Hi, I'm Karsten. I was raised in the midwest, where the leaves turn 1000 shades of beautiful every fall and the winters look like real life snow globes. I went to high school in LA, surrounded by beautiful people that all look like they belong in a movie, and beaches so perfect you can hardly believe they're real. College is where I learned to think, and re-learned to feel. Now, I'm 26 years old, softer around the edges than my high school self once was, and I deeply love people. Favorite activities include dancing (it's amazing how you can connect to God, nature, and the people around you all at once through something so simple), drinking a good beer with a good friend at a pub or coffee shop, playing guitar (I'm not good, but it's soothing to play for myself), skating, and writing. I'm a published poet, but also write creative nonfiction and fiction. I have a passion for seeing humanity enter into deep relationship with the entirety of creation and creator. I don't want to just talk, I want what's real, and has the power to transform lives. I'm all about bringing abstract realities like church, love, beauty, God and Truth into everyday, normal life. This is one place where I like to talk about that sort of thing. Welcome to our story. Oh, and I have a bit of a love hate relationship with blogging. I hate the idea of being a "blogger", because it conjures up ideas of self-inflated people ranting to the world about mostly trivial and meaningless opinions. I hope this is never that. I hope what you find here is fascinating, and different from anything you've encountered before. I hope our lives our changed and enriched through this conversation called "blogging".
Ever heard someone say “it’s time to face reality?” What they usually mean is “stop living in this fantasy world where everything works out perfectly and you don’t have to do anything to make it happen” or “get in touch with how crappy life really is!” Lately, I’ve been thinking about reality… Reality is the … More A Taste of Reality
I’m an English Major. Specifically a Creative Writing Concentration English Major. One of the biggest things I love about being an English Major is the community that I’m surrounded with as a result. In my experience, English majors are honest. They’re not narrow minded, and they’re not afraid to live outside the box. Today, I got … More Coming Out of the Christian Closet
A Close Call This was almost the post where I explained how I was going to stop blogging for awhile. To some extent, it still is. I have fallen off the radar for awhile, and those of you that follow me deserve an explanation. I’m going to go a bit outside my normal style of … More This Started as My Last Blog Post
How many of you have ever said “I just want God to use me”? I think most of us have said it at one point or another. So many of us say this and we are totally sincere, thinking that our desire to be “used” is the very thing we were created for, but it’s … More God Doesn’t Want to Use You
I heard a story recently, about a mother who died in the Japan earthquake. She was found by a rescue team leader, dead inside the rubble. The wall of the house had collapsed on her, like so many other earthquake victims. The team began to move on, but the leader felt prompted to check again. … More Love is “Selfish”
Mega-churches. Tiny Churches. Denominations. “Non” Denominations. Emergent churches. Traditional churches. Conferences, buildings, rituals, dress codes, books, blogs. Christian Movies. Christian Dating. Christian Music. Christian Jewelry. Christian T-shirts. It’s like a Christian all-you-can-eat buffet, just waiting to give you a spiritual tummy-ache. If you would, turn off your Christian radio for just a minute. Stop surfing the web for … More The Forgotten Christianity
Imagine driving down a country freeway. You look out the window as you pass a rusty, half broken down trailer, being slowly eaten away by the weather. If you are like me, this moment fills with delight as you stare into the beauty of Jesus right there on the side of that road, rusting away. What? … More Jesus Looks Like Old, Rusty Metal Trailers
I believe a lot of things that are wrong, and so do you! The good news is, God uses this for our good. You may have heard it said that it’s impossible for two people to ever read the same book, or that you never read the same book twice, and it’s true. Every person … More Why Wrong Theology Works
How often are we actually present? I mean, really present. We are so consumed with the past, the future, what we just said, how they’ll react, what we are going to say next, if we look good in what we’re wearing, and 1,000 other things that keep us from ever actually feeling the life we … More The Satisfied Life
Somewhere in our minds, we all believe it’s wrong to be broken. We see weakness as a weakness. The only problem is this goes against the very nature of God. See, we were made in God’s image, and Jesus Himself was broken. We are made new in Christ, and what the first Adam lost is bought … More Beautiful Brokenness, Life Giving Weakness
Real Hope Rising 