Eikon Church - Little Rock, AR

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cityView: in review Posted by Ryan Byrd 06.04.2010 7:59 am

cityView blog series

we began this series with the following introduction:

faith is everywhere. or lack of faith. or a little faith. regardless of which it is, there’s a bigger conversation occurring in our city than just a single church or a single faith perspective. instead of becoming an insular community, we hope that eikon can be a place that listens to & engages in the broader faith conversation in our city.

over the past few weeks of this series, i think we’ve begun to do just that. we’ve poked around in the faith conversation in and around little rock. we’ve turned over a few of the loose rocks. certainly, it hasn’t plunged us into the deeper waters, but we’ve waded in, getting our feet wet.

the conversation continues, though. in just the fledgling stages of this thing called eikon, we hope this series has been an introductory connecting point with the larger community around us. we simply don’t want to be an island church, floating in the waters of ecclesial and social isolation.

we want to continue conversations with people like thomas hudson, who is seeking out an image of jesus that actually does, instead of just says. we’re seeking out more conversations with people like darren huckey, who’s looking past our modern christian notions of god to capture the essence and jewishness of jesus. we’re looking for ways to connect with people like rich wiebe, who is seeking a life filled with deeply abiding love and compassion for others. all of our writers have expressed a unique dimension of the conversation revolving around faith in our city.

certainly, these aren’t the totality of perspectives in our community.

so, we’ll continue to seek people beyond our “four walls” that are trying to figure out if there’s some Thing beyond us or more to life than what we see in front of us. we’ll continue to talk and write and dream and debate and grow and engage the our city.

there’s a broader view in this city, in our community of little rock. our hope and prayer is that this series is only the entry point to engaging those many views.



cityView: amy bradley-hole Posted by Ryan Byrd 05.17.2010 2:48 pm

cityView blog series

I was recently on a floating trip on a river. It was a pretty pleasant river, but it had its fair share of rapids and rocky patches. And unbeknownst to me, there was a huge waterfall just around one of its bends. I saw it and started panicking, scared I was going to plunge over the edge and crash and burn. But at the last minute, someone on the bank saw me, and stuck a huge branch out towards me. I could save myself from the waterfall by just jumping off my raft and grabbing hold. But I didn’t. I froze, because I didn’t want to risk missing the branch completely and falling into cold, roiling water. How stupid was that? I was going to risk certain harm for uncertain safety, simply because I was afraid of what was in between.

Alright, alright, enough with the terrible allegory already. No, I haven’t been on a float trip lately. But yes, I have been about to crash and burn. And yes, in the midst of all the chaos, someone handed me a lifeline. And YES, I freaked out about it. I kept calling this awesome opportunity my “leap of faith.” Whenever I discussed my situation with anyone, I focused on the “leap” part. It was all about my fear, and the fall, and how much it would hurt if I screwed it up. My language and thought process was quite negative. This leap of faith was a scary thing, indeed.

And then one day, that little voice I hear (which, for me, yes, is Jesus, and who, by the way, is a little West Indian guy in tight pants who sits on my shoulder, but that’s a whole other story) said to me “But you’re forgetting the FAITH part.”

Wow. And so I was. I was all terror, no trust.

There I was, the girl who’s always smugly thinking about how strong her faith is, how solid her relationship with Christ is, forgetting to have any faith at all. I was forgetting to shut up already about the negatives. I was only thinking about the bad that could happen, and forgetting the wonderful ways in which my life could change. They just seemed, like that branch, too far away to be real. So when I took a minute to pause and hand it over to my higher power, I was able to see the beautiful glimpses of faith and grace that surrounded me. I have a family who has my back. I’ve got a community full of the most amazing friends right here in Little Rock who are my support system. I’ve got a church home where I can go to get recharged. And yes, I have a relationship with Jesus. What more could I need? And why, for Heaven’s sake, was I afraid of a little ol’ leap?

So what did I end up doing, you ask? I jumped, of course. And it felt fabulous. And how did it turn out, you wonder? I don’t know. I’m still in mid-air. But at least I know that, as I’m flying, I’m being lifted by faith.