Book Excerpts

Maybe you know, maybe you don't, but I've been working on a book for some time now.

It's actually more of a collection of my songs/poetry and the commentary and ideas behind them.

I thought it'd be fun to toss up a few pages here and there in the next few weeks and months. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is it crap? Is it worth taking the next step and work at binding and publishing?

Currently it sits at about 100 pages.

So without any more rambling, here's the preface:

PREFACE-A-TORY NOTE

This book is not christian.

This book is not secular.

It is a book to find you where you are.

It is a book created out of release, desire, question, intimacy, torment, doubt, hypocrisy, travel, and remedy.

The intent of this book, or collection, or smattering of ideas (whatever you might call it) is to be restorative, thought provoking, and hopefully inspiring the artist within. You might read it and find it chaotic. If you don’t, you might want to get yourself checked out.

I wrote this and pieced it together in just that fashion.

Life is chaotic.

Relationships are chaotic.

Out of chaos, God created the universe. Jesus entered into our chaos to transform and submit a new way of living - a beautiful new way of life and possibility. Never are we asked for, or mandated, to create order as a pre-requisite for God’s entrance and work in and around us. Instead, I believe that in his perfect creative genius, God works out of chaos. And that brings us to how we integrate that idea of chaotic living. How do we survive something that lacks order? How can we understand anything if chaos is central to its being? How can there be anything finite?

It brings us to the debate of what it means to be human and fully alive - a new humanity.

Perhaps you’ve heard or even read about the notion of a new humanity. The humanity God intended us to truly live is real. When we cover up sin as “just being human,” we’re lying to ourselves and the intent God had in mind from that perfectly creative moment when God hovered over nothingness and breathed life into the vast expanse of what we now call the universe.

From this chaotic, divine moment, God began creating his new humanity. He separated dark from light, put land masses on the earth and surrounded it with water, which was also separated from the sky, filled the water and skies with birds and fish, put animals of all shapes and sizes on the dry ground, then began the real craziness when he created and called human “Adam and Eve.” From Adam and Eve came more kids, and from those kids, more kids, and here today, we have a world population counter adding and subtracting lives somewhere between 7 and 8 billion.

From two naked souls dropped into a beautiful garden in the middle east, we have upwards of 8 billion and counting today.

But, that’s what you get when you’re naked right?

With the notion of a new humanity you have to understand that being human was to also be like God. After all, Genesis says we were made in his image - creative beings with the capability to love as he does.

In no way am I attempting to de-throne God and his amazing greatness, but what I am trying to get us to at least discuss is the idea that when God said we were created in his image, he wasn’t lying.

Therefore we are all creative beings.

Just because you don’t play an instrument or don’t have canvases on easels strewn throughout your home doesn’t mean you’re not creative. Again, unless God is a liar, you are creative. And if you still refute this idea, I hope you’ll see differently once you’ve reached the end.

Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard any of these ideas. Please take in the following pages as a hopeful possibility for humanity in the present and future. A possibility for your friends and families, your local church, your community, and the person you share a cube with at work.

Now you know my frame of reference.

Hold on, things are about to get very chaotic!

Peace,
Ross