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altView: a series in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.23.2009 5:37 pm

altView

several months ago, i had the idea to let people hear the voices of various people in our ever-blossoming faith community. that idea became a tangible reality just over a month ago with the introduction of the series altView. personally, it’s been a great chance to further hear the stories of faith (and sometimes, non-faith) from the people i’ve come to know over the last several months. for others, as feedback in both conversation and comments, it’s been a time to see the breadth of points-of-view from a all kinds of people in all kinds of life situations.

in my intro to the series, i wrote the following,

there will be no filters and no agendas. these aren’t sales pitches for eikon. they aren’t a bunch of “come to jesus” posts, attempting to convert the masses. i’ve simply invited a cross section of our community—representing various points-of-view and levels of faith commitments—to share what’s significant to them. maybe it’s an issue or cause about which they’re passionate. maybe it’s a significant place in their life where faith came to the forefront. maybe it’s the point they decided, “i’m through with church.” maybe it’s the point they decided, “i need the church.” it’s really wide open.

i hope that’s what has transpired. i think it is. unfiltered. without agenda. and beautiful. and sometimes ugly. and sometimes scary. and sometimes doubtful.

before beginning the series, a pastor friend warned that doing this could lead to people “speaking on behalf” of our church. he warned that people—if unfiltered—could say things that could turn other people off and give the wrong impression if it didn’t represent “orthodox theology.” their point-of-view might contradict my point-of-view as the leader and visionary for the church.

my pastor friend was exactly right.

and that’s why i chose to do it.

one of the values of both altView and eikon in general, is that people are the church. not one man. not one pastor. not just the pastors and leaders. it’s people. it’s the collective conversation of a community of people who bring to the table their experiences and their hopes and their sensibilities and their deepest doubts and their most hidden insecurities and their most valued thoughts about god and the world.

eikon church isn’t ryan byrd. it’s a community of views. of alternative views that describe god and the world around us. sometimes they look like what you’ve heard your whole life. and sometimes they look like the buddhist philosophy of loving-kindness. and sometimes they look like a nebulizer. but they’re always representative of the collective conversation of people engaged in a community that is about pursuing the way of a man named jesus.

i hope you’ve enjoyed this series. this isn’t the last time you’ve heard from some or all of these people and some people you haven’t heard yet.

we will continue to grow with a myriad of altViews. some you will agree with. some you will not. some you will be deeply touched by. and some you will find dissonant from your experience. some will resonate so powerfully within you that you will be moved to action. and some will make you question yourself so intensely that you will be frozen for a moment until you sort out your feelings.

so, as we prepare to enter a new year that is sure to be a huge year for our community, we invite you to share your altView. it may not be here on a blog or written down somewhere, but we certainly invite you to the reality of our ongoing conversation in this thing called eikon.



altView: john hardin Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.22.2009 4:03 pm

altView

I grew up in a little church where everyone is called “brother” or “sister” and the Second Coming or the penalties of sin were preached about at least 6 times a month. Bro. Haney was a wise man in the church, covered with leather skin and grace, and he used his deep voice to sing bass in our choir and to gently tease or soothe those around him. He was universally loved and when he spoke people truly listened.

When I was around twelve we had a testimonial service, which is sorta like an open mic night at a bar. Anyone can stand up and share their story about the greatness of a god who saved a wretch like them. Unfortunately, like an open mic night, what you mostly get are uninspiring and quasi-forced renditions of stories that are amazingly similar in content.

On that night, Bro. Haney stood up to speak. Due to my respect for him, I stopped whatever time-killing activity I was involved in and listened. What he said prompted me to think seriously about god for the first time. Unfortunately, it also led to a warped sense of who god is and what is going to happen next in his narrative.

With the certainty of a bad prosecutor Bro. Haney launched into an apocalyptic colloquy, stating that within his lifetime Jesus Christ would be coming back to rapture the church. All I could think was, “Damn! This guy is old; that doesn’t leave us much time!” My focus then turned to fearing god and the goal of leaving this irredeemable earth and going to heaven. However, like any religion based on fear and fatalism, it didn’t stick over the long haul.

