Here's the story of my love relationship with the Christian metal band, Living Sacrifice:
Once upon a time in junior high, Living Sacrifice became my favorite band with their album "The Hammering Process." That album, to this day, remains one of three albums that I have consistently listened to throughout my life. I was hooked. Over half of the songs on that album were my favorite songs for the better part of a year. Then one day in 2002, I found out that Living Sacrifice was on tour with As I Lay Dying (another favorite Christian metal band from my home town) and that they were playing a show at a local venue. I was ecstatic! I drove to the venue with a few friends of mine. The opening bands were pretty good but we eagerly awaited our two favorites: AILD followed by Living Sacrifice! The last opening band left the stage and AILD started setting up. Then, without warning, an announcement was delivered that rocked the very foundations of my soul and tested the limits of my sanity. As AILD was still setting up, a manager at the venue got on stage, grabbed a mic, and said something like this:

"Hey guys, I hope you've enjoyed the show so far. I've got a news announcement for you about Living Sacrifice. They should have shown up a long time ago and we were waiting back there for them and we started to get worried. We hadn't heard from them all day. Anyway, we got a phone call a few minutes ago from them saying that they just broke up last night and won't be continuing the tour. Sorry guys but there's no Living Sacrifice tonight."

The first time I went to go see my favorite band, they broke up the night before I got there. For years I mourned the loss of one of the greatest metal bands of all time. The memory of that horrible night was burned into my mind permanently. Then, in 2008, whispers and rumors reached my ears that Living Sacrifice was reforming. It was true! They recorded a two-song single called "Death Machine" that absolutely rocked my socks off! They were back and sounding better than ever! They announced that they were recording an album for early 2010 and I got excited all over again. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Living Sacrifice released their latest masterpiece, "The Infinite Order," on January 26th of this year. MY BIRTHDAY!!! In an effort to make amends with their biggest fan, they released one of their greatest albums on my birthday. To this day, I have never seen Living Sacrifice in concert, but when I do, it will be the fulfillment of a decade-long love story.

The End. Buy this incredible album!

The crowning effort of my senior year at Princeton was recently handed in to the Sociology Department on Monday, April 19th, 2010. My Senior Thesis! In case you can't read the document above, the title is "How God Shapes Society: The Sociology of Miracles in Modern Christianity." Click the link to download the pdf. For my research, I interviewed 7 Christians who had experienced miracles. Some of them had witnessed one or two and some of them had witnessed hundreds! These people were from all over the US, Canada, and even one immigrant from Rwanda. Their stories were amazing and I was very blessed to have talked with most of them for around two hours each. The primary goal of the thesis is to discover what factors are typically present when miracles happen and what sorts of social changes are seen as a result. My thesis defense is this Wednesday (May 12th) so please pray that it goes well!