“Beware Thursday” was a viral style promo video for thElement’s camp: Pink Limousines and a Locust Loving History. The idea was to promote a mystery event happening on Thursday during the week of camp. The mystery event began as a relay that turned into a food war, and each team was told to bring ammunition coordinating with their teams color.

As I began planning out this short, I wanted to it to be fast paced and uncomfortable. The large gaps of black were meant to make the viewer uneasy and anxious. No information is supplied as to why this person was being chased, or who was pursing him. The setting and story is intentionally vague.  It was shot on the iPhone 3GS’ native camera application, stylistically using the Blair Witch and Cloverfield as inspiration. The final shot of the man getting hit was purposeful. It was red apple sauce, meant to hint at a food fight, but chosen to make the viewer think we were going for blood.

David Cording (who also makes a cameo part way though the short) did all of the editing and did a wonderful job with the pacing. He edited it exactly how I imagined while we were filming. It was done very minimal, using iMovie on his Macbook Pro which was surprisingly versatile given what we were trying to do. The distorted song at the end is “Pink Limousines” by Root Beer, using a few filters in Adobe Audition to create the “50′s radio” effect. The song was the official “unofficial” theme of camp, and was placed to connect the video to it’s purpose, promoting the camp.

I loved filming this short because there really is a story behind it. The character is in the middle of this giant food fight, never knowing where the next person with food will jump out. He’s the last member of his team and being pursued by the elite Red Team, he’s the last chance for victory and the only one standing in the way of defeat. Never life threatening, but he truly is trying to win against these odds. Clearly, it’s not Of Mice and Men, but I tried to convey the feelings that would come with that situation: anxiety, fear, excitement. It was a blast filming, all the while never telling the student what Thursday actually was.

To start, it’s important to note that my grandfather served in the Air Force and my father served in the Army Engineer Corps. As such, military service is prominent in my family. As a child one of my many dreams was to become a pilot in the Air Force (until of course, we realized I was effectively blind.) In high school I heavily considered using the ROTC and a Political Science degree as the means to living on Pennsylvania Avenue. Military service is something I respect deeply and once considered myself.

Here’s where it becomes conflicting for me (military service, not Memorial Day, still getting to that): as a Christian I’m completely opposed to war. There simply is no reason the intentional death of another person is justifiable, as I believe that all human life is completely sacred. So military service is something I could never consider.

That belief in no way affects my friendships with servicemen and women. In fact, my own convictions encourage respect for what these people are required to do. They face potential death and hardship every day when they wake, and mourn ally and combatant alike every night. If I’ve learned anything from the servicemen I know, it’s that you never forget the faces of those that have fallen in front of you or beside you.

And in response to this physical, psychological, and emotional hardship that they face, we greet them with a forgettable holiday focusing not on remembrance but on hot dogs and having a day off. What’s my opinion of Memorial Day? I think it’s a joke, like every other holiday this nation seems to celebrate. I think we, as a country, have lost sight of what it means to celebrate other people’s losses and triumphs. That has had a profound impact on the way that we celebrate meaningful holidays.

I suppose I’ll leave you with this: whether it’s Memorial Day or Mother’s Day, Christmas or Washington’s Birthday, realize that people need to be mourned and celebrated. Especially those that chose to fight for your right to celebrate in the first place.

Here I’m speaking to thElement Middle School’s Orange Ave campus, and we’re in the middle of a series titled “Deeper Than…” Also, I’m sick, so don’t be too harsh!

