The trip home

I know I usually write things that somehow tie back in to a bigger reality in life but tonight I’m just writing because I want too. Or, as Oscar Wilde would say, “Art for the sake of art.”

We had our first snow fall of the season in the Metro area today, none of it stuck but it’s obvious that nature is serving notice that summer is on its way out and winter is fast approaching. In the mean time we’re stuck in that beautiful purgatory known as autumn where the world is momentarily suspended between the two stark contrasts of blazing heat, and freezing cold. Fall is probably my favorite time of year not because of the changing colors of the leaves but because of the unique feel in the air. There’s a certain chill in the breeze that only happens this time of year that makes me feel more alive and self aware. It seeps down deep into the marrow of my bones until I feel like I’ve ceased to exist and melted into the world around me, walking across campus with the granite mountains of the Rockies behind me and the concrete mountains of downtown before of me. The sounds of helicopters and airplanes flying overhead with only the flashing of their lights set against the night sky to alert you to their physical location. On the bus you can listen to the ebb and flow of conversation, the various accents from all over the world occasionally punctured by bursts of laughter reminding us of our common humanity regardless of where, or what, we call home. I get off at my stop and melt back into the chill of fall as I walk past Tommy’s Thai food, Enzo’s End pizzeria; with a bar strait out of Hopper’s “Nighthawks”, and the flower shop with gang signs carved into the grills of the air conditioner units hanging out of the windows. The white Christmas lights wrapped around Bastien’s wink at me from across the street welcoming me home after a long day of classes. I admire the tiny plants growing up between the cracks in the asphalt refusing to be choked out by the world around them not caring that the world considers them weeds that are simply a nuisance, bent on surviving in their adverse circumstances. As I turn the corner I look at the half burnt-out Monroe Liquor Store sign, with its chipped white paint and think that it looks like something from a grainy black and white photo that somehow got stuck in the wrong era. An artifact from the analog years comically cast in the digital age, a subtle reminder of where we came from. A time when typewriters, records, and Polaroid’s reigned supreme never dreaming that they’d be replaced by computers, MP3 players, and digital cameras. While all this is still tumbling through my mind I slowly climb the stairs to my apartment, turn the key in the lock, step into the warm air of my artificial environment, and hit the reset button on reality.

Gospel centered bus riding

Since I'm naturally interested in people and love to watch the way they interact with the world around them, riding the bus the last couple of days has been like Christmas on wheels. It's amazing what you can learn about people without them ever saying a word to you. Where they sit, how they sit, whether or not they strike up a conversation with the people around them, all these things can tell you a lot about someone. This morning for example you could tell that almost everyone on the bus was still trying to wake up. Almost all of them were wearing sunglasses so that it was easier to nap and several of them had mp3 players pumping background noise into their half awake brains. Shy people tend to sit as far from everyone else as possible, I actually saw one person sit on the edge of their seat just so they wouldn't have to sit to close to the person they were sharing the bench with.

Humans fascinate me. Since I'm a Christian and I filter all of life through The Gospel, I believe that all people reflect the glory of God and bare witness to some attribute of His nature, people watching isn't just socially informative it's also theologically informative. Obviously because we live in a fallen world these attributes and traits aren't seen in the same perfection and holiness as they exist in God but we can see a small glimpse of God in His creation. Joy, love, kindness, anger, community, compassion, and many other emotions and actions are all small flashes of His personality, like fireflies in a night sky. In the words of 1 Corinthians 13:12:

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."

For Christians simply seeing creation through the filter of The Gospel isn't enough though, we must act to bring that creation into a correct relationship with it's maker. This is hard, thankless, unglamorous, frustrating, time consuming work that in the end may not bare any kind of visible fruit. Thankfully our charge isn't to see who can harvest the most fruit, but to simply work faithfully for the advance of The Gospel.