I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Shreveport, Louisiana - surfing the web, and letting my thoughts roam free for a bit. And it hits me yet again - how the chords of my experience have become woven together to create a picture of the man I am striving to be. I look back, and now I can see why I went through certain things, and made certain choices, that used to not make sense but now do. Like, how at 15 I began to write down my thoughts and form crude poems in a effort to create. At 17, I wrote lyrics for garage bands, and failed as a front man for my own collaboration. How I attended shows and became rooted in the culture of a local music scene for much of teens and early twenties. I failed at another band situation, but one friendship was deepened and another exposed somewhat as to what it really was. I got a entrepreneurship/strategic management degree. I met people in the art world. I met more people through music - many which have become the support system that I have to this day. I realized at 24 that I was meant for nothing else but to live out the kingdom and talk about the God who had been keeping me in loving hands my whole life. I led a small young adult group for the last four years. I got my master's degree in theological studies at Brite Divinity School.
And now, I am spearheading the formation of a new church, a faith community that is not afraid to step outside conventional understandings - to emulate the revolution that God made available through God's son, Jesus.
Art, music, organizational behaviour, culture, relationships, theology (God-talk), Christianity, studying the postmodern era...
These chords are being woven together daily by a divine hand - and I feel stronger and more assured than ever before that we can do this. We will start a faith community; we will show others that there is a better way; we will love openly; we will work through our perceptions for the common good of the community; we will start living.
We will see change born in hearts and lives.
Chords...woven together; combined to echo the rhythm of our hearts. I want each of us to experience it. Together.
~Liles
Things I'm listening to:
Minus the Bear - remixes
Black Star - s/t
Sparta - Wiretap Scars
Things I'm reading:
the Bible
Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
The New Rebellion Handbook
Things I'm watching:
Little Miss Sunshine
Scrubs Season 4
About Me
- Liles
- Being a self-confessed cultural sponge/observer, I tend to borrow or reflect on things I experience/hear/see. So, the best way I know to describe the way I desire to be is through an ad on the Travel Channel. Yeah, an advertisment. Basically, it says something to this effect: be a learner, an adventurer, a local, a companion, etc etc...just BE A TRAVELER. Don't be a tourist in this life - experience it in all its highs and lows. I want to be that - on the journey to see God's kingdom come, to live in community, to expand my perceptions and worldview. Because in the end, life is too short not to be a revolutionary.
3 comments:
you don't know who this is... well you may know me but your guesses will most likely be wrong.
um... to the point - you write about a friendship being exposed for what it was, i can only assume you are talking about the fall out i heard of. i wonder, since your life is one so focused on love, acceptance and understanding if you ever solved your difference with the one you once called your bff. if you even spoke to him to understand his side. what i hear is that you judged him from another's accusations.
every human makes mistakes, christians and non-christians alike. it seems so easy for christians to judge non-christians and for non-christians to judge the bad example that christians set in God's name. it is disappointing to watch yet another christian talk about love and understanding and pretending that the lost friendships in the past are all the other person's fault. Even more, ignoring all of the good that you had from that other person.
you know what they say about assuming...
as per the above, accusations imply things that didn't happen. and they did.
all is well, leave it.
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