More Than Fine…

Community

// April 6th, 2010 // 9511 Comment »http://www.chrissulli.com/community/Community2010-04-06+17%3A36%3A52chrissulli // Life

Some people want their space. They enjoy their privacy. I am not one of those people. I prefer to be surrounded. For some reason after college we decide living in community isn’t cool anymore. Having all your best friends in the same apartment, house or building, just isn’t what you are supposed to do anymore. You are supposed to go make your own way with 1 roommate at most. Live with two or more roommates and society will tell you need to grow up and that you aren’t living in a frat house house anymore (lets just pretend there aren’t economic and social benefits to having roommates).

And that is one of the reasons I loved my two week in New York for the New York City Urban Project (NYCUP). I loved NYCUP. I loved having 8-10 almost complete strangers around all the time growing together, challenging one another and just living and laughing together. Getting to hang out with this group of complete strangers every day was the most fun I have had in a long time. I felt like I was back in college. And it wasn’t just the high points that were memorable. It was all the in between moments when nothing was going on and boredom usually sets in, but we were still laughing, enjoying life and one another’s company.

Over the course of my two weeks in NYC our group of strangers was supporting one another, serving others, pursuing God and living the Gospel. And what could be better than that? I just have to wonder why life can’t look like that all the time.

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He is jealous for me

// April 1st, 2010 // 941No Comments »http://www.chrissulli.com/he-is-jealous-for-me/He+is+jealous+for+me2010-04-01+22%3A17%3A07chrissulli // Uncategorized

Just wanted to share this song because it has been coming up a lot over the last couple weeks (we were rocking it in New York, thanks Minnow) and it has been awesome to see how the song has touched people.

“He is jealous for me.”

Meditate on that for a while.

Lyrics:
He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory
And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me

Oh how he loves us, so
Oh How he loves us, how he loves us so

We are his portion and he is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes
If grace is an ocean we’re all sinking
So, heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

He loves us

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Unlikely Heros

// March 31st, 2010 // 9376 Comments »http://www.chrissulli.com/unlikely-heros/Unlikely+Heros2010-03-31+18%3A05%3A52chrissulli // Uncategorized

I saw a lot of interesting things over the last week serving in New York City. That tends to happen when you are working in strange and often uncomfortable situations. There is a clear favorite though.  As I finished walking around the city with my friend Hannah, talking to homeless people and handing out sandwiches, I made my way to Penn Station to talk to D’jango. D’jango is a homeless man I had the opportunity to talk to 3 or 4 times. As we approached the area where D’jango usually hangs out, I saw 2 homeless men sleeping on the ground and a woman standing over one of them talking. The man responded and the woman moved to the other man to see if he was awake. Realizing he was asleep, she  proceeded to take his bag and start rifling through it. Unsure what to do and in shock that we were witnessing this woman robbing homeless people, we stood motionless. As the woman started walking away with the bag, we followed tentatively, still unsure of whether it was prudent to take action.

Then 3 young women, passing through Penn Station on their way to a Saturday night on the town, approached us and asked in southern accents, “Did she just rob him?” We confirmed what they had seen. “Is he alive?” asked the most timid of the three girls. “He is just sleeping,” I replied confidently, although passed out may have been more accurate. “What should we do?” they asked. “Well, I guess we have her outnumbered,” I responded with a still healthy amount of skepticism that 3 young women in heels would be much help if there was trouble.

The five of us, including 3 stereotypical southern sorority girls in heels and ready for a night on the town, proceeded to encircle the woman. One of the girls approached the woman, snatching the bag and saying curtly in her accent, “I believe that doesn’t belong to you.”

We returned victorious to the site of our victim and awoke him to notify him of what had happened. He indifferently returned to sleep. Oh well… The day was saved by this unlikely group of 5 and our 3 heroines disappeared into the city night.

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NYC Day 1

// March 14th, 2010 // 9351 Comment »http://www.chrissulli.com/nyc-day-1/NYC+Day+12010-03-14+15%3A30%3A04chrissulli // Service

Just about nothing has gone right since I left Tampa. I’ve had my flight delayed, sat on a runway, vomited in a subway station and been rained on over and over again in the freezing cold, but none of that can overwhelm the joy and optimism I feel about this coming week.
I’m going to be living the Gospel in New York City in community with an amazing group of people. We are going to help remodel part of a rundown church building into a community center for kids in the Bronx, feed the homeless, volunteer at a gala for an organization that fights the sex trade’ and all other kinds of cool stuff like going to Brooklyn Tabernacle tomorrow. And I get to do all this while serving next to and praying, reflecting, sharing and pursuing God with my group. No amount of rain and cold could dampen my enthusiasm for that.
Keep us in your prayers.

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What do I want to be when I grow up?

// March 12th, 2010 // 9342 Comments »http://www.chrissulli.com/what-do-i-want-to-be-when-i-grow-up/What+do+I+want+to+be+when+I+grow+up%3F2010-03-12+18%3A50%3A27chrissulli // Life

The more people my age I talk to, the more I realize none of us know what we want to be when we grow up. I can’t really speak for whether that was or still is true of the generations that came before us, although, I would guess it is. What does differentiate our generation is not just our discontent with the rat race and the corporate ladder, but our willingness to reject it and find our own path. Our generation is turning to community service, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship to fill all the needs and desires that money, power and all the goodies that came along with them couldn’t fill. And while I’m excited to see my generation turn to things I consider to be more morally upright, I won’t we be surprised at all if they find their new pursuits equally unfulfilling in the end. So I just have to wonder when we will stop turning to things of this world and start turning to God.

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