Deeper Than… Definitions

In both games, you play Commander Sheppard, humanity’s best hope for being accepted into the galactic community, and eventually the galaxies last hope for survival. Pure space opera greatness. What makes a space opera great, and you can find this in the original Star Wars trilogy and the Mass Effect universe, is a great cast of characters. This is especially true of the background characters: it’s the little touches that add a believability of the setting. In Star Wars, it’s the little things like the two Death Star Stormtroopers talking about new landspeeder engine models, or the patrons of the Mos Eisley Cantina. In Mass Effect, it’s the conversations that non player characters (NPC’s) have. From discussing the latest intergalactic politics, to the possibility of fish in the Presidium’s lakes (and even the latest space age video games) Mass Effect 2′s developers fill their game world with little touches that bring it to life. Touches like this one right here:

When I first laid my eyes on this “Mad Prophet”, I was still in the first couple of hours of the game. I was shocked. Now religion isn’t taboo in the Mass Effect universe. The developers lay out a plethora of galactic worldviews. One of the races, the hanar, view a previous species (the protheans) as gods, whom they refer to as the Enkindlers. The turian’s (Mass Effect’s most militaristic society, based largely on Rome) have their own share of religious views, similar to ancient Greco-Roman spiritualism. Even a muddled, deist view of the Christian God is present, as Ashley Williams (one of the players compatriots and a potential romantic pursuit) shares her belief with Shepard.

Still, to be faced with such explicit commentary on the Fundamentalist bullhorn movement was surprising. The alien here is a batarian, a species known for being extremely xenophobic and hostile towards humans. The choice here is obvious, it’s meant to convey a feeling of disgust and annoyance. You simply cannot like this character, for to do so would be to hate humans (i.e. you).

But it’s relevant isn’t it? Haven’t we all seen the bullhorn guy at our schools or in our cities, calling us sinners, dirty, hellbent? Oh sure, we can repent, as long as we admit that God hates us. And while I get frustrated with bullhorn guy, I can’t really be mad at him, or Mass Effect’s developers, for this commentary on modern Christianity. I get frustrated with me. See, like Rob Bell suggests in his video “Bullhorn” (which is part of the NOOMA series. Go buy them now. I’ll wait.) society has this perception because we’re not being effective enough at the greatest commandment. Love. We’ve been bought out of love, redeemed out of love, forgiven out of love. We love because He first loved us. And I think, if we’re honest it tends to stop there. “Sweet, I’m loved and validated. That’s wonderful. Just don’t make me change the way I interact with other people because I’m cool and popular and making jokes at other people’s expense is funny. Gossiping about the new girl makes me feel connected. I’m okay with ignoring the horrible atrocities in the Congo, the sex trafficking in India, because it doesn’t have to do with me. Want to go to Starbucks?”

Obviously that’s hyperbole, and obviously I’m not exempt here. I fail at loving. What if the game was programmed differently though? What if instead of a batarian preaching hatred, they had a batarian preaching love and justice. What if the developers looked at our world and said “Man, I need to show this Christian love in my game somehow.” That would be a Mad Prophet that had the potential to truly save the galaxy.

It almost has to be asked, because not many people can say they haven’t seen a romantic comedy. When you come up with a list of movie genres, “romantic comedy” is usually one of the first said. Billions of dollars have been spent on creating movies that tug on our heart’s strings and beg us to connect and understand the romantic lives of fictional characters. Which makes sense, because we’re a people that desperately desire to be loved, and so our artistic creations reflect that desire. We write love songs, poems, notes, stories, make movies and draw portraits in a desperate attempt to convey the fluttering of our souls.

So I guess the question to ask is, does God’s soul flutter? I mean, if it doesn’t, then He would have no reason to watch a romantic comedy. So does God’s soul flutter?

