Not too long ago, Christa was looking through some old papers we both had filled out during our pre-marriage counseling sessions. It was the typical fare; spelling out our future goals and expectations, spiritual gifts, communication styles, pet peeves, and family background. At the time we both answered the same questions individually and then compared notes in hopes that we could somehow preempt later arguments about the proper position of the toilet seat. The thought is that the completion of forms will build the best marriage possible. To some degree, it definitely helps.

For us, there was a lot written into those blanks about global missions and the great commission. It was a narrative of international service and sacrifice. And it wasn’t just pillow talk for us either. We did just that to the tune of nearly ten years and 20,000,000 airmiles. Or that’s what it felt like to me living in China for three years, wrangling Mandarin tones, and shooting hoops with Tibetan chain smokers. To use a metaphor from the TV alien, Alf, we pushed towards all of our goals “like vultures on a gut wagon.”

We may have our flaws, but we are also a damned determined couple, juggernauts of intentionality, especially when we have a clear target in mind. (Not to brag or anything.)

Ten years later, as Christa reviewed our premarital forms, she noticed that I had written the goal of getting my MFA (Master’s of the Fine Arts) in Creative Writing. This came as a bit of a shock to both of us. In all that had happened in those jam-packed years, marriage, births, China, global commuting, et al, this goal had been eclipsed and forgotten, pushed to the back-burner of our minds.

But as I send in my acceptance form to Seattle Pacific University’s MFA program (which starts up for me in July), I can’t help but think of the narrative arc of my life bending into a parabola. Coming full half circle, there is a boomerang effect going on here, a re-do, an alternate Lost reality being lived in parallel to something else.

We definitely didn’t see this coming, or did we? For me, it feels right. Like stars re-aligning. And choosing SPU’s program which focuses on art / faith and the spiritual discipline of being a writer, re-affirms a consistent theme of journeying with God in a holistic life course. In a way it ties the arcs together and welds them in smooth metal waves. In starting an MFA program, this is just another beginning for us, the end and the start, the steep incline rising like the baseline lurch of a roller coaster. But for Christa, and I, we have learned to stick together in the midst of such movement. We embrace the ebb and flow of married life and we try our best to savor the journey that parabolas create. But I do have to say, unequivocally, that somebody somewhere left out a few important fields on that form.