Category Archives: Faith

Paper Towns and The Idolatry of Imagination: Part 3—The Vessel

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“Forever is composed of nows.”-Emily Dickenson

Part 3: The Vessel
[read Part 1: Strings and Part 2: Grass]

Quentin Jacobson had been searching for Margo Roth Spiegelman, but he had yet to go on a journey. Like Whitman, he needed to travel across the country, become exposed, truly listen for Margo. He needed to experience and understand that paper towns existed all over, with paper people living in all of them. “The world is full of people,” he comes to say, “full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently mismanaged.”
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Paper Towns and the Idolatry of Imagination: Part 1—Strings

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“Doing stuff never feels as good as you hope it will feel.”

Part 1: Strings
John Green’s novel, Paper Towns, soon to be a film, can be read as a kind of spiritual parable. With the exception of TFIOS, his three other novels seem to follow a similar formula: Eccentric yet normal teen boy falls for unattainable and eccentric girl because she is such a mystery, and she becomes a puzzle for him to solve as much as a love interest to pursue. Academic references must follow. Were it not for the occasional sexual controversy, Green seems to be begging for his books to be taught in school, pushing aside bulky classics less relevant to teens.
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“I’m Thinking of Going Into the Ministry”

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“I’m thinking of going into the ministry,” said a friend once.

Or multiple times. Many of us have heard it. It usually comes as good news, even if a whispered announcement of a notion that might go by. Whether as friends, parents, or church leaders, we like to hear young people (or even adults seeking a change) seriously consider dedicating their life in service to God.

But there’s where it strikes me as funny. When someone considers what we are usually referring to as the “job” of preaching, we are taking a single kind of service to God and labeling it as THE ministry.
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The Imagery of “Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?”

Posted by Caleb Coy on

I’ll always remember that first time at church camp when I learned the John Fisher spiritual song, “Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?” I was about nine. I would sometimes picture the songs we would sing. (For example, I would picture the line “to you alone does my spirit yield”  in “As the deer” as (for some reason) a chalky cartoon version of me meeting Christ on a road and letting him pass ahead of me, leading me.) Then I learned to sing “Have you seen Jesus my Lord? He’s here in plain view.”
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Book Review: ‘When the Church Was a Family’ by Joseph Hellerman

Posted by Caleb Coy on

I grew up hearing a lot about how the Church is a family, and I’m thankful for that. Sometimes I would hear it described as an institution, and it struck me as funny to hear. For a long time I’ve tried to remind myself that Church is family, but I haven’t been challenged quite like I was when reading Joseph Kellerman’s When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community.
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Book Review: Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“I am not attacking right theology. I am simply making theology a window rather than a wall.”

I had not read anything by Donald Miller since reading both Blue Like Jazz and it’s companion book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” Then my brother recommended Searching for God Knows What. I was searching for a good book. Donald Miller was searching for God. Again. In a way, I was reminded of how I seek after God, even when I think I’m not.
Sometimes Donald Miller, founder of Storyline Blog, feels like being a Christian is like trying to be in the circus, and everyone is watching him to make sure he does everything right and doesn’t mess up. In fourteen chapters of deeply personal writing (with titles like “Santa Takes a Leak,” “Why Nudity is the Point,” and “How to Kill your Neighbor”) Miller dares us to see Christianity as something not defined by formula, but by relationship.

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