Everything in blue is Love

As an unpaid intern who sometimes fetched pizza and sometimes wrote press releases, I had been working with the Venture Expeditions guys for six months, promoting a 3,172 mile bicycle tour designed to raise money and awareness for Blood:Water Mission.

Venture granted me a few days riding from LA-SD with the team and a US Airways ticket back to MSP. This trip was my reward for my service. It was also the first time I met Mr. Pelttari, a principal's assistant most recently from Woodstock, Ill.

Without a doubt, Erik Pelttari is the gentlest spirit I have ever met who can rock a mohawk-- like a biker clad in leather-- or in this case a Ride:Well Tour jersey.

He's the real deal, a guy who really loves people. You can't fake that.

After few guys on the Ride:Well team shaved mohawks, Erik, their faithful small group leader, showed solidarity by carving out a swath of his short hair. Combined with a fabulous (and surprisingly "uncreepy") moustache worthy of a 1970s era middle reliever, Erik won the ironic hair contest hands-down.

The day we left Long Beach, Erik and I sat in Sunday school together and listened to a teaching I doubt resonated very much with either of us. By the time we left the class, I was frustrated. Sometimes, people can be right and entirely miss the point. Of everything.

Another rider, Bethany, was sitting on my right, and Erik on my left. Bethany comes from a stream outside the Assemblies of God (AG). Since were launching that day from an AG church, the AG topic came up. Myself student of an accredited AG institute of higher learning, I filled in Bethany on what I thought about the history and direction of the movement. You might call my briefing an informed critique.

Admittedly, I am egalitarian and pragmatic to a fault. I often say I'm "allergic" to the endless hierarchies and structures of religion. For me, the cumulative effects of living in "the club" without a real encounter with the living God (and each other) is as effective as replacing my daily Gatorade rations with watered down lye. It kills my soul and spirit. I check out.

At some point during the sermon that morning, Erik opened his Bible to the book of 1st John. "Everything in blue is Love," he told me before handing me the Bible. I pored over the highlighted pages.

Erik had used a blue highlighter to call attention to what we both understood to be a defining theme of the book. In fact, everything hinges on love: Johannine lit, Pauline lit, the New Testament, the Old Testament, the story of God, the world, the cosmos. It all rests on love, whatever Love is.

Erik noted that the ink had bled through the pages, as if he had somehow ruined the text. Yet, Erik's Bible still in my hands, I was beside myself. It was as if the emotions of months of the cumulative passion of the Ride:Well Tour has been combined into a few seconds. I felt the joy of new discovery and the rare feeling knowing someone else really understood.

If the entire universe hinges on this thing called Love, perhaps it's worth studying a bit? The willing crucifixion of Jesus Christ is regarded to be the greatest act of love in history, but what does it mean for my life? Today, I'm looking for something a bit deeper.

So, I'm going to knock on the door of a Danish existentialist named Søren Kierkegaard. Perhaps, his treatise "Works of Love" will unlock for me an additional layer of meaning. I've been in "Works of Love" before, but I didn't need to be. The encounter was cold. Now that I'm in this place, I expect a totally different reading of the text. Sometimes, you have to be ready ...