chuck.

with the fall, the new tv season starts. i saw the commercials for this show, called "chuck" on nbc. it looked pretty good, but run of the mill. didn't give it much thought until late last week, when the re-run of the pilot episode was on. there wasn't much else, so i caught most of it. LOVED IT! so much, that i went back last eve and watched the opening of episode 1 to catch up. i am a chuck fan.

the premise -- far fetched for sure -- this guy chuck gets an email that is encoded w/ all the governments secrets, and then is followed around by 2 different people trying to keep him safe and/or get rid of him to keep these secrets safe. chuck is an employee at buy more, and is the leader of the 'nerd herd' -- the guys who fix the electronic gadgets we break. anyway, chuck is thrown into this world of espionage, intrigue, and spy-dom that is crazy unfamiliar to him. he is reluctant, he is afraid, and most of the time wants out of the situation he's in. hilarity ensues, and i laugh out loud. good times.

despite the revealling of my bad taste in sub-par sitcoms, something struck me this morning, paralleling something read yesterday. as people living in relationship w/ God, we are like chuck. we find ourselves in a strange place -- this world is our home, but it's not. there is something in us that tells us there is more, but we can't always see it. sometimes we embrace the stuff that isn't natural and enjoy the heck out of it; sometimes we fight w/ all our might not to be overwhelmed and lose that sense of something more. and if you are like me, there are days that i'm hesitant to become more, to grab onto the things God holds out because they cause me to be uncomfortable and afraid, to be different than the world around me. but great things come when we are willing to step into the unknown, to enter a world of intrigue and mystery, to live in this place and yet to long for somewhere permanent. it's what we are wired up for -- to walk this place as residents of somewhere else, to be uncomfortable and yet engaged w/ what is around us.

just like chuck.