Over the next 15 years I experienced a lot of life. I left my homogenous hometown the first chance I got and made a lot of decisions that most would argue were bad. I didn’t worry too much about god because, as was explained to me during my season of post-Haney fear, this world was irredeemable anyway and I already had my ticket to heaven.

During that time my eyes were opened to the world around me. I was exposed to diversity of race and sexual orientation for the first time. I realized that the stereotypes I learned growing up were not only incorrect, but were unjust, ignorant and hateful. I learned that while I lived in relative abundance, others die from abject poverty. I learned about exploitative labor practices often used to make our food and goods, and the environmental damage often caused by both. I learned about injustices within our legal system. My eyes were opened to the plights of the “least among us”.

I don’t know what prompted it, but I also began to have a deep sense that god was indeed concerned about affecting change in this world for those suffering. The life, compassion and empathies of Jesus became real to me. I became convinced that the earth isn’t simply some stopping point on the way to distant places called heaven and hell, but a place for us to try like hell to turn back into what god originally created. I am now certain that is the essence of Christianity. Bro. Haney was not only wrong about his prediction, but he was wrong about the very purpose of following in the way of Jesus.



altView: christen byrd Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.18.2009 7:53 am

altView

all in all, i think i have been on a journey for quite some time, and still am right now. my lifetime movie would be called “forced to trust god.” over the past 6 years i feel that i have had no other choice but to have some sort of faith. no matter how little faith or how much at the time. ryan and i started our marriage pretty great. everyone says the first year was the hardest…it was our easiest. married to my best friend, good jobs, all the time in the world to think about our wonderful future. little did we know where we would be now.

we moved to lexington, kentucky after a year for ryan to attend seminary. that was probably the worst year of my life…and the best. i had a horrible job in which i traveled about 4-5 days at a time. i had no friends, except ryan. i was definitely depressed, we were so broke we couldn’t even afford to get our heat turned on. i was so lonely and broken…yet ryan and i grew closer than we ever had…because we were forced to. all we had was each other and god…literally. even though i look back on those days and can honestly feel the loneliness and sadness i felt then, i am so thankful for them. i was forced to rely on god, completely. from being able to buy groceries to just getting to wherever the heck i was supposed to be while traveling across several states for my horrible job (did i mention i hated my job). even trusting god that ryan wouldn’t freeze to death while i was gone when we didn’t have heat…

thankfully, we moved after a year to paducah, ky to serve in a church plant there. it was also a major move in our lives that required just faith. basically because in april i said “we are moving in may…get on it.” when ryan tried to tell me to be patient, i refused, i found a job, an apartment…and we moved the last week in may. (i was right) this was a difficult/wonderful/exciting/frustrating experience for us altogether. we have so many great memories from our life in paducah…mainly lucy being born, of course (don’t get me started, i may start crying).

and now…we’re here. what else is there to say. no seriously, this has been nothing less of another chapter in my journey of my faith. i mean, we started this Eikon journey over 2 years ago. we were not handed the keys to a church building, a big budget, a congregation (i don’t even like that word). in fact, ryan’s kind of been told in more ways than one…”you have all the qualities of a great church planter, but you don’t want to do it our way, nevermind then.” it’s at that point you say “ah crap, what do we do now.” and you begin to second guess what you’re doing with your life, and what you’re dragging your family into, and is it going to work, are we going to fail? these are not fun things to think about or ask yourself.

however, i’ve found to not put my faith in my husband…but to put my faith in god. i trust that ryan will do what god has given him the ability to do. and it will happen if it’s supposed to. i hate the saying “it’s a god thing.” it drives me nuts! i mean, everything is dependent on god. so why are such wonderful things “god things.” (if you die…it’s still a “god thing,” but nobody says it so excitedly then. maybe i’ll try that at the next funeral i attend.) i’ve found that in the past i’ve put way too much faith in the wrong people and things and i end up being so disappointed.

