07/13/2016

Sometimes things start out great.

Maybe a few bumps along the way, but mostly up and up.

And then you take a bit-role in Blade.

How did things go so wrong?

Kris Kristofferson had an amazing early career.

Everyone covered him and yet no one could match him.

He was so successful he started a career in film, with some fairly well received films in the 70’s (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid being the foremost of them).

There were a few more films in the 80’s.

And then Blade.

Three Blade movies. Three.

Blade. ’98

Blade II. ’02

Blade:Trinity. ’04

Vampire hunter movies with Wesley Snipes as a vampire himself.

Oh boy.

Kris! How did this happen? How did you go from Me and Bobby Mcgee, to a vampire movie?!

Well, if you live long enough, you have the opportunity to screw everything up.

Congrats.

You walk down so many roads, that eventually you’ll get lost.

You can’t really help it.

But in 2006 Kristofferson released the album This Old Road, true to form, a return to himself.

And so what then?

Keep walking. It’ll come around. You’ll lose yourself and you’ll find yourself again.

You’ll forget who you are. You won’t recognize who you used to be. You’ll wonder how you find yourself in the morning. And your hands may look strange to you. Nothing is stable. Water flows on. And time washes not only places, but even bits of you away.

But what you find is that you are not lost, you are not someone else, you are you. And time is shaping you. Time is carving into you a canyon of grandeur and beauty and wisdom and truth and depth.

Embrace the process of carving. Time is drawing you out. You are emerging into something more profound than you thought possible.

More profound than anything that mere youth had to offer: Christ-likeness. And everything in all creation is used to carve you into that image.