a catalyst

one of the catalysts to starting this blog was a very special visit from a couple of unassuming aussies by the names of bronwen and caitlyn. i couldn't begin to tell you the effect that they've had on myself and the people around me.

it's the strangest thing, really, the ways that these two have deeply affected all of the people who had the pleasure of encountering them. did i mention that we'd only known them for about a week? not to mention that they only came because of a chance encounter on a crowded curb at disneyland? it's funny what can happen when the right ingredients are mixed together. sometimes the result is minimal and unimpressive, like mixing dirt and water to make mud, there's largely no huge result. but then again there are those other times when the mixing of ingredients creates a result that you'dve never dreamed, like when you put a cd in the microwave for 2-3 seconds... the result is FANTASTIC. [warning: do not use cd's that you plan on listening to/using...] the difference between the two is the affect of the catalyst. it's the trigger. the switch. the ignition.

i think typically when we "mix in" with new people, and we hit it off it's largely due to the fact that we have a number of things in common. the reason i kicked it with my group of friends after high school is because we all had the same taste in the things that we cared about: movies. video games. music. girls. entertainment. style. humor... if you'd ever been around any group of us, you'd realize that that list goes on and on and on as it would seem that we are largely the same person in several different bodies. we're still all friends today because of those things and i think we can all bring to mind the people we choose to surround ourselves with, and list the plethora, the veritable cornucopia of things that we have in common with them.


so being the 26 year old videogaming underground hip-hop loving former-pothead that i am, isn't it peculiar then, that i should hit it off immensely well with a former drug addicted prostitute, and/or a banker from australia? or a 40-something pastor with adopted children and his stay at home wife who can tell the future? or a purchaser for a plumbing company who also has an album out and his under-paid photographer of a wife? or a 3rd year berkeley legal studies student from florida 6 years my junior ?

so far as i can tell, none of them are excited about the future use of infrared head tracking technology and the possibilities it can open up in the 3D worlds that exist in videogames. or what the next killer app coming out for the wii is going to be? or who's going to be the winner of the current console generation? if i'm being honest, not too many of them, if any, seem like they'd be very enthusiastic about finding some graff on the side of a train or a building. or watching a good bboy rock to a funky beat. or hearing a quality lyricist freestyle in a cypher or a battle. or watching a group of turntablists rock a show with a group routine. These are things that I care about, so isn't it a bit odd that i'd be able to join with these people as family?

but it's EXACTLY what has transpired here, and it has done so in an amazing fashion.

so what then, is the catalyst?

simply put. we have the same Dad. we have a father who loves us despite our flaws and wants nothing more than for us to merely love Him in return. we have a father that takes joy in us, and in our wanting to be near Him. however, i think that the catalyst between us is not the Father himself, but rather; it is the relationships that He's so graciously allowed us to have with Him. He's the Father of all life, for all things, and all time. He's the Father of the ones who have no idea He's there, as well as the one's who question His existence. He's never kicking down our proverbial doors, though he may knock quite loudly at times... but i digress.

when we are covered underneath the massive umbrella that is His presence, when we acknowledge His supremacy in our lives, we are then admitting ourselves into His family, into His body. no longer are we X amount of seperate lives who happen to convene in one place by chance. we have become brothers and sisters who've gathered for a reunion. to have the Father in common with one person is far greater than having everything else in common with the rest of humanity because He's simply that vast. He's infinitely larger than liking the same sports team, or the same band. He's larger than any gap between a love for video games and a love for the best microphone, or a $1300 camera lens and a good will ferrell sketch. or a sinner and a saint. so we don't need a-million-and-thirteen-and-a-half things in common to get along. as it turns out, all we need is One.