I've been reading Irresistible Revolution by Shane Clairborne. It's not a book where you read it and set it down and say 'Yeah, that was good stuff.' Well... I guess.... it could be. But what I mean to say is that it's definitely important stuff. That's for sure. And convicting. A couple excerpts:

(This also is the same story brought up by Jim in the comments of my last post. Fancy that)

"I heard one of the teaching pastors at Willow Creek speak on the rich young ruler text that Rich [Mullins] had talked about in Wheaton's chapel. The teaching pastor said, "Now this doesn't mean you have to go sell your rollerblades and golf clubs," and he went on to "contextualize" the teaching to show that we just need to be careful not to make idols of our things. I wasn't so sure about that. Jesus doesn't tell the man to be a better steward, or to treat his workers fairly, or not to make money an idol. He tells this highly educated and devoutly religious young man that he lacks one thing: giving up everything he owns to give to the poor. Rich Mullins used to say that's because there are a lot of people coming to the Banquet, and God doesn't want all the luggage to deal with."



Shane did a survey, wherein he asked Christians about what he called their (mis)conceptions of Jesus.

"I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question. I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor."

Wow. Good... uhh... I mean, important stuff. Convicting stuff. He ended the chapter with:

"I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end."

Yesterday I was just thinking:

'What are my words worth if I don't live them?'

The Christianity Thing

I've been working for Tradition Valet for a month or two now. I drive sweet cars around. Yesterday I was at Marquette Hotel. It was boring because we just stood around for the most part. I started talking to the doorman. Small talk at first, of course. He asked me about school and all that kind of stuff. I told him about YWAM this fall, and he thought that sounded cool, then he asked me what I wanted to go into as far as a career. I told him some type of ministry or music or both. I got an immediate response.

"Don't do either one!"

"Don't do either one?" I asked, inviting an explanation. He said exactly what I knew he would say. "Eventually you're going to have to make a living and provide for your family. You're not going to be able to do that with either one of those career paths."

I listened some more, and it was definitely understandable from where he was coming from. I'm sure almost everyone would agree with what he was saying. It was logical. It was reasonable. It was normal.

Is God calling me to be logical and reasonable?

Is He calling me to be... normal?

Is God calling you to be logical and reasonable?

Is He calling you to be normal?

I told him that if God calls me into ministry (as a career path - because whatever I do and wherever I go, I am called into ministry; we all are), I'm going to go. I said it's not all about the money for me.

"It will be," he said with a grin.

Will it? Is it?

"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless."
- Ecclesiastes 5:10

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
- Luke 16:13

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
- 1 Timothy 6:10

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
- Hebrews 13:5

I only picked a few. Obviously, Scripture has a lot to say about the love of money. It's not hard to see that they are all sort of getting at the same thing - don't let it 'be all about the money.' And why not? What's the big deal? Because of this promise:

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
- Philippians 4:19

I want it to be about the riches in Christ Jesus for me.

Back to my doorman friend. I told him I disagreed, and explained why. He said that yes, I was young, and that I have many years ahead of me.

"Well, that's good. Do the Christianity thing for a couple years, then figure out how you're going to settle down and provide for a family after that."

Wait. 'The Christianity thing?' Is that what my faith is? A thing? A phase? So I should do 'the Christianity thing' for a few years, and then come back to normality and get a normal job and live the normal American life? So my faith and my life are two different things?

No. There is no 'Christianity thing' for me. That's it. My faith in Jesus Christ is my life, and without Him I have nothing.

So, doorman, I understand where you are coming from. It's logical and reasonable. It's normal. Wherever I go, though, I am not called to be normal. God calls us to be different. We live in this world, but not of it. That means seeking God before wealth - whatever wealth may be (money, status, love, etc.) Also, my prayer is that my faith is not just a phase. My prayer is that I would have the heart and the will to take Jesus with me everywhere.

Do you want to take Jesus with you everywhere you go?

Holy Ground

Last week I went to a Worship United event. Worship United is a worship band that two of my friends are in. They do all the common, well-known contemporary worship songs (Crowder, Tomlin, Redman, etc.) and sort of add their own style to it. It was really good worship.

While I was worshipping, I kept getting the sense that I was standing on holy ground. Really. So I took off my shoes.

This kind of thing happened to some guy named Moses a few years ago.

“When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’
And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’

‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’”

- Exodus 3:4-5

The specific site of this incident at the burning bush is unknown, other than the fact that it happened somewhere in the wilderness between Egypt and Palestine. But it was holy ground, wherever it was.

In ancient times (and still today in Islamic tradition and some other oriental religions) people would take off their sandals before entering temples or synagogues. This was a sign of deepest respect for that place, with the belief that it is holy ground – because God is present.

Last Friday night I felt like I was on holy ground, so I took off my shoes. It obviously wasn’t quite as direct as the command to Moses, but I did feel it, and I do believe it was God.

Then I started thinking.

Why was this holy ground?

God created this world. In seven days. When He made it, did He make it full of sin right off the bat? Nope. The Scriptures say that God made it good. In just Genesis 1-3, the word “good” is used 15 times. God kept making things and He kept making them good.

So when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the fall of man occurred, did everything all of a sudden become not good? Did everything that God made good all of a sudden become bad? I don’t believe so. Did it become fractured? Broken? Lost? Diseased? Absolutely. But it was still good. When Auntie Ruth whom you love so dearly gets cancer at the age of 64, is she, as a person, as Auntie Ruth, all of a sudden… bad? Do you stop talking to her and visiting her and do you forget about her completely? I sure hope not. You still love her just as much as you ever have. Because she is still Auntie Ruth. Same concept.

I believe when God made the heavens and the earth and everything in it, it was good because God was present. Everywhere. And always has been. God did not make the world, and then sit back and watch, leaving us and the world to itself. Nope. God’s here. He was then, and He is now. David knew it.

“Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”

- Psalm 139:7-8

And praise God for that. It’s a beautiful thing. Where I am right now is good, because God is here.

You know, it’s not a big deal or anything, but it always bugs me just a little bit when someone is praying at the beginning of a worship service or event and they ask God to come and meet us there.

As if He’s not already there.

Wherever I’m at, God is there. I just don’t always acknowledge it.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I started thinking.

Why am I taking off my shoes right now? Because this is holy ground. Why is this holy ground? Because God is present. Why did God command Moses to take off his sandals when he was at the burning bush? Because it was holy ground. And why was it holy ground? Because God was present.

Wait a second. We’ve just established the fact that God is always present. Everywhere. So yes… holy ground. Everywhere. I don’t know when and where you’re reading this right now, but I do know that you’re on holy ground.

I like Rob Bell. He’s sweet. So is his book Velvet Elvis. So I’m going to quote it.

“Moses has been tending sheep in this region for forty years. How many times has he passed by this spot? How many times has he stood in this exact place? And now God tells him the ground is holy?

Has the ground been holy the whole time and Moses is just becoming aware of it for the first time?

Do you and I walk on holy ground all the time, but we are moving so fast and returning so many calls and writing so many emails and having such long lists to get done that we miss it?”

I’m not saying we should all walk around barefoot. I am saying, however, that wherever you and I walk at whatever time, we are on holy ground. Broken, fractured, and diseased ground? Yes. But it’s holy. It’s holy because God is there.

Acknowledge it. It’s a good thing.