Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The SLIMming Effect

The SLIMming Effect promotes arrested development, but an EPIC perspective provides opportunity for growth.

I know this is true because I have seen it in the people around me. I have been amazed to see the effects of the Story on my son Ryan. When he was 16, he blogged the following on his MySpace and later shared it as a testimony before the congregation: Stories have always been a huge part my life. When I was little, I was fascinated with stories like Star Wars, ok mostly Star Wars, but what kindergarten boy wasn’t? I loved those movies to death, never really enjoying them for their great story or characters, only space battles and lightsaber fights. When those had become a part of my past, I learned to read. Oh, this was a moment that expanded my possibilities exponentially. I read books on everything, war, romance, adventure, sci-fi; you name it I read it. I continued to read and watch movies until I was like 10, expanding my literary palette every year. Soon, I began to look at all kinds of stories trying to find deeper meanings and using them to escape. The ones I liked the most were adventure stories, where the main character is thrust into a difficult situation, and is forced to grow up really fast, and become a hero (that’s because I always wanted it to happen to me). Right before the end of my eighth grade year, my parents asked me if I wanted to go through a process to symbolize and confirm my faith in Christ. At first, I only said yes because I felt it was important, not fully knowing how life-changing it was going to be. I was required to read the book, Epic, 69 and

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