Why the Title?

A Little about Me

"Today, I want my life to suck!"

Yeah, right. Like you've ever started a day like that. Can we cut the crap here? No one starts a day like that.

Look, I probably don't know you. Are you a career junkie trying to climb your company's ladder? Single mom? Family guy? College kid? A nobody? A somebody? Teenager? Athlete? Genius? Party animal? Lost? Retired? Religious? Atheist? Careless? I don't know who you are, but I do know this: you've never wished for a day that sucked. Please call me out if I'm wrong, but here's the deal. Regardless of who you are, where you are, or how you are feeling, I think we all wake up wanting today to be a little better than yesterday. We're all pursuing a life with a little more going for us.

I was always one of those highly energetic, overly optimistic, increasingly enthusiastic individuals that loved life and always found an opportunity in every problem. Recently, I was handed an amazing residency at an amazing church, and we had more going for us than I had ever dreamed of. I was on a high, and I had this faith in God that was uncrushable.

Then cancer kicked my dad's tail. At Thanksgiving, sudden severe illness. By Christmas, dead. Top that with several shifts in housing, more death, an unseen future, and my wife Lauren getting pregnant, and you have all the ingredients for a dark night of the soul.

And a dark night it was. It's tough watching someone you love die before your eyes. Day 1, Dad gives his life to Jesus. Praise God. Then we watch him fade for the next month. His temperament goes from joy to agitated. His confidence goes from prepared to panicked. Hope? Not anymore. Pain and fear? Definitely. The smell goes from bad to worse to intolerable. 140lbs-110lbs-90lbs. His skin goes from feverish to cold to ice. His heart goes from racing to slowed to stopped.

The best of times, the worst of times. In the midst of confusion, I can tell you with certainty that there was never a day where I woke up saying, "Man, I wish my life could get worse!" I know I'm not the only one seeing the raw side of life. I don't care what faith you have or what god you worship, you can't watch the news for any length of time and think that this is how things were meant to be. In that whole experience, I found myself face to face with the fact that there is something messed up with this world.

So why the title?

If we can see that something is wrong, than my only conclusion is that there's something inside each of us that recalls a time when things were right. Take a moment and process that. You can sense that there is a "right," can't you?

As a Christian, I'd call this an echo of Eden, a memory of life before sin spun the cosmos out of control. If you believe that, that there is a "right," then the question is how do we get back there?

We try to answer that question in a lot of different ways. Some of us are selfish enough to think if we just ignore it, if we just look out for ourselves, the rest of the world will take care of itself. So we drown ourselves in games, books, television, a career. We sell ourselves to sex, parties, drugs, anything that feels like an escape. It's all the same. The world is still wrong when we live for ourselves.

Some think it's bigger than that. If we just vote for the right politician or we just wipe those "terrorists" off the map or if we just recycle or just listen to U2 and Bob Dylan, then all the world's problems will be solved. We've been trying things like that for ages. They don't work either.

The Bible says a few things about rightness. It says God sent this Jesus dude to be murdered on a torture device and that he then resurrected him, all for sacrificial love and a fix to the mess we made. I know it sounds crazy, but yeah, I believe a dead guy rose from the dead. The Bible says God's in the process of fixing it the world. That because of Jesus, things will get back to normal and that someday, we'll see a new heaven and a new earth.

In the mean time, Jesus tells me there's a thief that wants to mug me, slit my throat, and watch my body burn. Sounds hopeful right? The good news comes in the very next sentence. Jesus says, "I've come to bring you the best life you could possibly imagine! An abundant life!"

That's what I want. That's the pursuit I'm on, a pursuit of abundant life. Whether you know it or not, that's the pursuit that you are on too, because you don't wake up everyday wishing your life would suck. We're looking for something better. That's why this blog exists.

I'm not going to beat you up on here every time I write. At times, this will be deeply personal, other times I might post a question, a book you need to check out, or a movie you need to watch. I hope you'll track with me. We've only got one life and I hope you'll share some of yours with me on here. Even if you don't buy into this Jesus guy just yet, I think you and I both agree that we want the best life we can possibly have.

Let's pursue it together.