner in the presence of His God. Here we see the deep significance of Christ's redemption in bringing us to the Table, and reconciling us with our Lord, the ultimate Host. None of us is worthy, save that He Who created us make us once again fit to be with Him. It is the most perfect gift to be at the Feast of the Lamb, at which Christ is both Food and Feeder.