A work in progress.

As I was laying in bed last night–a thought hit me.  I’m not completely sure why this thought hit me last night because I hadn’t thought about either of these things during the day.  Maybe it was that stage right before you fall asleep, where you hallucinate a little bit or maybe it was…the Holy Spirit.  I really don’t know what it was but it definitely made me think!

If you know me at all, you know I like tech gadgets.  I like to be current with technology, if not a little bit ahead of the curve.  However, you may consider me pre-historic because I don’t have the latest cell phone technology with a data plan–mostly because I haven’t been able to justify the cost.  Sure, I would love the convenience of the virtual world at my fingertips everywhere I go!  I’ve always dreamed of having the all-in-one device that plays music, videos, gives me directions with the latest maps, tells me what song is playing in that store at the mall, helps me navigate the constellations in the sky, checks my email, follows my social networks and makes a phone call.  All of those things in one device would not only be entertaining but it would make my pockets lighter.  But it comes at a price!

I remember having a conversation with a representative of my wireless network a few months ago.  I was telling him that I couldn’t justify or afford the extra $30 a month for the data plan that comes with the latest smartphone.  His question back was, “Do you have an extra dollar a day?”  Wow, that makes it sound a lot cheaper, huh?  Since then, I still have not added the data plan.

It wasn’t the thought of not having the data plan that haunted me last night–it was the salesman’s question.

There’s an organization that I hear about and see often at concerts and events that used to use the tagline, “For just a dollar a day…”  Since then, the price has gone up a little bit due to the worldwide economy but Compassion is just one organization that helps provide food, water, shelter, clothes and education for children in poverty.  The price to sponsor a child is $38 a month.  Compare that to the $30 data plan.

Feed my need for technology or hear the cries of the oppressed?

I’m not a spokesman for Compassion, just a guy thinking about what really matters in life.  At this point, I don’t sponsor a child OR subscribe to a data plan with my wireless carrier.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point…but at least I’m thinking about it, right?  There will come a point in time where I need to put my thought into action.

I know God doesn’t need more apathetic philosophers to talk about what the Church is doing wrong but He needs some revolutionaries to show the Church what to do right!

I like what C.S. Lewis writes in his book Mere Christianity,

“But it [Christianity] also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.”

If God freed our people once before, couldn’t God do it again?  And so it’s here, in exile by the river, amid the tears of despair, that God’s people begin to dream again.  Their repentance gives them hope to see a future beyond the bitterness of all they have lost.

Quote from Rob Bell and Don Golden’s Jesus Wants to Save Christians (pg. 54)

So often, we look at our own “exiles” as a bad thing.  I’m not sure that’s the case.  Sure–in the midst of things it feels hopeless and helpless especially, when you don’t know where you’re going.  However, it’s in exile when you ask yourself, “How did I get here?”  And soon enough you have a follow up question of, “Where am I going?”  And that’s when the DREAMING happens!  Right there, in the middle of exile, you dream.

If you know me well–I’m a dreamer.  I’ve had it said to me, “That’s a great idea (dream) but lets bring it down to size.”  When you’re a dreamer there’s nothing more heart wrenching and deflating than that!

It was a couple of years ago when I had the opportunity to hear a missionary from Africa speak at our church.  I have one of his quotes (something he felt God saying to him) on my white board in my office that says, “I’m tired of your small mind about my work!”  That quote blew me away.  When the God who created the heavens and the earth, night and day, every living creature and knows mankind inside and out says, “I’m tired of your small mind about my work,” to you–you probably want to be paying attention!

So, when exile is here–I will dream!  I won’t dream dreams and then, “take them down to size.”  That sounds like an insult to the Artist.  I will dream BIG dreams and EXPECT the Artist to create something mind-blowing!

“Yes, we know the Word and a have a genuine desire to share the gospel with them (students).  But we haven’t taken the time to know them and their changing culture.  When it becomes obvious they aren’t responding to our efforts, we lament the fact they have turned a deaf ear to church.  But is that really the case? I don’t think so.  More often than not, their ambivalence to the church is rooted in the fact they can’t hear anything we’re saying.  Because we haven’t taken the time to know them and their world, they don’t hear or understand any of it.  They’re not deaf–we’re dumb.  In the end, we’ve done an ‘injustice to people whom Christ loves and for whom he died.’”

Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture by Walt Mueller

Wow!  If this isn’t a challenging quote–I don’t know what is.  This quote has inspired me to take my “calling” more serious and become a better cross-cultural missionary to students.  I admit it…I’ve been so focused on things like getting my series planned out for the rest of the year or organizing “this and that,” that I’ve forgotten them.  I see students, I talk to students, I listen to them…but it’s all in the context of our church walls or student ministry events.  I haven’t been in THEIR world lately.  Have you been in the world of the people you are “called” to lately?