Every now and then I like to do a little bit of "Google Globetrotting" and find specific places I have been in the world. This one came to mind a few moments ago:


This is a small cruciform Catholic church in the middle of the small town of Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, which is about 50 miles south of Kiev. I'm pretty sure this is actually the church the town is named after (Bila Tserkva meaning "white church.")

When I was in Kiev a Ukrainian friend of ours arranged for us to travel by bus so that we could spend the day in this community, which was her hometown. As we walked around the central part of the city, we walked into this church and were immediately enveloped in the incredibly ornate artistry of the interior and the booming melodies emanating from the giant organ in the front. The organ was being played by a small, hunched old woman. We took several seats near the altar and listened as she practiced for that weekend's Mass.

One of my friends suffered from chronic hiccups, and started having an attack. When she starts hiccuping, they come one after another for quite a long time. This is usually not a big deal, but in a church like this, the acoustics make them echo for what seems like five minutes each. After several minutes of my friend's best attempts at covering her incessant sound, the organ music suddenly stopped and the kindly old women turned around to us and asked, in gentle Russian, if she would like to get her a glass of water.

Of course, water was no solution, but we did take the opportunity, since the ice was broken, to ask the old woman if we could sing a couple of songs. There were seven of us altogether so we became an impromptu choir of sorts. I don't remember everything we sang, but I do recall "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Precious Cross," which was amazing. And just as we had listened to the beauty of the massive organ, the old woman seemed to be carried by the beauty of seven small voices filling the sanctuary that rainy Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, thanks for taking this little memory journey with me.

When I pulled into my Manhattan driveway tonight, I had logged 2,053 miles on my car in almost exactly two weeks. That's about the length of Chicago to Los Angeles. Only about 300 of those miles were with someone else in the car with me.

Back when I was an undergrad I started the habit of driving with no music, radio, or other stimuli going on around me. I found that this forced me to do a lot of intense thinking, which often led to great insights, ideas, and sometimes the occasional spiritual awakening, especially on a long, super-straight road like the Turner Turnpike.

I've kept up that practice for the most part, and especially now that I'm a campus minister I do an awful lot of thinking about the ministry and what God wants to do, where he wants things to go, what he is trying to communicate, things to do, visions to dream about, and etc. A lot of this really makes me wish I had some kind of secretary traveling with me to record it all. But then I would just end up talking to that person so it would be self-defeating. My students sometimes make fun of me for being such a "whiteboard listmaker." I wish there was some kind of automotive whiteboard that could be used while driving. I would be able to record thousands of ideas and insights.

Okay. The end.

I've thought a lot about the call of God, and what that is in a lot of circumstances. What exactly is the call of God, how does that work, and what does it look like? There are two extreme views on how life works... one is that God predetermines everything, and the other is that life is totally free will with all decisions left up to us. My hunch is that there is a kind of wavy middle ground... where God pulls us in directions but lets us decide.

The Bible certainly demonstrates many very clear calls from God. And I have known people in my own life who are very convicted of their specific call to action by God that occurred at specific moments. Many others, including myself, have become convicted of a call through a long process of experiences. Either way, this conviction is very strong. It is something that produces passion and a relentless drive to a certain kind of end. It produces a desire to sacrifice a lot of good alternatives to pursue what you believe God is beckoning you towards.

But one reality of living by a call is that it is never easy. It requires a lot of faith that is consistently attacked - by the circumstances of the world, by other people, by Satan, and probably most of all by yourself. Self-doubt, frustration, lack of patience, and perceived obstacles seem to be the biggest killers of the passion that comes with feeling a call. Unfortunately I have seen several of those I have worked closely alongside experience these attacks on their mission and lose heart in the call. And I have no delusion that I am immune to that myself. I have already been seriously derailed once in the mission that God called me to, and figure that it is only a matter of time before more trials of fire come knocking. One thing I am convicted of though, is that I get to decide who ultimately wins.

Following a call doesn't always mean feeling good about it. Passion is a drive, not always a feeling. I'm becoming convinced that the dark night of the soul is a hand-in-hand experience with following a call. I'm not sure that Moses was ever appreciated. John the Baptist wondered if Jesus actually was the one. Almost all the apostles were executed. Jesus went to the cross.

You may die, but don't let your passion do so.

Clue: two years ago today.

In about a half hour I am going to set off on yet another journey that will take me about 1,350 miles in five days. Big Oil is getting rich off me having people all over the country. This time it will be a nice big loop:

See you next Tuesday.

