Yup. There are approximately 5,949,632,435 people in the world poorer than me. How do I feel about that?
Every year our society gazes enviously at the lists of the rich and famous, wondering what it would be like to have that kind of cash.
Get a grip. Go here and find out where you fit on the Big List.
I got a call from my friendly neighborhood SBC rep today. Bad news. Our new house (1. 5 miles away) is out of their DSL coverage area. Even though it’s only 1.5 miles away. As of next week, we’ll be back to ‘high speed’ dial up…whatever that is. Yes, it’s only $9.95/mo. but it will take me a month to post anything…hmmm…$10 per post per month. Arrgghhh!
Oh, well. It’ll be like it was in the beginning when Al Gore invented this little thing called ‘the internet’.. (sarcasm duly noted).
Oh well. Think of it as ‘going retro’. Maybe I’ll grow a mullet while I’m at it.
Business in the front. Party in the back, my friends.
Tonight we are packing all our worldly possessions. (BTW, we have WAY too much stuff). Tomorrow we begin the process of moving 1.5 miles to our new home. We might as well be moving to Afghanistan–we still have to pack everything.
But we still have too much stuff. I’m reminded of the great theologian Tyler Durden who said, “Advertisers have [our society] chasing cars, working jobs we hate, buying stuff we don’t need.”
I, on the other hand, LOVE my ‘job’. But we still have more stuff than we really need. I have clothes I never wear, movies I never watch, CDs I never listen to, tools I keep ‘just in case’. Some of our stuff has only one purpose: to sit around, look pretty, and collect dust.
How much of that do I really need?
While I really enjoy some of my stuff, it seems there’s always more stuff I’d like to get my paws on. Truth is, none of it will last. It’s polishing the brass on the Titanic–it’s all going down. It will all burn, rust, decay, wear out, chip, break and lose its glimmer.
‘Don’t store up treasures on earth where moth and rust decay, or where theives break in and steal. But store up heavenly treasures…’
You, my friends, are my treasure. We are a spiritual family, bought with Blood. The other stuff is just….stuff.
Guess I’d better get back to packing…See you in a couple of days.
Out of the mouth of Maeghan Bell, came great words of wisdom at The Dive Sunday night.
We’re talking about characteristics of a disciple. Things like honesty. Faithfulness. Stuff like that.
Maeghan pokes her hand up. She says, “There’s a song we sing in Big Church that goes, ‘Take up your cross and follow me…’. ” We all nod in agreement.
“But we can’t do it. We need to add something to the song to make it right.”
“Whaddaya mean?”, I asked.
Maeghan explained, “I mean, it should say ‘Drop everything’. Then, ‘take up your cross and follow…’. We’ve got so much stuff in our hands as it is, we can’t pick up our cross.”
Dude. I’m done.
Let this post serve as an official announcement: Someday soon, with Maeghan’s permission, I will steal her comments and make them my own.
We’d ALL be better off if we’d just DROP EVERYTHING. Just drop it. Unless it’s your cross…put it down. It’s not yours.
If your faith doesn’t produce Christ in you, then your faith is worthless. If what you have produces good works, a polite attitude, a decent paycheck, …but not Jesus….keep it to yourself. I don’t need it.
Better yet, drop it. Leave it on the side of the road. Take it out back and put a bullet in its head if you must. But if it doesn’t produce Christ in you, let it go. You can’t follow if you haven’t taken up your cross.
And you can’t take up your cross if your hands are full of other things (yes, even good things).
Drop everything.
*WARNING: Rant Ahead*
Just reflecting today on Rita and the powerlessness of man-powered ministry. We give atheists less and less to disbelieve everyday. We are polytheists; our gods are Comfort, Convenience, Prestige, Ego, and Power.
We forget we are aliens, for we no longer experience lack, fear, humility, service, weakness, brokenness, etc. that usually accompany foreigners in a strange land. We are now comfortable and at home in a place which is not our home. Most of the time, it feels pretty good.
Some of us have even convinced ourselves that we actually ‘fit in’ here and have something in and of ourselves to offer this place.
We have drunk from the wells of complacency long enough.
We have joined a subtle rebellion of arrogance.
Affluenza is our generational cultural virus. We have become prostitutes of material comforts. Whatever happened to offering ourselves as ‘living sacrifices’? (Rom.12)
Broken.
Burned up.
Spilled out.
Used up.
Spent.
All for the sole purpose of glorifying the Creator. It’s not about me anyway.
Or you, either, for that matter.
Bottom Line: It’s God’s world. I’m just a squirrel… 
Paul Westerberg is one of my favorite songwriters. While living in the Land of Random, I pulled out his 14 Songs CD this morning and the following tune really grabbed my attention in a new way. Here’s a short excerpt:
You don’t blow like the breeze you were born to be
You die down in the trees and try to hide
Will you witness the dark?
All you need is a spark
A cathedral of torches to light the night
On your mark, here I am
I’m your spark…..Runaway wind
You trade your telescope for a keyhole
Make way for the gray that’s in your brown
As dreams make way for plans
I see ya watch life from the stands
Come on I’ll help you burn ’em to the ground….
Of course, good song lyrics usually make lousy poems. But you get the drift.
The majority of people I meet aren’t living as the breeze they were born to be. They’ve settled down and given up on an extraordinary life. The Abundant one.
Even some Christians I know.
We try so hard to fit in and not make waves. Color inside the lines. Walk in a straight line. Conform in every detail. The problem is that Christ invites us to a life completely different than what anyone ever expects. Outside the lines. Outside the box.
Let me ask you ONE question: what were YOU born to be? Why are YOU here, sucking oxygen off the planet? To settle for mediocrity? For ‘normal’? ….for ‘boring’?
Me? One thing has forever changed my life. Really. My job is to passionately pursue who God has called me to be. Everything else is sin.
Telescope over keyhole. Ocean over fishbowl. Rocky road over Vanilla.
But that’s me.
Before Hurricane Katrina, there was Sarah McLaughlan. And Sarah was good. Organic. Earthy and rootsy. I just realized this morning that many of you may have not seen this video yet.
Wow.
A good reminder for those of us who congregate in this (cyber)space…. it originally appeared here.
Our Father
who lives above and beyond the dimension of the internet
Give us this day a life worth blogging,
The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity,
And a secure connection to publish your daily mercies.
Your Kingdom come into new spaces today,
As we make known your mysteries,
Posting by posting,
Blog by blog.
Give this day,
The same ability to those less privileged,
Whose lives speak louder than ours,
Whose sacrifice is greater,
Whose stories will last longer.
Forgive us our sins,
For blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends,
For counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people,
For delighting in the thousands of hits but ignoring the ONE who returns,
For luring viewers but sending them away empty handed,
For updating daily but repenting weekly.
As we forgive those who trespass on our sites to appropriate our thoughts without reference,
Our images without approval,
Our ideas without linking back to us.
Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our congregation,
To see people as links and not as lives,
To make our blogs look better than our actual story.
But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you,
From turning our guests into consumers of someone else’s products,
From infatuation over the toys of technology,
From idolatry over techology
From fame before our time has come.
For Yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs,
To bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sites,
To give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.
Yours is the glory that makes people second look our sites and our lives,
Yours is the heavy ambience,
For ever and ever,
Amen