I am definitely reminded of how much i am forced to trust god, each and every day. as a mom to lucy and olive, and another one in june (talk about faith)…i rely on him to help me be a better mom. seriously, this may sound silly…but you try being at home everyday with a 1 year old, 2 year old, pregnant mom…and being married to ryan. and i rely on god to help me be a better wife, every day. it has definitely been a long 2 years of planning and meeting and everything else that ryan spends most nights working on. and i’m not always that supportive (i know, you all think i’m perfect, sorry to burst your bubble).

i trust god that someday this will all be worth it. not because i plan on having some big mega church (although i definitely think ryan would look cool with a curly mullet)…but because i feel that i am finally in a place where i’m doing what i’m supposed to be doing with the people we’re supposed to be with. it has been such a long journey, but i can see all the pieces slowly coming together. i finally feel comfortable with a group of believers. i feel like god has a million other things for me to do…but now i’m in a place that i can actually do them someday.



altView: derek blaylock Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.14.2009 10:25 am

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When Ryan told me I could write an uncensored blog my first thought was to preach why everybody should seek to repeal the tobacco tax, or why the Kansas Jayhawks are awesome, or why Arkansas needs much colder weather, but most of you have heard those discourses from me many times over. Instead I decided to write a parable on the relationship of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and our limited tolerance of theological diversity. Hopefully it will make sense.

I work as a sales representative for a nebulizer company and I call on pediatricians in clinics and hospitals. My role is to convince doctors why they need to use my company as their supplier of nebulizers. First of all, a Nebulizer is a device used to deliver medication in the form of a mist which is inhaled into the lungs in order to improve breathing. The bottom line for a nebulizer is to get the patient breathing better so they can live a healthier life.

In the medical industry there are many companies who manufacture nebulizers, so how do we know which one is “right”? Well, essentially all nebulizers are the same, but there is one major non-negotiable in regards to nebulizers. The patient probably will not fully understand the pharmacological efficacy of the device so the non-negotiable aspect is the patient needs to appreciate that the treatment itself is going to make their life better; not perfect, but better. Our society sometimes places too high a value on trying to figure everything out, but there are some aspects of the nebulizer and the treatment that are beyond most people’s comprehension. The beauty of the matter is not in knowing how the treatment works but the fact that the treatment does work.

Essentially, all nebulizers are the same and have the same desired outcome: breathing better because of the treatment. But there are some minor differences. Some have a better treatment time, some a higher respirable fraction, and some are more portable, but in choosing a nebulizer sometimes the deciding factor needs to be what allows the treatment to have a deeper deposition with the patient.

In finishing, a sales representative with my company told me about a conversation she had with a doctor about how our company started. She told the doctor how several years ago our owners broke off from the original company to start their own nebulizer company because of differing interpretations of the business contract. The original company sued our owners and then our owners countersued; all the while both companies are still to this day trying to gain market-share over each other. The doctor’s comment, “That’s a lot of drama over nebulizers.”

I agree with the doctor. I want him to use my nebulizers but I realize I am biased about what nebulizer delivers a better treatment. But all the doctors and companies agree that the main thing needed for making breathing and living better…is the treatment.

nebulizer = denomination/religion
doctor = pastor
treatment = God’s redemptive work in a person’s life
patient = a person
breathing better = following Christ
healthier life = bringing God’s kingdom to earth



altView: cara beth buie Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.11.2009 12:02 pm

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It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. 
–C. S. Lewis

My whole life Christianity has been spoon fed to me literally since I was born. From the time I was old enough to lift my head, I was dedicated as an infant to God in front of my family and our entire church. From then on, it was Vacation Bible School, Mission Friends, Girls in Action, Acteens, Youth Group, (and the list goes on). I went on to attend a private Baptist college and am now working for a religious organization. I have been surrounded by church my entire being. I literally know nothing else. I don’t know how to function without Christianity.

But in the same way, I don’t know how to function WITH Christianity. I have been “programmed”, so to speak, that I am comfortable just lying in my own Christian filth. It disgusts me how contented I have become in my own faith. In keeping with the egg analogy mentioned in the quote above, I am, figuratively speaking, an egg that has been marinating in its own shell for 26 years. Pretty gross huh?

