Tag Archive - Story

Freestyle Friday (er, Sunday, rather)

March 14, 2010 in Culture, Film, Life with 2 Comments

I totally meant to do this on Friday. But, as you can see, I didn’t.  So, what was supposed to be my innaugural Freestyle Friday post is coming on a Sunday.  It doesn’t sound quite as fancy to say “Freestyle Sunday”, so I’m keeping it the way I originally intended, with a P.S. :)

  1. Weird gym sauna guy was back Friday morning.  If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know who weird gym sauna guy is.  I managed to avoid him the rest of the week but not Friday.  I wasn’t in there more than 2 minutes before he managed to tell me that he had more money than he knew what to do with and that he probably blows through more money than I’ll make in a year.  I’m not exactly sure if he is trying to impress me or trying to convince himself that it really matters.  It’s probably a little of both, but all it really does is get on my nerves and actually make me a little sad for him.  As I drove home Friday morning I could not help but think to myself, “this guy doesn’t even know who he is, and he’s searching.”  So, now it appears that weird gym sauna guy may be a ministry opportunity. Thanks, Jesus. Thanks a lot. :)
  2. I was watching something on E! News the other night and they were interviewing some celebrity who was at the grand opening of what I believe is the first Target store in France (or something like that).   Amid all the attention from the paparazzi, she commented, “Growing up I didn’t have as much money as I have now. So, shopping a places like Target brings back good memories.” Wait a minute. What exactly is she saying?  The idea of shopping at Target brings back memories of a simpler time when she was poor?  It just seemed so odd to say, even if you mean it.
  3. I finally saw both Up In The Air and Precious.  Both were great, for different reasons.  It was moving watching the central characters in both these films, played by George Clooney and Gabourey Sidibe, respectively, struggle to find something that gave their lives meaning.  One was wearing a shallow mask while the other was wrought with conflict.  I’m not sure that either story resolved as neatly as I had hoped, but there is something about watching movies about people reaching, striving and trying to find out who they are and why they’re here that always move me.  Both of these films were no exception.

That’s it for Freestyle Friday, Sunday, whatever, this week.

Have you seen Up In The Air or Precious?  What did you think?

 

So Why “An Idol Heart?”

February 28, 2010 in Culture, Faith, Life, My Story with 31 Comments

It has been close to a year since I have blogged with any kind of consistency.  Since then, a lot has happened.

About a year ago, I experienced what writers and storytellers call an “inciting event.”  According to Suite 101, an inciting event is:

…the moment or plot point in a script that kicks the story into motion. It occurs after the set up or exposition and everything that follows the inciting incident should be a result of the inciting incident. It is where a story really begins.
It is that moment in the script where the protagonist’s world is turned upside down and he/she must then set about resolving the change in circumstances that the incident has brought about. It is generally a clear and defined moment that is easily identifiable.
Of “inciting events”, author Donald Miller says:
Characters don’t change without being forced to change. An inciting incident is the event in a movie that causes upheaval in the protagonist life. The protagonist, then, naturally seeks to return to stability. And in order to do that, he HAS to solve his new problem.
While we may tend to prefer comfortable, warm and fuzzy feel-good stories, those kind of stories can tend to be long on emotion but short on depth.  Ever the master story-teller, God specializes in character development.  It was in that spirit that God used this particular inciting event in my life to peel back the layers of my heart and show me what was really there.  It was not great and consequently, I was broken.

It was during this time that I was introduced to the ministry of Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and particularly his teachings on idolatry in our hearts and culture.  Between his messages on idolatry, followed by the October ’09 release of his book “Counterfeit Gods”, which digs much deeper into the heart of idolatry, God pretty much wrecked my life and my heart.  The past few months in particular have brought with them a systematic deconstructing of so much stuff that I had given inordinate place in my heart to.

So, why “An Idol Heart?”  In “Counterfeit Gods”, Tim Keller says,

“The human heart is indeed a factory that mass-produces idols.”

Wow. That’s why.  Every single day I am learning to be more and more aware and in tune with what my heart is prone to, choosing to lay those things at the cross and looking to Christ as my ultimate source of worth, acceptance and identity.

This has been, and continues to be, a massive heart and life shift for me which is actively reshaping just about everything I’ve known or understood about sin, salvation and grace.  In fact, this is reshaping how I see and process, well, just about everything.
“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” – Ezekiel 36:26

This is the single most painful yet beautiful experience I’ve ever walked through.  I have changed… a lot.  I have let go… of a lot.  I’ve been learning a lot and I’ve been unlearning a lot.  I’ve been experiencing what it means to let go and also what it means to pursue.  I am still very much in the middle of this journey, but I’ve finally come to a place where I’m ready to talk about it to more than just my core group of close friends who have been walking through this with me.

I’m passionate about my faith, about life and about culture, and how all those things intersect.  So, this blog will be some sort of a collision of all those things.

I love God and I love people.

An Idol Heart.

This is me.

 
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