Tag: love

you matter!

sculpture

Seth Godin shares ::

  • When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
  • When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
  • When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
  • When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
  • When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
  • When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
  • When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
  • When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
  • When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
  • When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
  • And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

Continue reading you matter!

Responding to e-mails

Every couple weeks or so I get e-mails from folks that often go against many things I believe.

I’m not sure why they send them to me. Perhaps they think I agree with them, or perhaps they’re hoping to sway me to their side.

And while I hate seeing those messages in my inbox, for some reason, I always feel like I have to respond, I need to respond — at least once. I know it won’t sway their opinion but for some reason I can’t bring myself to simply deleting them and ignoring them.

This morning I received another one of those e-mails.

Gun control

The e-mail was entitled “Why I carry a gun.” With a list of reasons for owning one mixed in with the following images attached:

Here’s my response to the e-mail. For regular readers of my blog, it may not be anything new. But what do you think? Do you respond to e-mail propaganda (from either side)? Do you simply hit delete?

I hope my responses never come across as accusatory or judgmental (I’m sure they may to those who view things differently). But what do you think?

It’s obvious we see this differently. But since you sent your thoughts, here are mine.

“I’m a pacifist because I’m a violent son of a bitch.” – Stanley Hauerwas

As a follower of Christ, I must embrace non-violence because I am, by nature, violent.

I am sinful so I must embrace virtue.

To be more specific…

I lust after women who are not my wife, so I must embrace monogamy.

I covet your cell phone and your neighborhood and your jeans, so I must embrace simplicity.

I lie to get a laugh or make my life easier, so I must embrace honesty.

I think I’m smarter than you, so I must embrace humility.

I need to be in control, so I must embrace submission.

I’m a loner, so I must embrace community.

I want to ruin your name, so I must embrace forgiveness.

I want to be served, so I must embrace service.

And I want to harm when I’m harmed, so I must embrace non-violence.

– Shaun Groves

And here’s a semi-related story told by Dr. Tony Campolo:

During World War II, a group of Bulgarian Jews are rounded up at a train station to be taken off to Auschwitz. Yet,despite Bulgaria’s alliance with Germany in World War II, the leader of the Orthodox church in Bulgaria comes walking up to a train station in the middle of the night. The leader of the church is followed by 300 members of his church.

He walks to the fenced in area where the Jews are being kept and the guards tell him, “Father you’re not allowed in there.” He laughs and brushes their machine guns aside as he walks into the gated area. The Jews gathered around him, waiting to see what the Christian leader in Bulgaria would say in their moment of despair.

As they cried and begged for help the leader of the Bulgarian church quoted a simple verse from Ruth.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)

The Jews cheered. The Christians outside the fenced in area cheered. The noise became so loud that it woke up everyone in the community and they came to the train station and heard the news. Quickly the hundreds grew to thousands.

The Nazi soldiers suddenly realized there was no way they could overcome everyone there. There was no way they’d be able to get away with carting off the Jews to the concentration camps. The train left a short time later with none of the Jews on board and never returned again. And after that point, no Jews from Bulgaria were taken to a concentration camp of any sort.

“Because the Church of Jesus Christ boldly stood up and said we’re not going to kill the enemy, we’re going to identify with the suffering and suffer with them. This is Jesus’ way.”

And finally,
With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” – Matthew 26:51-54

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
 – Psalm 20:7

Lessons from Britain’s Got Talent

susan-boyle-pic-itv-113257880

Eugene Cho shares the story of Susan Boyle this week on his blog.

Susan’s a 47 year old charity worker, who’s never been kissed or on a date. She’s currently unemployed and her previous singing experience has been limited to the church choir and karaoke.

She was starved of oxygen at birth and has learning difficulties as a result. At school she was slow and had frizzy hair. She was bullied, mostly verbally. She told one newspaper that her classmates’ jibes left behind the kind of scars that don’t heal.

Yet she recently blew folks away with her performance on Britain’s Got Talent.

Eugene writes:

Notice the sneers, looks, judgments, and assumptions that nearly everyone makes – including the respective judges. The change of “perception” (judgment? -> wonder) in the faces of the judges – especially Simon Cowell – are a sight to see. And to be fair to them, I get it…

Why?

It’s pretty simple – she isn’t pretty. She doesn’t look the part. She doesn’t look like an entertainer. She doesn’t look charismatic. And so it begs the questions:

  • Why do we trust our perception and judgment so much?
  • Why are we so married to looks?
  • Why are we enamored and at times, fooled by “dress for success” or “look the part?” [Think of the film, Catch me if You Can…]
  • What is the balance?

How quickly do I cast out judgment based on a person’s dress, or look, or obnoxious laugh? How often do I throw a label on someone without looking at the whole package and hearing their story? I want to put people in a box and label them and define them by my standards – ignoring the person they are – ignoring that they are the Imago Dei.

