Together

So I’m John Carr and this is my attempt at writing an entry. As I type this we’re watching the Tech vs UNC game and currently crammed into the darkroom (our stadium style seating TV lounge of sorts that is located in the basement.) I’m not really into football, what can I say? but I’m learning how to yell things at football games, Jeremy usually feeds me lines to scream, most of which I butcher, or yell incorrectly on purpose. Anyways I’m writing because the idea of a Willard blog is sweet and I give props to James for making moves. Also, I should clarify that I don’t actually have plans to become a pro surfer, nor am I a hipster… however I can act as a mediator between hipster culture and the rest of the world. Living at Willard this year has been awesome and quite honestly the only reason I’m back at tech this year.

A friend of mine and I got breakfast one morning earlier this semester. We talked about who we were, as individuals and how God was in everything. He said that God was in the two of us, in our coffee, in the morning sun, that He was invading the hot sauce. He asked me how I viewed the world, and I had a difficult time answering him, I mean that question is vague as crap. He told me he thought that it was one of the most important questions we could ask ourselves. I thought about it a while and said “I guess I see the world as beautiful, sort of like poetry.” My friend told me if I see the world that way then I should do beautiful things, I should write poetry, build the mini ramp in our back yard, make art, ride my bike fast, and do it all excellently and for the glory of God. I like that idea a lot. The guys who live here at Willard are striving to make that idea a reality. We built a mini ramp, I sit around the fire with everyone and write things, we had a Willard Halloween Party (Hoedownween I think we called it, or maybe Hollowillard) we laughed, and dressed up, and square danced, and it was beautiful. We have family dinners every Sunday and make it a priority to be together for a meal and afterwards talk about struggles, about God, about girlfriends, about school, and about life. It’s hard sometimes cause its so raw and real, but its good. I need that time, I need these dudes cause I can’t do life alone, and I don’t think we’re meant to.

When I try to describe the dudes living here to people back home I usually explain that none of us have anything in common, besides Jesus. Now that’s not entirely true, Sam and I have pretty similar personalities, Evan and I both love music, Jackson and I laugh a lot, I surf and James pretends to surf, a bunch of us played soccer, Joe reminds me of my dad, a bunch of us lead YoungLife… so there’s some stuff going on, but for the most part we’re all radically different people. Somehow over the course of this year Jeremy and I have gotten really tight and I know that it’s only because of Jesus. We are funny together, I’m 5’9 and barely 150 pounds he’s like 6’3 and 215. We’re currently working together on a street art project, with the goal of showing Grace to people on campus, though art… or vandalism, whatever you prefer to call it. We at the Willard House are all very excited for the next two and a half years. We have already been through a ton together… we’ve been robbed together, met the neighbors together, had parties together, broken and/or burned lots of things together, crashed our bikes together, screamed our lungs out together, built a mini ramp together, broke a trampoline together, skated the mini ramp together, sang songs together, prayed together, and cried together. Together, because we weren't meant to do life alone.

I love the parts of the Bible where Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven. He says that the Kingdom is here and now, that we are called to bring heaven crashing into earth. There’s a quote by a lovely old nun from Philly named Sister Margaret that says:

“We are a broken people who need each other and God, for we have come to recognize the mess that we have created of our world and how deeply we suffer from that mess. Now we are working together to give birth to a new society within the shell of the old. Another world is possible. Another world is necessary. Another world is already here.”

I wrote this quote on wall at the end of the hall in big black letters because I think it describes all of us in the house and what we’re running after. It’s a beautiful thought. If there’s one thing I could share with you about our adventures and what is happening in Blacksburg, I’d tell you this: God is doing beautiful things at the Willard House through those of us who live here.