About a week ago Mackenzie and I were walking around Greenlake in Seattle and three guys came up and put a gun to my head, told us to get on the ground, stole my stuff and hit me on the head with the handgun. Kenz and I are both physically alright. We’re both working through the mental aspect, but I think we’ll be ok. They ended up stealing a $30 LG flip phone (Score!), my wallet and my jacket.
Also, they spent $99.43 at Jack in the Box on my credit card right after they mugged us. Classy.
I am undergoing the arduous task of recollecting phone numbers. If you and I talk on the telephone, would mind either emailing me (thelongbrake at gmail dot com) or leaving a comment with your number? I would greatly appreciate it.
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I was walking down 4th avenue today in downtown Seattle, and at the corner of 4th & Stewart there were four men with big signs and pamphlets that read Turn or Burn and Repent and Believe. So, as intrigued as I was, I stopped to have a conversation. Obviously these men are very passionate and dedicated, and if they were willing to stand on a street and yell, then I was willing to listen and attempt to understand where they were coming from.
The man standing on the crate bent over and yelled that “you are not born again and you need Jesus” right in my face. Maybe 1.5 feet away, staring me in the eye. I asked him to tell me more about born again and he told me it was all over the Bible. So I asked him to show me where besides in the gospels and in 1 Peter. He told me Ezekiel 33. When I looked up Ezekiel 33 and it wasn’t there, he told me it’s in 36. When I didn’t find the words “born again” 36 he told me that it’s what the words me that’s important, and that they meant born again. So I asked him about the Hebrew of Ezekiel and the Greek in the New Testament, so as to have a bit more context, and he told me that I obviously need to study up on source criticism.
Funny you ask, angry man, but I just turned in my final paper on source, historical, pre-critical, ecclesial and cultural criticism. How odd and apropos that you bring it up. Let’s discuss!
So I asked him to tell me more about his knowledge source criticism, of the document Q and why Matthew and Luke both probably used Mark as their source text, because I was truly intrigued. I wanted to know his thoughts and what he had studied, as I am in the same field. And I’m not kidding when I say this: he walked away. Literally walked away. To another street corner. Left me standing there with one of his friends.
Then this friend told me that I wasn’t saved, and I asked him how he knew. He said he just did. Ah. Really? That’s your reason? I asked. He said he knew it without breaking his glare.
I walked away with the thought that if that’s Jesus, then I want nothing to do with Jesus.
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Henk Hofstra “Art-Eggcident” in Leeuwarden.
(Wooster Collective)
via Noah Kalina
I absolutely love large art installations.
It’s instances like these that make it awkward to talk about my undergraduate degree to my friends at graduate school.
This morning in about 50 minutes is graduation for Mars Hill Graduate School. A lot of my friends are finishing and moving all over the country to new things. It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been here a year, and it’s harder to see my friends go.
