The Struggle to Stand Still

My friend Jake and I were browsing through some books in the lounge area of Borders yesterday which just so happened to face their gigantic magazine rack. As I looked up to study the barage of visuals screaming for my attention, the blatent battle cries of our culture, the things we desire, hope for, and worship, became powerfully evident. I began documenting in iPhone-photo form:

These are the things we wake up and defend everyday with all of our might. These are the heros, the ideals of our society. Some of us would die to attain these things. In our rawest moments we’d sell anything and everything to buy these attributes. Freedom for slavery. Rest for struggle.  I’ve been there and I continue to go back often, bartering and haggling, trading dollars for pennies . Stacked one after another on a shelf, these attributes made me tired…tired of another how-to-manual offering empty promises and countless three step ladders to happiness.

Our generation deals with a profound struggle..

…the struggle to stand still.

To be quiet.

To stop attaining.

To be content and calm held tightly by a “no-strings-attached” kind of love.

What does radical rest look like? How do we cut through the plastic pages of emptiness and communicate that there’s more life, joy, and fullness in living up to less? Do we really believe God’s love is more fulfilling than what these magazines beg us to believe?

Or can this truth even be heard over all of our noise?

Let’s talk about this. I’m going on a journey, a journey to stand still in the face of chaos and emptiness as a loved son of God. Broken, but with courage abounding from the Creator. Will you join me? Will you rally others? Welcome to analoghope.com.