In the beginning of the Bible the book of Genesis details the creation of the whole universe. It describes how God creates the heavens and the Earth, and how He proceeds to create the creatures that are going to populate it. It goes into detail about how He creates this being called “man” that is created in His image, that looks, talks, acts, and lives like Him. He then tells mankind to go and populate the Earth, to be fruitful and increase in number. And at the end of the first chapter, it says this: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

Now I can’t pretend to know what God was thinking, as I’m not Him. What I can say is that the simplicity of the above sentence is misleading, because I cannot believe “all that he had made” was simply “very good.” Sweet tea is very good, Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches are very good. The entire universe? That’s freaking extraordinary. Every living being, every wave, every grain of sand and speck of dust? That’s beyond comprehensible. So if “all that he had made” is simplifying things, it’s only logical that “very good” is as well.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: the only reason our heart can even begin to understand the idea of love or romance, is because He thought His creation was very good. He was the one who poured His heart into His creation. He was the one who built the universe out of nothing. He is the one who designed each and every one of us. David realizes this in Psalm 139:14 when he says “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Would Jesus like to watch a romantic comedy? I have no clue. It’s hard to imagine that the One who created love could enjoy an approximation of His own creation in movie form. I suppose it would be like Leonardo da Vinci enjoying the scribbles of a 2 year old, or T.S. Elliot enjoying the poem I wrote when I was 8 about a dog that barks in a park. But even though I think the idea of a faulty translation of love may not be the epitome of entertainment to Him, I can say this: He would love to watch a romantic comedy with you. Why? Because He created you, and I have it on good authority that He likes what He made. Something about it being “very good.”

I’m sitting in a parking lot. A Chick-Fil-A parking lot. A Chick-Fil-A parking lot filled with tents. Yes, you read this correctly. Whenever Chick-Fil-A opens a new store they invite anyone to be at the opening of the store a day early at 6am. Everyone who arrives at this ungodly hour is entered into a raffle, and the 100 winners are then faced with a challenge: Spend the next 24 hours in the parking lot, braving the elements, and seeing if you have the mettle to get 52 free Chicken Sandwich combos. You’re fed, but that’s all. You cannot leave under any circumstances, or you’re disqualified. This is the challenge I face today.

As daunting as it sounds, it’s quite the experience. There are your fair share of interesting characters: I came in contact with a man affectionately (or not) called “Crazy John” who is quite crazy, another man who runs around with cow puppets on his hands, and a man in a cow themed apron.  We have quite a few people who have been to more than a few of these events. One man has been to well over 44 different openings across the country. There is literally a culture behind traveling to these Chick-Fil-A’s in hopes of scoring 52 more meals. Everyone knows each other, everyone enjoys the experience.

Here’s my conundrum: Why is it this easy for people to connect over Chick-Fil-A and free food, but when the idea of a bunch of Christ followers enter a room together it becomes a stuffy room full of awkwardness and isolation. We seek not community and fellowship, but instead rely on own clicks and previously made relationships, like it’s the end all be all of Christian life. I’m not pointing fingers here, I do the same exact thing when I’m presented with these situations. I run away out of fear of something. Perhaps it’s a fear of being vulnerable, perhaps a fear of rejection. Perhaps it’s something else entirely. My point is, something needs to change in the way that we interact with believers (or nonbelievers for that matter) that we don’t know. Maybe we can get a little cow crazy in the process.

thElement recently hosted a pastor from India who’s ministry is aiming to inform the Indian people about Jesus, and change their lives in the process. Discovery Church is currently helping to build an after-care center for those girls rescued from sex slavery. Wonderful things are happening, and God is at the forefront of it.

He said something that intrigued me though. He said (in far more numerous and eloquent words) that  he only has one candle, and wants that candle to shine in the darkness. What he meant was that the American people have heard the name of Jesus, a fact which is quite true, and that it is therefore more important to spread His name where it’s never been heard. While I agree, I can’t help but think to do so we would be turning our backs on a people who also deserve to understand love.

See, he likened “sharing Jesus” in India to a candle in the dark, and in America to sharing in daylight. Here’s the thing I believe though: that my candle should be one that shines bright enough to be seen during the day.

That, I think, is my aim with these coming “Random Stories”. We live in a world that is blind to the movements of God, and I share this same blindness. But if I know anything about God, it’s that He loves to move in seemingly random ways, to produce an amazing and purposeful result. Here’s the random story about a man seeing past his blindness to a “random” God.