In college I went through the normal, “who am I REALLY?” crisis that every young adult goes through. I questioned everything: my parents, my friends, my boyfriend, my degree choice, (which interestingly enough was Christian Ministries) but most of all, I questioned Christianity as a whole. What makes Christianity the RIGHT religion? Just because I was doused in it my whole life doesn’t make it the RIGHT way of living, does it? Just because my parents believe and their parents believe and their parents before them, what makes Christianity the “right” way? There I was sitting in Christian Ministry classes wondering if I even believed any of it. I rapidly turned away from everything I had been taught to believe. But it wasn’t enough. I had to know for sure WHY I believed it and KNOW that it was truth.

After years of stubbornness and questioning everything I had ever been taught, I gave in, and admitted that God was God. (C. S. Lewis) Even through my selfish denial, my faith was challenged, I questioned God and yes, even ignored that He even existed and He never failed me, not even one.

I know now that I cannot remain as is or I might, in fact, go insane. I must be hatched or go bad.



altView: don gaines Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.09.2009 10:16 am

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Raised a Baptist, attended a Church of Christ college, now seemingly lost from the fold, at least to some.

I read a book in college about postmodernism. The cover was dog ugly. The only little gem I remember from this book, which has come to serve me well, is that you can’t put God in a box. The instant we say ‘God is this,’ or ‘God isn’t that,’ we place him inside a constrained proportion.

I’ve learned that God can be logical and doesn’t have to be based on feelings or traditions. We can learn about the character of God and try our best to model ourselves after that. One of the most predominant characteristics of Him that I personally strive for is love. At the root of all that is good we find love. Love for our family, friends, strangers, everyone. That’s the only way I can see this life being worth anything. I believe, to a large degree, that many of the situations where love is applied require a choice. Love doesn’t just happen (except probably with your children and some family). It is overwhelmingly a choice.

The only constraint I can put on God for sure is that he is love. That’s what I want to be.

The hardcore music scene has been a large part of the people and culture I’m surrounded by. It’s where I’ve made some of my best friends and fostered incredible relationships. In this scene I find love, tolerance, positivity and a willingness to share. Aaron Weiss of the band mewithoutYou writes, “In everywhere we look, in everywhere we look, Allah, Allah, Allah in everywhere we look” He’s a Christian but refers to God as Allah. He’s not bounding God up into this Westernized, Republican, Capitalistic piece of work that we so commonly see. We have to strive daily to find the positive aspects in our lives and to try and find God (whoever/whatever that may be to you) in every situation.

The other little gem I took from the class in which we read the postmodern book is from the teacher, Dr. Monte Cox. I’m not sure I agree with him on a lot of things but he repeatedly brought up this paraphrased scenario and I agreed with it wholeheartedly, “People often ask me, ‘Do you think Muslims (insert random religion here) are going to heaven too?’ I don’t know. That’s not my place to say. Many of them practice the same things as I do but call it by a different name, so it is not my place to say yes or no.”



altView: brent buie Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.04.2009 8:47 am

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I was eleven years old when I read the Bible for the first time. Straight through. Genesis to Revelation. It took me four months, but I did finish.1 Impressed?

If you raised your hand there are two reasons you should not be impressed. First: There was an ulterior motive. I do not remember why, but I was going to receive credit in school. This was in the small-town south, back in the golden days of yesteryear (circa 1987), so it was not that shocking. Second: I didn’t get it. The Bible, I mean. To be sure, there were plenty of things to capture a young boy’s imagination. It is, after all, filled with sex and violence, magic and miracles, love and sacrifice. But even after the final Amen, I still didn’t understand.

Oh, I understood the concept of salvation well enough to believe that it was something that I needed. But something didn’t quite sit right. It seemed that I had spent four months to get to a point that could be explained in about thirty minutes (depending on the student’s alacrity). There had to be something more. The trick, I determined, was to have someone explain it to you.

I spent the next eight years having the Bible doled out one hour at a time on Sundays. This was much easier. It was the fast-track to a Godly life – give me a bit, hang an amen on it, and let’s-have-lunch-the-Chiefs-kickoff-at-3:15. It was not until college that I really read the Bible again.