Tonight ends one of the best days in a long time.

Today Manhattan was completely covered by a thick sheet of ice. Almost the entire city's electric went out for most of the day, starting last night. Mine went out this morning. People were without lights and heat, almost all the stores were shut down, the school was closed, and tree limbs were crashing down everywhere.

But, it was one of the best days in a long time.

Why? Because I am surrounded by a bunch of people who truly live the Acts 2 model - they take every chance to be together and take care of one another. This morning after my power went out, I bundled up, de-iced my car, and slip-slided over to our campus ministry student center to assess the damage. About five or six students had already gathered there. The power was out there, but we figured out that the house where three of our guys live has a gas oven and stove, so we piled in each others cars and slip-slided a couple of blocks over and joined them in the making of pizza and brownies. From there the crowd kept growing and the festivities became all the more merrier. After several hours of food and games we learned that our student center had power again so we slip-slided back over there and resumed the party. By this time a text message had gone out to everyone and their dog and the student center became a madhouse of board games, video games, movies, communal food cooking, studying, and hard-core Monopoly. (I dominated, of course, after 7 hours.)

But, amidst all the merriment was the common theme of people helping people. Texts popping up on phones of students with power offering beds to those without. People donating tons of their own food to feed the crowds. Students hooking up portable heaters to un-freeze others' cars. People ganging up to free lightweight rear-wheel drive pickups stuck in the ice. What occurred today is almost exactly how I picture the gatherings of the first Christian believers described in Acts 2. It's a wonderful sight. Everyone should have a community of people like this in their lives. I don't know how people exist without it.

Tonight marks the beginning of a new content section from your favorite purveyor of low-priced plantains - the Discount Bananas Media Blog. I'm all the time exploring videos and other media that saturate the internet, and come across a lot of brilliant stuff, but have never wanted my blog to be another clearing house of other people's work.

So, hop on over to discountmedia.blogspot.com (or hit the "Media Blog" tab above) every now and then to check out the best of the best. To all my feed readers, it is technically a whole new blog so you will need to subscribe to that feed as well if you want its content. This will basically be the last mention of it on this side unless I post something that is integral to what I write about here.

I hope that you get reminders that what you are doing is absolutely worthwhile. Kacey is a freshman in our ministry who came out of nowhere one day. She just wanted to find a group of Christians. She is a girl of few words but last night she wrote this on Facebook:

Ha, ok, sorry for the weird title. But I have a reason, not a very good one, but I’ll explain anyways. As we were sitting together in LIFE group tonight listening to Cary talk about God and what we've learned about Him this semester, I realized a few things. One, is that though I have opened my eyes to a lot of things this year, I still have a lot to learn. And the second one, which I realized while I was contemplating the first one, was everybody’s socks…
I know I have a strange mind, but I realized, that while we were sitting there warm, and stuffed from a wonderful home-cooked meal, that there are so many different kinds of people in this world, and the one thing that will always be able to bring us together, if we let it, is Christ. We’ve all been through so many different experiences to make us who we are, and we all fall short of perfect, but we’re all different for a reason. So whether we have mismatched socks, fuzzy socks, slippery socks, or no socks, we can still be brought together. Each of us struggles with our own battles, but as Adam said, a whole bunch of sticks is a lot harder to break when they are all together than what it takes to break one stick. I realized how lucky I have been to have Cats for Christ to come to every week and to be able to find strength, relax, and know that I am loved and that other people (and God) know that I exist.
Through coming to college, especially through my experience here at the dorm, I have realized that people can make any choice that they want. They can make ‘right now’ decisions or long term decisions. So many people that I have been literally surrounded by make decisions that I sometimes can hardly fathom. Although I know it’s been good for me to see how other people live, I still don’t think I’d trade anything in the world for their money, popularity, or 'great times,' no matter how important it seems right now. It can be so hard to be able to admit to ourselves that we are the ones who choose what we do, no matter legal, parent-consented, or God-approved, we get to make the decisions. Realizing my freedom this semester, I am so thankful to have Cats for Christ to surround me with reminders that God is here, now, and everywhere.
Thanks guys!
<3

Well it was a regular winter wonderland in Manhattan today. Great big fat flakes covering the land with inches of cold powdery goodness. It's been a while since I've experienced this with everyone thinking it is perfectly normal.