Thoughts

I have a friend, his name is Tanveer. What an uncommon name. It's uncommon even for indian name, he told me. 5 minutes ago tanveer was sitting in my room, sacrificing precious sleep to hang out and talk to me. it's 11 o clock on a school night. I love Tanveer because I can always count on him to go on an adventure with me, no matter what the cost. Now that i think about it tanveer and i have covered a lot of ground together. We have driven 12 hours to rhode island to visit my dying grandfather, we have explored the heart of dc, and we have trekked through the rainforests of costa rica together. I'm only 17...holy cow man. What's next?

When i started writing this blogpost my intent wasn't really to talk about Tanveer. My goal was to talk about adventure found in Christ. But as i continue writing i realize that the two go hand in hand.

I'm reading a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. In it the author makes the point that Jesus was more than just a "nice guy". He had to be. If Jesus Christ was just a nice guy, or a good guy, he wouldn't have been put to death on a cross. No one ever crucified Mister Rogers.

I have learned that a great number of Americans have this idea that God just wants us to be nice girls and boys. To get along in the sandbox. I consider myself to have been raised in a Christian home, and to some degree i was raised to simply be a "good guy". It sucks, really. I ask myself where in the bible this sort of thinking comes from, because i don't see it. When i read about Jesus i see a man who calls other men to leave families and ordinary ways of life to live radically with him.

Only when the men in the world stop trying to simply be "nice guys" and start living lives of adventure, obedience, and reliance on Christ will we actually have real men in this world.

If Jesus isn't just a good guy, then who is he? I bet if you asked 100 people this question you would get 100 different answers, and therein lies the beauty of who He is. Jesus reveals himself differently to every person who claims to know Him, and because life with Christ is a relationship we all know him in a different way. Thus, to simply say that Jesus Christ was a good guy is to simplify and dilute the entirety of his life to little more than a feel good story. That is the kind of God you can put in a box. I don't know about you, but i don't want a God that i can fit into a box.

it's 11:58 pm. i have to be somewhere in 7.5 hours. good thing i napped today.


The Lord will fight for you. He is adventurous. He will lead you.

When the soldiers came to arrest Him they fell down at the first words he spoke. They backed away. They trembled at his voice. If i'm pickin sides, i want this guy. I've realized lately that this is the kind of God that i am following. I am following a warrior, a fighter. A God that not only gives me the authority to take his message to the gates of hell and back, but promises that i won't be overcome by those very gates. I am still unsure what to think about this...crazy stuff.

A week ago i found myself in the rainforests of Costa Rica. On one such day i was climbing up the side of a water fall with a few other fellas, carelessly adventuring to the top. As i reflect on this i find it baffling that none of us came away seriously injured or even dead. There were different moments when the slip of a foot or the uprooting of a branch being clung to could have meant trouble. Not only that, but falling rocks quite nearly took out more than one of us. Remember my friend Tanveer? He stared death in the face when he came across a snake whose venom takes only 3 minutes to silence a man's beating heart once and for all. And to think he almost picked it up...oh tanny. But amidst all the danger and all the uncertainty existed a single voice of assurance for each one of us. During those moments we all knew, no believed, that as we were hurling our bodies to the top of that mountain we were simply trying to keep up with the God of the universe blazing the trail in front of us.

When one comes to believe that our Christ is one of adventure and risk, that adventure and risk seems to find its way into his or her life.

My prayer is that when i die i'm not just remembered as a good guy. The world seems to have enough of those already. I hope that every part of me is forgotten, and that the life i lived for Jesus is remembered. The world could use some more of him.

I apologize if this post seems scattered. I changed my mind about 4 times of what i wanted it to be about. Tanveer....love you bud.

It's 12:30. I'm sleepy. Night all