rw&b.

nothing is quite as american as apple pie; that is, nothing except for freedom.

earlier this summer, i really came to grips with how fortunate i am to have been born and raised in america. i spent five weeks in a closed country, where people live to work and work to live, surviving without hope of a better (or different) tomorrow. before that trip, i was never a patriot, never all that proud to live in "the home of the brave." more or less, i felt that as a whole we constantly abused our freedoms and liberties and graces and all those other fancy american words we don't even know wat mean. i would look up at our country for a few seconds, then back down at my feet for a few minutes trying to figure out where we went wrong. i'd love to point to finger at someone or something or somewhen, but god only gave me ten fingers, none of which were designed to accuse. 

but i think that's where the hope lies! just as we collectively chiseled headstones, passed out shovels and began to dig, we can collectively chisel friendships, pass out compliments, and begin to change our perspectives. of course, a collective change of perspectives is exactly that: an intentional, communal effort to knock on our neighbors' doors so we can ask for their shoes--so we can ask to try them out for a day. 

so here lies america, the greatest country on the only planet we've ever known ever, in shambles and sticky situations, and on rocky journeys leading to rocky destinations. but the beauty of it all is our desire to change that! i see it in the punk junior high kids, the ones who want to rebel for the sake of rebelling. i've always thought that if they were more mature, they would no longer want to rebel. however, i've been led to believe that if they were more mature, they would simply rebel in more mature ways. they would lose the xxxxl shirts, the cigarettes, the earrings, the cussing, and they'd replace it with educated conversation and extracurricular research and political banter and independent thinking. and they would not rebel simply for the sake of rebelling: they would be rebels for progress, change, institution, cause, and truth. 

on my trip, i was able to talk to a bunch of college kids about jesus. they all knew the name, but that was about it. i felt privileged to be able to teach them about my best friend, the man who changed my life over 2000 years ago. throughout the course of the trip, i realized that my mission was not to convert them, but rather to present them with ideas they may never have encountered otherwise. each conversation pressed upon me that teaching was my form of rebellion, not bible-beating. here in america, we certainly have the freedom to do the latter, as many ex-christians can attest to. but the beautiful thing is that we also have the freedom to do the former: to teach and learn and grow. we are at the mercy of our own decisions, and that's exactly wat this free country is all about: everyday, we have the opportunity to live, but we also have the blessing to thrive, should we chose to do so. 

#yolo   

[1 corinthians 10:23-24]