lifeasmission

1 More Week & Then I’m Free

June 28, 2009 // 11224 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/06/1-more-week/1+More+Week+%26+Then+I%27m+Free2009-06-29+05%3A10%3A07JR+Rozko

This is my last week as a single guy.  Come Sunday, I’m a married man and I couldn’t possibly be more excited about it.

Handicapped by a devastating view of what freedom is really all about, marriage is often portrayed as the end of freedom – think Seinfeld, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc.  Here’s 3 reasons why, in opposition to that sort of notion, I am so excited to get married that all have to do with a new freedom I am about to embrace.

1) I don’t have any regrets from my season of singleness so I am free to embrace the adventure of marriage. I embraced, celebrated, and enjoyed my singleness.  Happily, I had good friends and mentors who taught me that singleness is a gift and should be treated as such as long as God grants it.  Shame on our culture (especially any Christian culture) for making people feel inferior for being single for as long they are able to embrace it as a gift.  Spend your single years pining away for a companion and you are all but destined to struggle with being married.

2) I don’t have to play the dating game anymore anymore so I am free to pursue God in the context of a covenanted relationship. I can’t count the number of couples that have spoken of marriage as a context which brought them face to face with their own selfishness and shortcomings like never before.  With all the guessing, ambiguity and semi-commitment of dating, this just doesn’t happen.  Again, fortunate enough to have come across people and books that dispelled lies about the purpose and aim of marriage, I am anxious to embrace marriage as a crucible toward Christlikeness.

3) Amy is not “The One” or “Mrs. Right” (since these only exist in fairy tale land), so I am free to never ask ridiculous questions like, “Did I marry the right person?” Don’t you love how freeing that is?!  The ability and opportunity trade in a cheap and shallow freedom along the lines of, “Well if this isn’t working I can always just bite the bullet and admit that I made the wrong decision,” for the true freedom of moving forward in the context of vows made and kept, is priceless to me.

And though it doesn’t pertain exactly to freedom, it’s nonetheless true that a big part of my excitement has much to do with the incredible woman who said, “Yes.”  To partner in life and ministry with Amy from here on out is the single most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.

Posted in Amy, love, marriage

I Live With a Girl (and I think she might be Wonderwoman)

June 22, 2009 // 11148 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/06/i-live-with-a-girl-and-i-think-she-might-be-superwoman/I+Live+With+a+Girl+%28and+I+think+she+might+be+Wonderwoman%292009-06-22+20%3A37%3A44JR+Rozko

Oops!!  Update:  As my brother pointed out, Amy is actually Wonderwoman, not Superwoman.  Props to his lady Michelle catching that one.

OK, not quite yet really, but it’s coming quick.  For the last month and a half I have been staying in Amy’s apartment in Elgin while she stays with friends.

(mailman decided to add my name to the box since we only have 1 address)

So here I am in this apartment, surrounded by girl clothes, girl decorations, and all other manner of girl things and I think to myself, “Wow, girl stuff is not like boy stuff.”  And I am confronted with the startling (though welcome) reality that “mine” is becoming “ours,” “I” am becoming “us”, and “me” is becoming “we.”  You’d think that for who has lived independently as long as I have, this would cause me to break out into a cold sweat as I crawl around in the darkness of stress-induced blindness searching for a paperbag to calm my hyperventilating panic attack, but I am happy to report that this hasn’t been the case.  Why?  Mainly because Amy is just about the most amazing woman ever!

Seriously, Amy amazes me.  I have totally hijacked her apartment, separating her from all the comforts of a place you call your own while she stays in a simple bedroom with friends 20 minutes away.  She keeps most of her clothes and stuff that she needs on a daily basis largely in the trunk of her car since our lives are so sporadic and she never quite knows what she will need.  When we spend a day together, no matter how late we’re together, she’s the one that has to get in a car and make the drive home.  She works full-time while I look for work and do what I can to help plan for the wedding.  She does it all with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step.  She radiates grace and compassion and her presence is a constant reminder of God’s great love for the world and little ol’ me.  If you need any more evidence, here you go.

Case closed.  Amy is Wonderwoman… only cuter.

Posted in Amy, marriage, wedding

Believing the Right Way

June 17, 2009 // 95712 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/06/believing-the-right-way/Believing+the+Right+Way2009-06-17+20%3A30%3A02JR+Rozko

As I have mentioned before in a post on “What is Missional?,” Western Christians are bifurcated into two main groups – those who emphasize believing the right things (classic conservatives) and those who emphasize living the right way (classic liberals).  Thankfully, there are people like Pete Rollins who desires to help people embrace not a middle-ground, but an altogether alternative paradigm, believing the right way, illustrated in this blog post of his from this past January.

Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

His perspective shows both the short comings of language and the shallowness of the things we typically consider most important.  This is indeed the sort of belief that I think the Bible calls us to.

Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. (Lk. 6:46-49)

Some years ago, discussions and arguments regarding the inerrancy, infallability, inwhatever of Scripture ceased to be all that meaningful to me.  It’s difficult to see this as an incredibly meaningful debate to Jesus.  On the other hand, it’s easy for me to imagine God caring deeply about the extent to which we are seeking to bring our lives into harmony with the reality held out to us in the Bible.

I wonder who truly has the “higher” view of Scripture – the one who contends for its inerrancy or the one who demonstrates its truthfulness by the way they live?

If you’re really into this sort of discussion, feel free to have a glance at a paper I wrote on the topic of the opportunity afforded the Christian faith by the cultural turn toward Postmodernity here.

Posted in Jesus, bible, missional, postmodernity, theology

Looking Back: 2008

June 11, 2009 // 11041 Comment »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/06/looking-back-2008/Looking+Back%3A+20082009-06-11+15%3A41%3A01JR+Rozko

In this wonderfully busy season of engagement and wedding planning, time to reflect comes at a premium, making it that much more important and valuable.  6 months into 2009, I find myself thinking about the 12 months of 2008.  Though it could never capture the depth of the experiences and stories connected to it, here’s a brief slide show of the highlights of 2008 for JR Rozko.

Inspiration: The Watsons
Music: ALO – Roses & Clover

Posted in 2008, pictures