back from Hope

And I'm back.  I left Texas at 5a.m and arrived in the heart of it all around midnight. 

I'm not sure I want to ever be a trucker.  Oh sure, I'd love to have a "handle" and wear trucker hats.  I guess I'd also wear trucker shoes, trucker socks, a trucker watch...you get the point. 

So I drove through Texas for the first time...and Hope, Arkansas.....and Little Rock....and Memphis. 

I can now say I've been to Oklahoma...and I know absolutely nothing about it.  That's sort of one of those check the box situations.  I've been there, but I just sort of drove right through it.  It didn't really affect my life and I didn't really experience it the way that I could have.

I spent more time with friends in Austin and Kansas City than anything else.  It was great to see so many old friends and was inspiring to be around my friends who are living radical lives of faith.  These guys live out all of the things we read in the Bible and talk about in church.  They don't just talk about the easy or fun or seeker sensitive parts of the Scriptures and they press into something much deeper as a result.  I found a group of folks that "fear man" much less than I tend to.  They're not wrapped up in looking cool (especially Luis) or ashamed to live out whatever they feel like God is calling them towards.  They're the opposite of much of American spirituality and look both out of the cultural loop and in the affecting the world around them loop.

It's ironic.  We often try so hard to be relevant or with it and we are....and see little bits and pieces of growth here and there.  It's collateral growth.  Do something big enough or often enough and you'll generate some stuff every once in a while...but is that what we're called to?

I often just sort of drive through the Christian faith and can tell people I've been there...but it's not the same.