I was attending a study group for my New Testament class, when one of the other participants mentioned one of their beliefs. And I didn’t buy it. (I still refer to this belief as the “New Wine Conundrum.”)

Filled with a righteously indignant energy, I rushed back to my room intent on proving him wrong.2 Time and distance cooled my anger. He was not a bad person, just misinformed. Obviously someone had told him wrong. Obviously . . .

My next thought struck hard: If they were told wrong, then how do I know that I was told right? The answer, friends and neighbors, is that I could not know. I had left my beliefs in someone else’s hands. What!?

Naturally, on the revelation score card, John has me beat cold. But for me, it was life altering. The principles which I held dear had been dictated by others. There was no me in it.

I am no honored scholar of religion and I would never suggest that everyone freely interpret the Bible’s scriptures. But I do believe that each of us will be held accountable. When that time comes, it will not suffice to say, “because others told me to do so.” We must perform the religious due diligence. We must all have something of ourselves in what we believe.



altView: bradley phillips Posted by Ryan Byrd 12.02.2009 10:15 am

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I grew up with every available resource for developing a strong relationship with Christ. My childhood and teenage years were filled with vacation Bible schools, small group Bible study, and choirs. However, as with many young adults, my faith grew to no longer be a priority and I developed distaste for structure. It was just a few years ago that I eventually began to seek His face on my own. Through pursuing a close personal relationship with God I feel that he has revealed to me some pretty cool concepts that I would like to pass along to you.

I am a Survivalist Christian. I like to be prepared for time with God at any time and any place. I keep just a few tools in my spiritual preparedness kit in order to travel through my day lightly. My relationship with God is built on a foundation of two key components: prayer and the forgiveness of sin.

As long as you have Christ in your heart, scripture, and an open line of prayer — you can always grow your relationship with God. Do you have questions about scripture? It’s your lucky day! You have an open line with the Author. Ask away!

Sin sucks, and unfortunately it happens easily. Sin is much more than magical rules that you break and cool points that you lose. Sin keeps you from growing both personally and spiritually. If you feel as if your prayer line has static or as if the cord’s been cut, its most likely the result of sin, which rears its head in two forms: Big S sin and little s sin. I borrow this concept from obvious sources.

Big S sins are lifestyle sins; sins that we repeatedly commit because of habits and flawed character traits. These are sins that arise from addiction, weaknesses, and loss of control. Most of your “seven deadly sins” and Ten Commandments are contained here. These spiritual hurdles require daily attention and can mostly be overcome through prayer and God’s guidance.

Little s sins are more spontaneous. They are the sins that arise from our reactions to a spontaneous stimulus, such as telling a lie while avoiding the responsibility of the truth or an angry reaction to disappointment. When faced with adversity, humans default to what is in their hearts. If Christ, patience, and love are in our hearts, when faced with adversity, these are the things that will shine through.

The hopeful news about sin is that one of the founding beliefs of post-Crucifixion Christianity is forgiveness. Our sins are forgiven if we ask. Every time I pray, I ask God to help me reflect upon my sins; sometimes he reveals embarrassing things I’ve done, at other times he shows me that I’m winning the war against my Big S sins. Frequent forgiveness helps me keep a clear head and my prayer line open.

With clean heart and an open prayer line, I’m prepared to experience God at a moments notice. God is everywhere and I don’t want to miss Him.



altView: tad delay Posted by Ryan Byrd 11.30.2009 9:09 am

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“He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to thyself divert
Our arrows aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great,
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.”

-C.S. Lewis

Yesterday, a friend asked if I believe in God. It’s a necessary question, but peculiar in that it’s relevance is somewhat detached from me much in the same way that whether or not the earth is flat or whether quantum mechanics is bunk are irrelevant questions. Nobody really believes in God, at least not most of the time. Belief in god is easily affirmed or denied.

I do not believe in God.

Lewis so eloquently describes how what we call god is not, in fact, God. By our own definitions, God is transcendent to any conception, so try as we may, we can only ever speak of an idea of God, an idol. To speak of God, we necessarily suspend our belief in transcendence. We speak as atheists; every theologian is paradoxically an atheist in his moment of brilliance. To be faithful and speak of god, or to speak of god’s ideals for the world, carries a necessary betrayal of the very God we are trying to wrap our minds around. We speak as a/theists.

