April 8, 2009
So here's my idea for Evan’s blog. I enjoy reading spiritual or devotional blogs and find those inspirational, but I want this blog to be a slice of my life. My spirituality is at the center of who I am, but what does that look like? I think there are many misconceptions of what an authentic Jesus-follower really spends time doing and thinking and caring about.
I'm not a historian, but it seems like America and Canada and Western society in general are as polarized as we've ever been, perhaps more. What that means to me is that every issue, every concern, every idea, you pick sides and fight for your turf. While I agree that some turf is worth fighting for, we've really demonized our friends and family members. How is it possible that with all of this talk of tolerance in recent decades, it seems we've become historically intolerant?
I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum within and outside of what you would consider Christian faith, and any mention of politics seems to evoke this visceral reaction especially if your party is not in power at the moment. Bill Maher, James Dobson, Sean Penn, Don Wildmon, Obama, Bush, Palin, Clinton—everyone’s throwing these wild grand ideas around, and I feel like saying, “Hey, I'm just living my life here.” And I've got a lot of people around me who are living their lives, and I feel like were being goaded into hating each other and mistrusting each other when we probably could gain more from talking to one another.
I'm interested in truth. When I kiss my wife and hug my kids, to be honest, I don't really give a rip about anyone's agenda. I believe there are leaders and causes worth following and being involved in, but I'm going to sell my soul very carefully. In one line of thinking, that's life: a series of people and events that call to you saying, “Make this the center of your life.” And I think it's fashionable to not choose a center or to be multi-centric… to say, "I believe in this and this and this and this which ultimately don't connect or resolve with each other, but I'm not going to really think about that." It strikes me as sort of meaningless to take an eclectic approach to personal worldview in a way that seems accommodating but ultimately has no core.
So, okay, I take Jesus as my center, and then the question is, what does that mean and what does it look like? If Jesus is the center of my life, what do the rest of concentric circles of my life contain? And I sort of cringe at this moment because it's stereotype-palooza. I can see people automatically filling in the blanks with their experience of people who like Jesus and hang out in churches. Perhaps that's the purpose of this blog, to say, "Hey, I'm Evan, I’m me, I think I have the right to fill in some of my own circles here."
So I'm inviting you along for the ride if that's interesting to you. If the concentric circles of your life are very different from mine, I'm okay with that and hopefully I can learn some things from you. Let’s chat. Evan
