Rob Bell [?]

Brandon Hassell, who I basically forced into being my best friend when he came to Greeville Christian Academy in seventh grade and has put up with the title since, told me once that I wrote like Rob Bell and should check him out.

Which means I write in single-sentence paragraphs like this.

Word.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, although my cell group at Open Door did a study on his book Velvet Elvis a few semesters ago while I was at school. I never did read the whole book, although I know that simply opening one of his books and seeing a few of his shotgun-burst-style paragraphs incites my inspiration.

It’s been awhile since I read one of his books or anything, though I plan to check out SexGod at some point in the near future. Today, however, I watched one of his NOOMA videos (see the first one for free at nooma.com) and again, the inspiration burst alive within me.

Just an urge to think and write.

I’ve never been a big fan of the self-perspective Christian books, much less charging people to read them. I feel as though God wants me to channel the lessons I have learned and the thoughts I have on spiritual matters into novels and other works of fiction, though that takes an extremely long time and far more creativity than my feeble, overworked brain has tolerance for on a daily basis.

I hope to complete a book this summer, or at least a rough draft of one.

However, random inspirations such as this do call into question the career track I am on. I hope to one day muster up enough motivation to earn a degree in philosophy, religion, and psychology. God’s created me as too much of a thinker to let all that thinking go to waste.

And for the record, thinker-writers like Rob Bell and Donald Miller and those other authors who basically put together a bunch of essays and sell them do have a purpose, despite my questioning their true authorship. They are thought-provokers and light-shiners, providing their insight on current issues with a transparency and frankness that many, myself included, often benefit by gleaning from.