Processing

I returned home last night from a 5-day trip to Nashville to attend Youth Specialties National Youth Worker's Convention. It was an excellent experience and we were blessed to worship with great bands like David Crowder, Mercy Me, and Lincoln Brewster and were challenged by great speakers like Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne, and Francis Chan. However, instead of leaving feeling inspired and armed with tons of great resources & ideas for youth ministry, my heart and head are swimming with the convictions and challenges I received about being a follower of Christ. Don't get me wrong, it was good, healthy, and needed. I guess I'm just using this space to sort through some of what we heard & experienced as I continue on my journey.

Several of the speakers challenged us to take Jesus' words literally. Many are rising up to be called "Red Letter Christians." They are willing to stake their lives on the red letters (Jesus' words) in the Bible. So when Jesus says, "Sell all your possessions and give to the poor," they literally do just that. When Jesus says, "Store up treasures in heaven, not on earth where they rot away," people are foregoing things like life insurance and retirement funds in order to help provide basic needs... food & water... for Christians and others throughout the world that are dying. When people ask if we are a Christian, we should be able to say, "What do you think? what is the evidence in my life?"

There is no doubt that our world is broken, messed up all over the place. Some of the brokenness is beyond our control, but some brokenness we bring on ourselves. But what are we as Christ-followers to do with some of these statistics?

• Nobody will soon forget the devastating events of 9-11 in which 3,000 lives were lost. But what about the fact that 3,000 people die EVERY DAY in Africa as a result of PREVENTABLE diseases?
• In 2006, Starbucks had a revenue of 7.8 billion dollars. Did you know that $7 billion could solve the clean water problem in the entire world?
• In the U.S. we spend $20 billion each year on ice cream. A mere 5th of that amount...$4 billion would provide health care to 3 billion infants that die each year.
• It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases. - (Quote from U2's Bono, rock star and anti-poverty activist)

Is this starting to mess you up, too? It needs to go so much more beyond sending a check to some good organizations or participating in a week service trip once a year. Sure, those are great, but I believe it's time for the church to start asking the hard questions and making some life-transforming choices about our lifestyles. If we truly believe Jesus has saved us and has given us the power, authority AND commands to share His love, how are we really doing? Do we trust Him enough to really surrender ALL of our resources to Him and His Kingdom? Do we really believe that He WILL provide all of our needs? Are we really willing to leave our families, our homes, our jobs... to go where He is leading us?

Even during my conference I was wrestling with this tension. Here we spend a few hundred dollars each (5,000 of us) to hear famous bands & speakers, who I'm sure were paid a nice price to be there for us. As we went downtown to eat in nice restaurants each day, we passed some homeless folks. It just didn't feel right, you know? One day we took our left-overs to 2 homeless guys, "Easy Rider" and Dave... and had a good conversation with them. But what difference did that really make? Was it just to make us feel good, like we did our good deed for the day? I certainly hope not! One of the speakers (Chap Clark) challenged us to start asking the hard questions when we see poverty & injustice around us:

• How did these wrongs come to exist?
• How can we help the poor & marginalized fix their own problems?
• What does God want us to do that will make a difference beyond today?

A quote from Martin Luther King Jr. during a speech delivered on April 4, 1967:

• "On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

As I wrestle and process and pray through this stuff, I realize there are no easy answers. If your heart is in the same place, I'd love to pray and dialogue with you and try to figure out how to best live out this following-Jesus thing. I know I'm messed up and need much help! And so I turn to scripture:

• Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
• Jesus said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets."

Okay, we all know the beatitudes... very familiar, very comforting to those of us who are broken. And aren't we all broken? But check out the next verses in Luke 6:24-26

• "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets."

Those words don't make me feel too comfortable! I'm definitely rich if I compare myself to the entire world's population; I'm well fed. I don't have any nice neat conclusion to this to make me (or you) feel better. Maybe God wants us in this place of uncomfortableness so that we constantly change and grow and become more like Jesus. But I need oh so much help! Help me, Lord, to shine your light to this broken world!

I'm so thankful that our God is a God of love... a God who is very patient with us. He is not here to judge or condemn, but to offer grace upon grace. A God who shows us one step at a time where we need to go. I pray that my eyes may be open and my feet may be obedient to follow...wherever Christ may lead me. Will you join me in this seriously ridiculous journey?