Sick Day

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache, upset stomach, and a slight fever, and have therefore spent the last few hours alternating between my bed and the bathroom. You see, I was feeling lazy yesterday after work and I decided to stop for dinner on the way home rather than cooking something myself. When I came out of the metro, I surveyed my options and – being the American that I am – I decided to try out the new БУРГЕР КИНГ that just opened.

(that’s Burger King for those of you who don’t read cyrillic)

Now most of you know that I’m not a huge fan of fast food, but the smell of greasy fries was enough yesterday to lure me in. I sat down and ate my burger, which was surprisingly tastier than those found in most Burger Kings I’ve been to in the states, and then went on my way. I will spare you an in-depth discussion of my bowel movements by simply saying that I have paid for that whopper dearly over the last 24 hours.

I do, however, have more to share today than my gastrointestinal health. One of my goals for the new year is to reread some of the books from seminary. You might think it strange that I would want to go back and re-read theology books after spending the last three years doing little else, but the reality is that there is a difference between reading something in an academic sense and reading for personal enjoyment. There is no pressure or post-reading analysis due, and I can actually engage with the authors on a much more comfortable level.

I decided to start with one of the many books assigned by one of my favorite Wesley professors, Drew Dyson. Drew liked to assign roughly a book a week, which – when coupled together with a full course load, a part time job, and a field placement – meant that I wasn’t always able to give my utmost attention to each and every one of them. This book in particular (Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette) happened to slip through the cracks with little more than a cursory skim, so I figured it was a good place to start.

One quote in particular has really stood out to me, and I have decided to use it as a sort of resolution for 2014. Scandrette writes,

“Perhaps we have been too easily pleased by our over educated ability to analyze and deconstruct. Rather than being skeptical, why couldn’t our collective sense of unrest about religion and spiritual community motivate us to be more curious and engaged…”

As someone who loves Derrida and deconstruction, my friends have given me plenty of friendly critique over the years about my tendency to instantly deconstruct whatever thoughts and theories I encounter, so I am going to try to take Mark Scandrette’s advice and see what happens. Here’s to a year of curious engagement.

“We’re On A Mission From God” – Elwood Blues

Well I’ll be boarding a plane for Moscow approximately 15 hours from now, and I’m not really sure what to say. Right now I’m fighting back a combination of fear, nervousness, excitement, suspense, and just about everything else that one could feel before doing this sort of thing.

And for some reason, I keep thinking back to what I would consider one of the greatest moments in the history of the American film industry. Now I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, but the two of them together in the Blues Brothers were absolutely brilliant and they make me laugh every time. If you are one of the unfortunate people who have never had a chance to watch it, stop what you’re doing and watch it. Right now.

(As a missionary who works for GBGM, I‘ve got to warn y’all that there is some language in the movie, so I apologize in advance.)

Anyways, I currently feel like the two brothers “on a mission from God” after they play the big show, raise all the money needed to save the orphanage, and have to get to the Chicago courthouse by morning.

“It’s a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses…”

I’ve got my stuff packed up and I’m ready to take on whatever the world has to throw at me, but I still feel grossly unprepared for living in a culture that I know very little about with a bunch of people I’ve never met.

I guess all that’s left for me to do is to “hit it”.

Wish me luck!

There Is A Field

One of the things that Sean and I talked about yesterday during lunch was a poetry class that he is currently in. He’s pretty similar to me in his love for the great outdoors, and is currently big on the transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, Muir). Something about the pure, self-reliant individual being held in tension with the interconnectedness of creation resonates with him.

Seeing as I was an English major in undergrad, he wanted to know if I had a favorite or if I knew of any poets that he might like. I get asked this kind of question a lot – and my answer changes just as frequently – but on that afternoon I chose to go with T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. I figured they bring a good balance to the likes of Emerson and Thoreau.

As I was hanging out this afternoon, I realized that I should’ve given him a different answer. So Sean, here’s another poet that you should check out…

For anyone who is from Virginia, you know that the current gubernatorial is getting pretty nasty and that both candidates have turned to character assassination in order to try and win. I wasn’t a huge fan of either of these two candidates before, but I can honestly say that I don’t know if I’d want either of them in office.

And I was sitting there thinking about how awful this election cycle has been, I thought back to a poem by a 13^th century Sufi mystic named Rumi. (props to David Hosey for introducing me to the writings of this guy, he’s pretty awesome).  If you are like me and have spent a majority of your life reading western authors and poets, you should check this guy out. In the particular verses that I was thinking of, Rumi writes:

Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Honestly, I think Rumi was preaching a word that many of us could benefit from hearing. We live in a culture dominated with an “I’m right, so you must be wrong” mentality, and I don’t know if this is the kind of life that God had planned for us.

Even worse, I don’t know if many of us would even want to meet in the field that Rumi speaks of.

Would you?

For more poetry from Rumi, check out The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi