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The Vanity Fair 'style' Interviews
- Captain Curtis Cartmell
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
For me, perfect happiness happens a few times in your
life. There are unique times in life that you become so
overjoyed, you experience something that isn’t of earth. God
graces your life with people, circumstances and experiences
that change you forever. Often life looks for ways to distract
and rob that grace, when that happens we wander in life until
God surprises us again. Perfect happiness can also be a
constant, like that overwhelming joy when you’re obeying God
and know it or when you know you’re where God wants you. I’ve
often experienced perfect joy (or remained in perfect
happiness) when serving as a missionary overseas, reaching out
to the Sikh and Islamic community or just memorizing the Bible
like God wants me to.
What is your greatest fear?
My great fear is to fail to live up to who God has called
me to be because of my lack of discipline. By nature I’m
passionate, excitable, obsessive, but disciplined is not a
characteristic that I would use to describe my personality.
Discipline does not come natural for me. After memorizing some
small books of the New Testament I grew more and more
uncomfortable with the foundational need of discipline for all
Biblical leaders. Scripturally, discipline is a mandatory
quality for all who desire to become Church leaders. I became
increasingly aware of my potential to fail to accomplish God’s
will for my life because of my undisciplined nature. To this
date it’s a constant battle to maintain that fine line between
“working out your salvation with fear and trembling” and
erring on the side of becoming legalistic as I try to become
perfectly disciplined into Christ’s likeness.
What living person do you most admire?
Oprah – haha, not really. This is a hard question to
answer since I find many people inspirational for many reasons
without any standing out from the crowd. Having said that,
Geoff Ryan has been an incredible influence in my life. He was
the first Salvationist that I saw live out “the dream” of the
original calling of The Salvation Army. God used Geoff to
rekindle the spark and passion for the Army and lead me on a
path to commit to officership.
With which historical figure do you most identify?
Paul the apostle – I have loved that guy since I was a
kid. Before I came to faith in Jesus, I became fascinated with
the Pauline epistles. He was amazing- someone right out of the
James Fowler “mythic god-legend” category. While living in
Russia, I experienced some dark and trying times that helped
me connect closer with his passion and excitement seeing
people getting saved and the Church being started in places
that it had never been. I connect with him with his call to
others, his passion for pressing on to another place, and his
heart-break over the sin in the church. Although I connect
with him on a micro level in these areas, I have to admit that
I can identify with Peter on the macro level. Peter’s lack of
wisdom, misunderstanding of scripture, impatience over God’s
timing, and down right failure. I really connect with this guy
on all those levels. The person that I connect with the most
historically within the Army is Booth-Tucker! I want to be the
next officer (only 100 years late) to be requested to preach
in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. That temple is culturally
the most important shrine of Sikhism. Booth-Tucker is my hero
for learning how to “become all things to all men.” In his
passion to win others to Christ, Booth-Tucker so identified
with the Sikh and Hindu peoples that they actually thought
Christianity was an eastern religion (oh wait a minute it is!)
rather than that typical British Imperialistic models of
missiology that were so prevalent in his day and age.
Booth-Tucker has a classic picture of him in his turban with
the Salvation Army bandcap ribbon ripped out to identify his
turban from the hundreds of thousands that represented
Sikhism. I have a turban just like it downstairs and look
forward to the day I can wear it proudly to share Jesus in the
golden temple and continue his legacy among the Sikh
community.
What is the trait you deplore most in others?
I don’t understand laziness and lack of self-motivation. I
struggle to understand people with no apparent drive or desire
to work. I truly believe that God has created us to be a
working people, not the 9 to 5 business bustle of
North-American consumer driven culture, but an intrinsic need
to work, to rest, and to accomplish things. I struggle at
times in my officership to care and continually reach and to
those who have this trait and yet feel a sense of entitlement
from the Army and the world for their care.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I love technology – it is an area I have spent much time
and money in. Having said that, God has been blessing me to
bless others by giving away my toys (desktops, laptops, sound
gear etc) to others that need it more than I do.
What is your favourite journey?
The best trip of my life to date is the 2 ½ years I lived
in Russia. It was absolutely life changing. I fell in love
with the culture, the language, the food and found a passion
serve the Russian people. During my years in Russia, God used
incredibly situations, life and death moments when my head was
split open, or being attacked and surrounded by daily death
threats while preaching the gospel on the borders of Chechnya,
to cement my faith. My wishy-washy excitement to “do” missions
and evangelize other was transformed into a passion to reach
the lost and learn how to contextual the message as I learn to
“be” an evangelist.
What do you consider the most over-rated virtue?
Holiness - I have a friend that says he never saw me sin
and that I am the holiest guy he knows. How I wish!!!!! I hope
to live in that state of grace again and experience another
“honeymoon with Jesus” period in my life. It was during that
time God graced me so much that I continually felt that I was
under a physical waterfall of grace. Sin was the last thing on
my mind and I’d love to someday stand before my friend with a
clear conscience be able to say “Thank You” to that incredible
complement of God’s work in my life.
What talent would you most like to have?
I dream of speaking every language on earth! Man wouldn’t
that be incredible. I love people and am fascinated by other
cultures and languages. The Guinness book of world records
claims that one man who served for the U.N. spoke 52 languages
fluently. Amazing! Bring it on Lord Jesus!
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it
be?
Like I mentioned before, my natural lack of discipline
would be the first thing that I would change about myself. I
know that this weakness in my character limits my
effectiveness in every area of my life and ministry.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I can only image that the lowest depth of misery would be
being so deceived that at the end of your life and religious
striving for you to expect to hear “Well Done” and as Jesus
opens His lips the words ring out “You wicked, lazy servant!”
– that would be the lowest depth of misery I could ever
imagine.
What is your most treasured possession?
I don’t have one, I can’t think of anything that God
hasn’t already asked me to give away to someone else who needs
it more than I at some point of time or other in my life.
What is your most marked characteristic?
My friends in Russia would say that I had “unsatisfied
satisfaction” and was content with what God was doing but
always hungry for more. This characteristic drives me to
always look for what God is doing and how I can get in on the
action.
Who are your favourite writers?
I can’t say – there have been many books that I found
incredible and thought provoking but often I enjoy one book
from a certain author and get bored with the next. I’ve really
enjoyed some books from James Fowler, Tyron Inbody and of
course my friends Geoff Ryan and Stephen Court who have had a
profound impact on my spiritual growth. The greatest writer
that has influenced me is the apostle Paul by far.
Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
Hercules – I’m not too sure that he qualifies as hero of
fiction since he is a mythological hero. I’m always fascinated
by his stories. I’m convinced that God has not left this earth
without a witness and Hercules to me is more than a
mythological legend. He is possibly the key to the verse about
God’s witness throughout history as mentioned in Genesis 6:4.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also
afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men
and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of
renown” (NIV).
Who are your heroes in real life?
Stephen Colbert – His social influence is astounding – I
just keep praying that he gets saved – could you imagine his
influence. Lee Eddy – the first man that restored my faith
that I could be holy. Booth-Tucker who taught my from the
grave how to contextualize the gospel, Paul the Apostle, St.
Augustine – where would the church be without his influence
and writings, Jerome – the genius that penned the Latin
Vulgate and preserved the church for over 1000 years, and
Stephen Court and Geoff Ryan.
What is your motto?
Keep leaning on Jesus! I become more and more convinced
daily how little I have to offer Him for what He gives to me.
He is the greatest friend I have ever known.
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