Watch the video for yourself and then read the rest of Eugene’s post. Then share your thoughts below.

What lessons can you learn from Susan? What does her story tell you about God? Life? Yourself?

update: Vimeo took the original video down, here’s the full video from YouTube

But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7

Crazy Love

crazylove

I got a copy of a great DVD last week in the mail — Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love.” The DVD is a companion to the book of the same title and is put together as a great resource for small group discussion.

I watched four or five chapters right off the bat and loved the simplicity as well as the quality of the videos. I instantly thought it would be a great resource for our small group in the coming months and I’ve asked all the other community groups at encounter to consider doing the same.

The DVD is broken into 10 chapters, to correlate with the book. In each “chapter” of the DVD, Chan talks about various topics related to the same chapters in the book. The videos then wrap up with several questions for the group to discuss.

Publisher’s Weekly writes about the book:

Chan, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., offers a radical call for evangelicals to consider and emulate in this debut guide to living crazy for God. Chan’s own life compels him to live with urgency, and with good reason. His mother died giving birth to him, his stepmother died when he was nine, and his dad when he was 12. As a pastor, Chan says that conducting weekly funerals for people younger than himself has likewise sobered him to life’s unexpectedness and frailty. Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call.Chan also recounts his own attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his home and giving away his resources to the poor.Earnest Christians will find valuable take-home lessons from Chan’s excellent book.

Just the first few “chapters” on the DVD alone had me re-thinking my relationship with God and how lacking it can be. Chan makes the point early on that he realized as a teenager that his prayers really seemed to be lacking – he never really “prayed to anyone.” His prayers were more about rattling off a list of requests than actually talking with someone.

He shared that as he began to read about the God of Scripture (in places like Revelations 4) and saw the mighty power and majesty of God, he began picturing coming before this mighty God each time before he prayed — it suddenly changed his heart, his mind and his thoughts. Suddenly he was no longer just praying out into space, but he was talking to his creator and God.

I’m looking forward to going through this book/DVD with our group and seeing and hearing what they take from it as well. If you’re in the DFW area and want to come join our discussion – let me know! We meet every Saturday at 6 p.m. in Red Oak.

And to get your own copy of the book, Amazon has a copy of the book in paperback, or you can buy the Crazy Love CD/Audio version, Crazy Love Kindle version or Audible.com has the Mp3 version for your portable player.

Or for more information about the book and DVD visit http://crazylovebook.com/ or read other reviews at http://viralbloggers.com/2009/01/crazy-love-interactive-dvd/

We interrupt this broadcast…

I was debating on if I’d stay up and watch U2 on Letterman tonight, or simply let the DVR do all the work.

As I was thumbing through my Google Reader before heading to bed I’m glad I made another stop at Homebrewed Christianity.

Cornel West via WikipediaTripp shared a series of videos put together by Jamie Moffett, of Cornel West at Eastern University (the alma mater of both Jamie Moffett and Shane Claiborne ).

The videos are broken into 10 minute segments and will take you about an hour to watch all the way through – but I’m certain you’ll learn a lot and take a lot away from them. If you don’t… well….

Anyways, take some time to watch them. Chew on what Cornel West has to say. Think about Scripture and “how then shall we live.” Then share your feedback. I’m anxious to hear what you think. Good or bad.

One nugget that really stood out to me…

“The black freedom struggle is the best example of bringing together the quest for unarmed truth and unconditional love in the face of American Terrorism for 400 years. Instead of a Black al-Qaeda you get Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther.”

Thanks to Jamie for sharing the videos and thanks to Tripp for posting them on his site.

Helping a neighbor

take action
I’m amazed at the growing number of stories I continue hearing about people hurting financially. Recession or not, people are struggling. I’m not always able to help, like I want but I want to do more to share their stories and to find ways to help those who are able to help – to help.

Sometimes their needs might be financial, sometimes it might be warm clothes or a hot meal but I want to do what I can to share their stories when I can. Other times, it may be folks doing God’s amazing work around the world that can use a helping hand.

You’ll notice on the top of the sidebar a new “feature” that will highlight the latest way you can help others.

As Clive Parnell will mention on this week’s podcast, “We become so very isolated. As Christians we need to be about others. We need to be finding ways to reach out to others” (loosely quoted).

Today I got a text message and voice mail about a family living in Waxahachie in a mobile home. A family of seven (parents and five children) are living in a single-wide home with no electricity, no water and about to get behind on their rent. My friend took them three boxes of groceries today and found out they’re $930 behind on their bills.

So far my friend has been able to get $600 for them! God’s working quickly! I’m hoping folks will be able to help out and raise the remaining $330 in the next day or so and then we can go to work helping the family even further.

Let me know if you’re interested in helping.

Matthew 25:31-40
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'”