I do believe in God.

This lays the groundwork for humility in our theologies and philosophies. We must become comfortable with the fact that when we speak of/for god, we are at least partly wrong 100% of the time. No eye has seen; no ear has heard. Our Scriptures set an example with irresolvable inconsistencies in the poets’ and prophets’ pictures of God. The late Jacques Derrida wrote that Justice was the only nondeconstructable idea. From Justice, all blessings flow. We affirm this, and we call it Gospel. The Scriptures did not so narrowly define our theologies for us; they did not intend to. At best, the prophets could only narrow a definition of God to powerfully simple ideas: Love, Justice, Mercy, or Reconciliation. We affirm that real belief in God looks like these things. To move beyond simplicity is the essential work of theologians; to put them into practice is the essential work of the Church; to move these things into an inerrant, unquestionable system is the work of the idolater. Embrace and excommunication is our tragic history of sorting these things out.

I am called to be a theologian, and it is what I will spend my life doing. But I always feel this nagging suspicion that God is far less concerned with endless debates about what the Bible exactly is; he laughs at our foolishness, and she weeps at our often destructive misunderstandings. I assume God is far more concerned that we suspend our questions and do the things God hopes to see. We prioritize humility and Justice. There is a time for debate, but it is always a good time for Reconciliation.

This is true belief, true faith in the Divine: it is only when I do not obsess conceptualizing god and instead unconsciously, as second nature, act out god’s dreams for the world that I truly believe in God.

I hope to one day believe in God.



altView: paula cigainero Posted by Ryan Byrd 11.23.2009 9:50 am

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A Tattoo Story

My tattoo is a summary of my religion. To most, the tattoo just looks like a pretty design. But the center of it contains a Sanskrit word. Before I tell you what that word means, I need to give you a little background on me…

In high school, I was active in the youth group at my own Catholic church, but also attended other churches of other denominations with friends. I read the Bible, but also studied world religions in a class at school. All the while, none of these experiences ever seemed to fill the hole. The hole that made me feel there was “something more” out there that I just didn’t have the answers to yet.

Then, in college, things took a real turn. I encountered a big dose of hypocrisy, served up by classmates who I heard preach one thing, but who I saw do complete opposite at house parties on the weekend. At the time, my mind couldn’t process such total opposites in word and deed. So my reaction was to just push all religion away, all together.

That attitude continued until my mid-thirties. At that point, I had grown old enough to have realized that there are hypocrites in every aspect of life. Religion was no different. If I really wanted to fill the hole, I might as well press forward and not let other people’s issues stop my progress.

So, I once again looked into the myriad of world religions. But this time around I found I could see an important thread that tied them all together — that thread being love. Sounds simple, I know. But to truly love others with no agenda is a difficult thing to do. It takes practice. In Buddhism, that is how it is discussed… as something to be practiced. Love for others is referred to as “loving-kindness” or the Sanskrit word “Maitri.” The full concept of “Maitri” is a bit complicated to explain, but Wikipedia has a pretty good definition of it:

Though it refers to many seemingly disparate ideas, Maitri is in fact a very specific form of love – a caring for another independent of all self-interest – and thus is likened to one’s love for one’s child or parent. …The strength of this feeling is not limited to or by family, religion, or social class. Indeed, Maitri is a tool that permits one’s generosity and kindness to be applied to all beings and, as a consequence, one finds true happiness in another person’s happiness, no matter who the individual is.

When I became familiar with this concept, it became my deepest wish for myself that I could be a person who could practice “loving-kindness” everyday. I knew this was the key to filling the hole. But such a selfless kind of love is a hard thing to practice, so I wanted to carry with me a constant reminder of the type of person I am striving to be. And that is why I decided to have the Sanskrit word for ‘loving-kindness” (Maitri) tattooed onto my skin. Obviously, the tattoo is permanent, which is fine with me. Because I want loving-kindness to permanently be a guiding ideal as my journey of faith continues.