Who I Am & Why Cerulean Sanctum—Part 1

I wanted to start the year off right by doing a “person dump,” my way of letting you know who I am—and that I don’t truly bite despite what some may say. 😉

Some things here might puzzle people, so I also want to eventually weave into that story line the reason that Cerulean Sanctum exists. I get letters from people telling me how blessed they are to stumble across this blog and that means something as the blogosphere expands and there are more and more voices to heed. That anyone comes here at all is a blessing in itself, when I consider it.

Dan Edelen is a tall, linebacker-sized guy who inhabits thirteen acres of real farmland outside Cincinnati, Ohio. I’ve lived in Ohio for most of my life and it has always felt like home despite the longings I have to see the world. Call it a base of operations then, if you will.

I’m married to the lovely Danei and have a precocious son named Ethan. We’re trying to revert our once-farmland back into farmland, but it’s been slow going and we’ve had many diversions over the last few years. We hope to get our orchard up this spring and wine grapes in maybe next year. I like to tell people that being a farmer is always a little bit of “We’ll see….” Right now I work from home as a freelance writer, tend to my son’s education, and try to finagle this farm-living thing about as well as Eddie Albert did in Green Acres.

I grew up in a Lutheran home. At one point, in my twenties, I was a part of the Assemblies of God and someone told me I had the worst testimony they’d ever heard: I was a good kid who always did what his parents told him to, got straight A’s in school, never got in trouble, and mostly kept my room clean—and then I found Jesus. Actually, Jesus found me at age fourteen on a catechism retreat at Lutheran Memorial Camp in Fulton, OH. The most amazing man I have ever met, Fred Gliem (a bona fide charismatic Lutheran, of all things), talked about Jesus that night and it all finally made sense not only in my head, but in my heart, too. I gave my life to Christ outside on that cold January night in 1977, underneath the stars, a huge wooden cross before me in the semi-darkness of a snow-covered outdoor chapel. I’d wandered outside into the chill night air to consider Fred’s message and found the Lord of the Universe waiting for me.

From early on I knew my call: I was to be a Barnabas. That man of God stood by the young Paul and ushered him along, all the while knowing the once-persecutor of the Lord would eclipse him one day—and it was God’s will for that to happen, too. I am a discipler. That is why I am here.

I worked with young people for many years, discipling any who were interested. During that time, I wound up at Carnegie-Mellon University studying Artificial Intelligence & Robotics. Initially, CMU was a dark time with few Christians for companions my freshman year. It was the first time I encountered people who were openly hostile to Jesus, too, and it shocked this Midwest boy. While that first year was one of searching for Christian companionship, the second year landed me in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. IV changed my life even further, opening me up to world missions, and best of all, inquisitive, earnest, growing Christians my age. I was quickly leading a men’s Bible study on campus and everything was suddenly a dream come true.

Except it really wasn’t. It was clear to me in the final days of my second year that AI was not where I needed to be. God had put a calling on my life and I had to pursue it. That summer I decided to work as a counselor at the camp where I’d first encountered Jesus. After the summer, it was clear: Christian Camping was the way for me. (Having an angelic encounter that confirmed this, only made it more clear. But I’ll have to tell that story later.)

In fact, I’ll have to tell the main part of this story later. It’s almost 2 AM here.

Thanks for stopping by and for enduring a little self-revelation. If nothing else, some of you regular readers of Cerulean Sanctum just might understand this blog a little better.

Blessings till the next installment!

Starting 2005 Off Right

In mid-December my wife and I settled into a new church in our area. We knew when we moved to the countryside on the outskirts of Cincinnati that we would have to make some changes, yet even though we were disappointed in the direction our old church was taking, it was still very hard to sweep fifteen years of association away. Still, we realized that not having a church in our immediate vicinity was actually hurting our ability to connect with the people who lived near us, so we finally took the plunge and did “Ye Olde Church Shoppe.”

The church we were led to was one we visited when we first moved here, but for some reason we did not connect with it then. Since that time, the church watched one pastor move on and the other join the Church Triumphant. They had been without a pastor for almost a year when we showed up in December. That morning one of the elders greeted me and told me they had completed their search and were announcing the new pastor that evening.

