Narrative

I have been in Los Angeles for about a week and a half now and I have to be honest, I like it here. Sure there are plenty of things to hate about it, like the smog, traffic and overall feelings of superiority residents seem to have here, but those are prices one must pay in order to live in the most creative city in the world.

This town, is a mosaic of talent and vision. Everyone has something they want to accomplish.

Everyone has a story to tell.

I am blessed to have made the journey here with a couple of my close friends. I am also fortunate to be reunited with old friends. I have said goodbye to family, close friends, and people I care about to be here and it's hard to do that.

The first two weeks at LAFSC are designed as orientation. You meet your roommates and classmates as well as the teachers. On Saturday, the day of checking in, they had all of us students meet for dinner. They placed name tags at random tables across the room. I ended up at a table full of girls.

Side note, this is the first time in college I've been at an institution with a higher ratio of males than of females. Just an interesting observation that tells you about girls and film.

Our resident director chose to sit at the table with us and it was a great night. Dan got a kick out of the fact that I was at the girl table. He even said it was only funny because it was me. I reminded him that I spent a lot of time with the volleyball team last semester and that he was just jealous he couldn't get his pimpin' on (because I talk like that all the time).

That Sunday, we had more orientation at the center, which is within walking distance from the apartments. Me and Aaron walked by the La Brea Tar Pits which were an interesting place. We were not able to go to church that week but this past Sunday we were able to, and encouraged to, go wherever we wished to.

If you know anything about me and the city of Los Angeles, you probably know where I attended. I went to Mosaic, which is the church Erwin McManus is over. It was a 7:00 P.M. service, so I spent most of my day sitting with anxiety. I skipped out on an opportunity to go to the Santa Monica Pier for the sunset, which is truly a glorious experience I wish to take part in soon, but I knew that the group wouldn't make it back in time for me to go to Mosaic.

At around 6:15 p.m. myself, Aaron, and a new friend named Andrew, loaded into Vanilla Bear (my Bonneville). We took off and met up with one of our instructors, John and his wife. Some of the girls from the school found out about the place as well and decided to follow along.

If I was being completely honest, I would tell you that I was scared for a moment. You see, I've been wanting to attend this church since I first read  The Barbarian Way when I was in eleventh grade. That is a long time to be building expectations, and I didn't want to be disappointed. Sitting in the seat before the service started was kind of like my experience right before watching The Dark Knight. Everything was fine until the lights faded down and the trailers began to play and I asked myself, "What if this sucks?!?"

Thankfully, like The Dark Knight, Mosaic did not suck. I refuse to speak too soon, but recently my means to gauge my experiences are whether or not I am moved. Well, I was moved.

The series they started last week was: Narrative: Live Your Story.

Wow. What a convenient topic?

Erwin shared his story, and in turn challenged us to write ours. Story is powerful and has the potential to impact lives and mine began with reading a book.

A month or so ago, I made the statement that I look forward to the day I get to thank Erwin McManus for ruining my life. It seems like an off-kilter thing to say but I would not be who I am today had it not been for his words. Many have read them, and he did not intend them to be designed for one person in particular. Regardless, they changed my life and I was able to follow up on that statement I made.

After the message, he was wandering around in the back near where I was standing. I walked up to him and he introduced himself. I did the same, and sounded like an idiot, I'm sure. I couldn't make eye contact. I felt like a child with attention deficit disorder. I gave him a little introduction before telling him what I wanted to say, but I said it and he smiled and said thank you.

He was kind and soft spoken, exactly what you would expect of the man.

That night felt like home. It felt as though I was supposed to be there and continue that journey...for now. A lot has happened in the past week and a half, and even more happened in the month prior. 

The truth is, I am not so sure what's going to happen. I interview for an internship sometime this coming Friday and I am excited to see where that leads me.

As for the future, no one can say for sure what will happen next. All I know is that for the first time in my life, I'm trusting that God has a plan for my story. It is going somewhere and I am looking forward to seeing where that may be.

With that said...Welcome to Los Angeles.

-Christopher Peters