My new Blog - Missio Dei

When I started this blog I began with an interest in exploring what it means to love. This blog has in essence become my journal of that exploration process. To be honest, it is mostly for me and my musings. I have for the most part avoided the conversation of the church for good reason. I wanted to explore love here, not jsut theology or missiology. But in reading other people's blogs I realized that those conversations are important to me. So I have begun a new blog that will focus on Missio Dei. The purpose is to explore what it means to engage God's Mission of Restoration. Within this context I can explore love but also a much larger context of His mission.

Check it out here.

The Need to Impress

I was sitting here doing some work and was listening to Sanctus Real, I'm Not Alright. Great song.

If weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of,
Then cool is just how far we have to fall
I am not immune-I only wanna be loved
But I feel safe behind the firewall
Can I lose my need to impress?
If you want the truth, I need to confess

I'm not alright
I'm broken inside, broken inside
And all i go thru
It leads me to you, it leads me to you

The line, "Can I lose my need to impress" struck me. We're always looking for the validation of the self in those who can't handle that responsibility and typically not in our Heavenly Father who can.

What's Your Dead Body Worth?

This is just funny.

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A Great Man

Thanks to Makeesha for pointing this out to me. This is the story of Norman Borlaug, a man you never knew of but absolutely should.

Click here for story.

When Jesus said love your neighbor, this guy took it seriously and now he has a lot of neighbors.

The Dare

I was at a site recently that asked me to give my favorite quote. Well I have a new favorite quote. It's from Brennan Manning, who is quoting God.

"I dare you trust that I love you just as you are and not as you should be."

What I Really Want

Brennan Manning simple, little speech has really gotten me to think. It's making me ask what I really want in life. And what I really, really, really want is to get past the question, "Does God love me?" I want to live in the reality that his love is ever present no matter the circumstance. I want to know that space of trust that says, "Yep, my daddy loves me. Not even a question." I want to know what it means to move beyond this simple question and into the space of being love fully.

My wound in life was the loss of my father. And yet as I write this I realize that for the first time I am writing "was". Maybe God is reaching into my heart with a subtle whisper, "The time has come to let it go." The time has come for me to move beyond that identity and into the one he has been waiting to give me for so long.

The One Question

I've read a few of Brennan Manning's books. The best was Ruthless Trust. I came across this presentation he gave at Woodcrest. He asks a provocative question in the short video. What is the one question God will ask us when we meet him.

True Majority

This is a provocative demonstration of our nuclear arsenal stockpile.

Click here to view.

A Child Can Love

I haven't written in a while and I miss it. But I want to recount something that made me think about the journey of love and that even a child can love.

Recently I joined a friend in serving at a soup kitchen. My family has been talking about this for a long time and the opportunity finally came up. The kitchen is called "The Upper Room". It serves low income families in the Placerville area. Anyone can come and they provide a fairly good hot meal and a second take home meal for anyone that wants one. I talked to my wife about it and we made the decision to take my children and allow them the opportunity to love with us. My children are 5, 8, and 10 so it was somewhat of a risk but we both felt that they could handle it. We'd at least give it one shot and see what happened.

On the way to the kitchen my son fell asleep in the car. Normally this isn't a big deal but he doesn't wake up very easily and usually needs 10-15 minutes to really wake up. Wake him up early and he's not happy. We got there and there were more people to help than there were people waiting to eat. To be honest I didn't want to cause any stir so I politely offered to go home and fill in next time. But it was obvious God wanted us there. My friend Brandon insisted we stay and he was actually a little frustrated because we were told this was the day to help. Somebody forgot to tell someone something.

We ended up staying and basically it was a little crazy Volunteers were looking for opportunities and it still felt a little crowded. As things began to hum, my wife and I stood back and held my son who was not still not happy and watched our two daughters light up. Something inside of them rose to the occasion and they were awesome. They loved it.

What was interesting is that it normally would have been very easy for them to find their child moments and complain about this or that. From the moment we walked into the door until bedtime, they were different people. They had connected to love by giving love.

My wife and I were simply astounded at the change in their demeanor, which most of the time is good but this was exceptional. And later I spoke with a good friend who said the exact same thing happened with his children (7,10).

This last week I was out of town but my wife went anyway, without me. The exact same thing happened. It was not a fluke. Yes, even a child can love.