Well, it turned out that they elected one of their existing elders to the position. He had preached quite a bit in the last year, and though I did not know he was the choice at the time, he gave a sterling message that not only showed a great preaching skill, but also an extremely strong command of the Bible. I actually learned a few things from that Sunday’s sermon. (I hate to say that is rare, but it has been in the last few years.)

What makes this all so wonderful is that this new pastor has just been formally installed this last week and yet he is already inviting my wife and me to his home to chat. He’s been “official” for six days and we’ve been there three weeks.

Does it get any better than that? Doesn’t that just instill confidence? He’s got a church of about 350 and yet already he wants to know the “new people.” Already I feel like I can be a part of what the Lord will do through this pastor’s ministry, even though this man is new to the role and I am new to the church.

I think 2005 is going to be a very good year.

“Judgmental Christians” and The Way of Christ for 2005

I have been thinking quite a bit the last week about why we Christians are being progressively labeled “judgmental.” It is a word that seems to erupt out of the very fabric of society, smothering the voice of Christians in the public square, and offering a sanctuary for those who openly oppose, do not understand, or simply do not care to comprehend Christianity.

This is not a political blog, nor do I like mixing politics and the Christian faith. Too many Christian blogs and Web sites inextricably link the two and I wish to avoid that. Still, since politics is so critical a means of expression for many of those who do not side with Christian thought, it is a necessity to speak about this issue with some level of politics involved.

We live in an age when people are defined by what they are for or against. Nihilistic postmodernism has created an odd human, though, who seems to be more “against” than “for.” This last year drove that point home. Many politically-charged people argued vehemently against some person or issue, but when pressed were unable to articulate what they were actually for, or how to make the reverse of the thing they were against a reality. When the political season had run its course, we saw in those same people a new psychosis labeled “Post-election Stress & Trauma Syndrome” or (amusingly—no matter which side you are on) “PESTS.” This syndrome manifested in those who were largely against many things, but once they had wound up on the losing side of politics were unable to cope with the fact that their “against-ness,” once broken, left them nothing to be for. Their subsequent bout with PESTS being the natural outcome of having no positive ideas apart from their negative ones, they lived solely out of their anger toward what they are against.

When Christians spoke into the public square this year, the “judgmental” label was tossed around with abandon. I cannot ever remember hearing the word “judgmental” attached to Christians more than I did this year. Being a presidential election year surely made some of that true, but I think another force is at work here. It is the force of postmodern nihilism, the very heart of PESTS, and the core of what is left in people who dwell solely on the negative.

2004 will be remembered as the year in which postmodernism reached full flower. With its blooming comes a time when what we are for and against can no longer be assigned values (at least in the minds of proponents of postmodernism.) Relativism, so inherent in postmodern thought, has resulted in this resurgence of nihilism. That bleak outlook on life informed much of the discussion in politics this year. What the new Nietzsches accomplished in 2004’s discourse was to successfully stigmatize anyone who was actually for something, rather than being merely against something.

As a people who are defined by what (and who, especially) we are for, Christians drew the most attacks. Unable to understand that a worldview exists that does not merely state what it is against, postmodern voices in the public square operating solely out of a negative worldview successfully used the “judgmental” tag to label all opponents to their cause, opponents who actually stood for an issue. Nine times out of ten the ones labeled were Christians.

We should recognize this twisting. It is the same force that brands love “hate” and calls truth a “lie.” While this affords us Christians the proof we need that the world is hellbent on our destruction, we should not wear this with pride, but humility. We should not counter this opposition with noses in the air, but should instead become more humble in our recognition that the light of Christ only shows the darkness to be what it is. And we know how Mankind loves darkness.

In 2005 I believe we will see this labeling by those on the other side of Christ intensify. While we recognize the spiritual battle, our response should always be one of Christ the Servant. Our enemies are conquered by the burning coals they heap on themselves when we serve them out of true love. Our reminder for this year is to seek first the way of love while holding true to what is good, noble, and pure. No concession is needed to be what Christ has called us to be, but neither should we forget that the servant heart is what overcomes the world. For this coming year let us remember to always seek the way of servant love so that our enemies have nothing they can hold against us. We may never depart the judgmental label, but our enemies will look all the more foolish for using it.

Blessings for 2005.