rob bell, sherwood explosions, etc.

i feel like blogging, but i don't know exactly what to say. i feel like i want to pour myself into a paragraph or two, so that i can be sucked up through the screen into your heart. and YET! nothing to say.

feeling really strongly right now. not strongly any one THING, but feeling strongly. is that possible? am i making sense? how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

i am really excited about some upcoming sherwood stuff that just. may. blow the ceiling off the house i am in. that exciting. maybe not THAT exciting.

but i got to meet rob bell the other day (two days ago that is) -- he wrote a book that i pretty much loved; a book that expressed succinctly what i have been wandering through for about three years now, only in addition to all the criticisms of american christianity that i had stored up, he also offered positive reactions. it was an important book for me. i met him after his sermon at a church in grand rapids that he pastors.

it was funny because there were all these people standing around him; some of them were having him sign their copies of his book. i thought, "that is so weird that they are doing that," and then promptly realized that i do that...EVERY NIGHT. i felt the awkwardness of being on the other side of such a conversation -- rob bell and i have very little in common that i know of. and yet, i want to talk to him because he is important to me. his work is important to me and i connect it to my life. he has gotten good at these conversations, keeping things moving, being slightly funny. i have gotten good at them as well in the same way, but this time i was the one coming to talk to him, and it was awkward for me, slightly, but i am glad i met him. he said he would like some tips on touring. i hope he was serious because man do i have some of those. =)

in his sermon, he mentioned at one point how being around generous people makes him want to be more generous. how true that is. i feel that way around my friends gabe and jessa, and i hope to be able to spend more time with them and rob bell and their friends in the GR very soon. and when i think about that, i blow the ceiling out of my mind. not really =)

love, me