Cloud Race

A good pal of mine recently gave me a copy of Rob Bell’s book, Sex God, on compact disc. It came highly recommended by folks whose opinion carries some weight with me, so I gladly made it a staple of my commute to and from BSU each day. It seems like you never hear much negative about Rob Bell, so let me just start out by saying, that book, and consequently Mr. Bell himself, straight up sucks. And what’s more, I don’t think I’m out of line to say that the preceding sentence is a lie. The book was really good, but after about the third chapter, it didn’t do anything but make me angry. I think it has to do with the phenomena that Bell refers to as the balance between “animals and angels.”

Pretty much, the book asserts that we humans (complete with souls and everything) are sexual beings and that has an effect on everything we do while here on earth. Already I’m uncomfortable. Of course, there’s the “animal” end of the spectrum; the objectifying, soulless, monstrously lustful end of the spectrum. And on the other end, there is the “angel” side of the spectrum which attempts to deny the physical portion of ourselves any attention whatever. As is the case with all true spectrums, there is an infinite number of points between the two ends. Without going into excessive detail, how do you dissect an array of infinitely many variables and find out just where appreciating God’s creation turns into lust? It seems to imply an endless process of questioning your motives. Theoretically, couldn’t that make pursuing a relationship with a member of the fairer sex impossible?

I was fuming over the notion on my way back to Anderson yesterday, considering becoming a hermit, when I noticed that the sun was starting to melt the overcast skies. As the blueness bled across the horizon and sunlight poured into the grassy fields along 800 W, I was able to discern that the sky wasn’t covered with a single, giant, homogeneous cloud, but rather there were many clouds, stratified and floating in whatever direction the wind might suggest. There was one cloud that seemed to be swimming especially close to the earth. As I observed it further, I noticed that it seemed to be heading west at the exact same speed that I was. So naturally I sped up, but it stayed right with me. Other clouds flew on ahead, fell behind, or left the course entirely, but that cloud and I were neck and neck. By the time I got to SR 9, I was having a great time. I don’t really know what the moral of this story is, exactly, because it’s not like I unraveled the mysteries of life or anything. But thank God, it sure was a lovely evening.

I am 10% done with the program at BSU. Now all I have to do is repeat everything I’ve done so far nine more times.

-Ryan