Hello!
I wanted to give a quick update and speak on a few things that have been rattling around my brain
It's been 3 months now here in Grand Rapids and I love it. Although it has been the hardest three months of my life. That involving depression, anxiety, everything nice I have essentially breaking down, my grandfather dying, mental breakdowns (involving dying my hair and shaving my head, please don't let me near hair clippers when I'm sad), almost losing faith entirely and heartbreak of all sorts. Although, through all this God has used it to teach me quite a bit( as He usually does in hard situations). The main lesson I learned was that I was too in control of my life and found identity and things, or the ability to be self reliant.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Luckily my saving grace has in fact been God, my friends and roommates, and the unshakeable knowledge that I'm supposed to be here. The Take Hold Church family has completely adopted me and I have never felt like I have belonged in place so much as I do here.
Thank you.
But, within these three months some incredible things have happened, thus keeping me sane and stable.
One of them being Take Hold Fest. This beautiful, beautiful gathering of amazing people and music has saved my life for the second time. Last year being the first time I attended, I knew I was supposed to move here. This year I was honored to perform. If you want to see what its like some incredible people from Calvin College made a documentary about it and you can follow this link to see it (its only 10 mins don't worry).
The Spirit Of God Is Heavy
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The other day a friend sent me a link to an article involving Pope Francis.
Now I do not identify with the catholic church nor do I try to elevate certain people in thinking that
their word is truth. The only truth I find is in Jesus Christ and really dissecting what I hear from
others in regards to His word. But for some reason, This article very much bothered me. It was about
the Pope reiterating the catholic churches stance on the idea of evolution and the Big Bang theory in
relation to creationism. After reading the article, I had the self-righteous indignation that, I guess I believed that
Genesis 1 (even though written poetically) was complete truth. I'm not saying it is or it isn't, this is not an
argument piece, but i promptly went to my roommate's room to get some sympathy in knowing
we stood on the same side. I however was wrong. He began to show me how God could have
in fact used the Big Bang Theory and Evolution as the catalyst of creation. This frustrated me immensely as
I looked for the proper words and arguments to prove him wrong (also, disclaimer, I do believe that science and Christianity can cohabitate, and in almost everything science proves God). I was even on the brink of tears thinking
wether God was truly His loving and intimate self. I have always found comfort in this picture of God
sitting in the dirt molding Adam and Eve's bodies out of clay with huge smile on His face and
tears of joy pouring from his eyes.
But so did he.
I then learned that he loved that idea of God as well, but He has a rational mind and an analytical thinking process.
I would say I have more of an artistic thinking process. I am NOT saying one is better than the other,
but the beauty is that God had created us both with DIFFERENT thinking processes.
That is why I think God left certain parts of the bible (including the creation story) poetic. Giving room for
interpretation, where people with different thought processes can believe in a wonderfully creative and all
powerful God. There is no dispute about whether or not God and The Son had done miracles. I mean the bible is rife
with them. But It is really interesting to analyze and see how those miracles came to fruition and
that some seemed to be out of thin air and some might have been an eternity long process.
I therefore still believe and find comfort in thinking of God as this heavenly potter bringing things to life with a
breathy kiss and careful hands. But I will have compassion with the "Left Brain thinkers" because in
fact God created them and loves them immensely. And in this argument i have learned to love others even
more. THANK YOU JESUS.
I revel in the beauty of God being the mysterious poet that He is.
I still don't necessarily agree with the other things spoken about in the article. But, then again, I don't
agree with quite a few things within Catholicism. I'll just let that be, as long as we are still serving
the same God and loving others the way Jesus did.
Thanks,
Evan
I wanted to give a quick update and speak on a few things that have been rattling around my brain
It's been 3 months now here in Grand Rapids and I love it. Although it has been the hardest three months of my life. That involving depression, anxiety, everything nice I have essentially breaking down, my grandfather dying, mental breakdowns (involving dying my hair and shaving my head, please don't let me near hair clippers when I'm sad), almost losing faith entirely and heartbreak of all sorts. Although, through all this God has used it to teach me quite a bit( as He usually does in hard situations). The main lesson I learned was that I was too in control of my life and found identity and things, or the ability to be self reliant.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Luckily my saving grace has in fact been God, my friends and roommates, and the unshakeable knowledge that I'm supposed to be here. The Take Hold Church family has completely adopted me and I have never felt like I have belonged in place so much as I do here.
Thank you.
But, within these three months some incredible things have happened, thus keeping me sane and stable.
One of them being Take Hold Fest. This beautiful, beautiful gathering of amazing people and music has saved my life for the second time. Last year being the first time I attended, I knew I was supposed to move here. This year I was honored to perform. If you want to see what its like some incredible people from Calvin College made a documentary about it and you can follow this link to see it (its only 10 mins don't worry).
The Spirit Of God Is Heavy
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The other day a friend sent me a link to an article involving Pope Francis.
Now I do not identify with the catholic church nor do I try to elevate certain people in thinking that
their word is truth. The only truth I find is in Jesus Christ and really dissecting what I hear from
others in regards to His word. But for some reason, This article very much bothered me. It was about
the Pope reiterating the catholic churches stance on the idea of evolution and the Big Bang theory in
relation to creationism. After reading the article, I had the self-righteous indignation that, I guess I believed that
Genesis 1 (even though written poetically) was complete truth. I'm not saying it is or it isn't, this is not an
argument piece, but i promptly went to my roommate's room to get some sympathy in knowing
we stood on the same side. I however was wrong. He began to show me how God could have
in fact used the Big Bang Theory and Evolution as the catalyst of creation. This frustrated me immensely as
I looked for the proper words and arguments to prove him wrong (also, disclaimer, I do believe that science and Christianity can cohabitate, and in almost everything science proves God). I was even on the brink of tears thinking
wether God was truly His loving and intimate self. I have always found comfort in this picture of God
sitting in the dirt molding Adam and Eve's bodies out of clay with huge smile on His face and
tears of joy pouring from his eyes.
But so did he.
I then learned that he loved that idea of God as well, but He has a rational mind and an analytical thinking process.
I would say I have more of an artistic thinking process. I am NOT saying one is better than the other,
but the beauty is that God had created us both with DIFFERENT thinking processes.
That is why I think God left certain parts of the bible (including the creation story) poetic. Giving room for
interpretation, where people with different thought processes can believe in a wonderfully creative and all
powerful God. There is no dispute about whether or not God and The Son had done miracles. I mean the bible is rife
with them. But It is really interesting to analyze and see how those miracles came to fruition and
that some seemed to be out of thin air and some might have been an eternity long process.
I therefore still believe and find comfort in thinking of God as this heavenly potter bringing things to life with a
breathy kiss and careful hands. But I will have compassion with the "Left Brain thinkers" because in
fact God created them and loves them immensely. And in this argument i have learned to love others even
more. THANK YOU JESUS.
I revel in the beauty of God being the mysterious poet that He is.
I still don't necessarily agree with the other things spoken about in the article. But, then again, I don't
agree with quite a few things within Catholicism. I'll just let that be, as long as we are still serving
the same God and loving others the way Jesus did.
Thanks,
Evan