About me
My name is Brandon Clements, and I’m a writer and pastor in Columbia, SC. My wife Kristi is my college sweetheart and together we have four children. I’ve written a couple of books and this is my new writing home.
What city’s light?
Theologian Charles Taylor, writing about secularism—the spirit of the modern age—described it as the “immanent frame.” Which is really just a fancy way of saying it’s a box, a way of seeing the world from your limited perspective that can be quite hard to see outside of.
(picture us all trapped in there, eating…scrolling…texting…watching…posting…working…with everyone running about, yelling their screeching opinions about WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU SHOULD DO and HERE LOOK AT THIS AD!)
But then, one by one the lights go out for each of us, and who knows what happens beyond the box?
If you think about it, this analogy applies to any culture in any place. We are all born into a box of sorts, prone to see only what is 3 yards in front of our faces as we fumble through this experience we call life.
Contrary to our default setting, Scripture paints a picture of existence beyond the box. The end of the Book shows us a marvelous city, the New Jerusalem, descending onto the new heavens and the new earth—a fitting coronation for a King and a welcome feast for those reconciled to him.
Those ancient pages insist that there is more than what meets the eye, a grander story than the small “s” stories we live. They scream into our numbed ears that graves do not stop souls stamped with the divine, nor can wooden boxes hold the bones left behind.
If that is true, there’s not much more important than learning to see beyond the box, as hard as it can be.
This site is about learning to see. Learning to see the cracks of light breaking into the box we call home, so that those who have eyes may see, and those who have ears may hear.
What are your plans for this site?
Likely a little bit of everything. My promise to you is that I will only post when I have something to say. I will not fill up your inbox with constant frivolity—ain’t nobody got time for that. Though I hope to write much more regularly in the next season of life, I have four small kids and pastor full-time, so I guarantee nothing other than to hit send when I believe something is worthwhile.
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My goal for this is to learn, clarify thoughts, and hopefully challenge along the way, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. Subscribe and comment along the way if you’d like!
“If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, then everything’s going to be alright. Whatever you’re worried about right now, whatever you are afraid of, everything is actually going to be okay. Because we’re not just talking about resurrected people—and this is where Christianity is unique—we’re talking about a resurrected world.
There are plenty of other religions that talk about a future afterlife which is a non-material world. In other words, you get a consolation for the world we’ve lost. Christianity says it’s not just your bodies being resurrected, but the world is actually going to be a material world that’s cleansed from all evil and suffering and sin. If Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, then the whole world is going to be resurrected and everything is going to be okay. Everything.”
-Tim Keller
