Summit Ministries

By Samantha Nasser

When I was a kid, all I really wanted was to grow up. Now that I have grown up, I realize that along with more candles (and, incidentally, smaller cakes) comes an unreasonable expectation of early rising. This morning, I awoke at the ungodly hour of 7:08. I know this because after my first question ("why is it so cold?") I darted out of bed with the realization that I had 7 minutes before breakfast.

The events following this hasty rising are something of a blur. Fast forward to Bible Hour, following a cup of coffee. This morning, Doc Noebel introduced us to responsibility and the importance of getting married--a theme which also dominated John Stonestreet's messages later. The only thing lacking was the usual quota of Alamo references and hippie-jokes.

Following Bible hour, John Stonestreet radically reformed the way I view Christianity and culture. He began with despair (despair.com, that is) and left the audience with a revolutionized perspective on hope. Most of us stuck around during the midmorning break, partially to ask good questions, but mostly to hear better answers.

"The gospel," Stonestreet reminded us this morning (quoting Charles Spurgeon), "is like a caged lion, it does not need to be defended--it just needs to be let out of its cage." Somehow, though, that quote (and thus today) embodied a paradigm switch much more significant than any defense of the canon of scripture. As the night creeps upon us, I feel confident that I will remember today as the day I learned to write culture; to live culture; to be culture.