lifeasmission

Ryan Spencer

December 19, 2005

And I can’t think of anyone better to kick this off with that the man I get to share quarters with, my own personal psychiatrist, Ryan Spencer.

By way of background, Ryan is from Austin, TX, graduated from the University of Texas with a music degree, plays a mean french horn and a meaner game of basketball. Ryan is working on completing a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Fuller.

As luck would have it, Ryan called me up in the process of trying to find a roommate in the fall of ’04, we have lived together ever since. Ryan has really challenged the way I think and process thoughts. Perhaps more importantly Ryan has acted as a filter for my thoughts and actions in social contexts. The result has been a great decrease in the number of foot-in-mouth incidents on my part.

Ryan loves to make cookies. It’s kind of his trademark. Anytime he (or we) are invited somewhere for dinner, a party, or whatever, he usually whips up a batch of cookies to take along and they are always a hit (if you get a chance ask him about his revolutionary new cooking method). Plus, you have to take into account that I have never actually seen him measure anything, he just does it. After his example I am currently seeking a trademark of my own, but none has emerged as a clear winner yet (sweet potato fries and pink lemonade just haven’t gone over as well as I had hoped).

I am in debt to Ryan for two primary reasons. First, the compassion and care he exhibits for people is a constant reminder that we don’t exist for ourselves. Ryan loves to talk and connect with people not becasue he is in constant need of attention, but because he is desirious of wanting to know how to care for them. The second debt I owe to Ryan is on account of the ease he has in letting God be God. I don’t mean that in the typical conservative evangelical sense of the phrase – as if to say Ryan has a “let go and let God” mentality. Rather, Ryan seems to be quite at peace with God being beyond our comprehension and understanding. He is willing to follow God in despite ambiguity and inability to control Him. Ryan is constantly challenging my assumptions and pre-conceived ideas about who God is and how God works and acts.

To say it as simply as possible, I feel like I am a better lover of God and truer disciple of Jesus because of Ryan’s presence in and influence on my life.

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Posted in: friends, Fuller Seminary