I have a friend named Jacob.  He has a friend named Shelia.  He wrote this on his blog and I asked him if I could post it here.  I think it’s a great story of reality, of socio-economics and mental struggle, and of the intentionality it takes to make someone feel that they are worth something.  

I have a friend named Sheila.

She is homeless. I met her a few weeks ago in the Starbucks on campus while hanging out with a good friend. She sat next to us and kept laughing, so my friend and I talked to her for some time and bought her lunch. After parting ways, we hoped to see her again.

This is my friend Molly.  She interned at our church last year.  Now she lives in Pullman and works in Moscow at a place where they plant stuff and do art.  When I first met Molly what I remember most is that she was passionate about recycling.  I mean she would daily go through the trash in our office and pull out things and then put them in a bag and take them home with her where she could put them away properly.  It got so bad that if I had a plastic bottle I would not throw it away but rather just give it to Molly and she would put it in her bag.  One time our church took a trip to New Mexico and Molly showed up with two industrial size trash bags, one for each van.  She said these are for recycling.  Everyone put your plastic bottles and cans in here, otherwise I will persecute you.  I can still picture Molly after that trip dragging two full bags across the parking lot to her car.

On Sunday at Resonate we had a guest speaker named Mike Hogan.  He is the Northwest Regional Director for the International Justice Mission and his job is mobilizing churches to get involved in what God is doing in the world.  His sermon was called “The Unfamiliar Passions of God”. 

Here is what I learned:

The late great singer/songwriter Rich Mullins once said the scary thing about God is that he doesn’t have a plan B.  He sent Jesus to the cross and the church to the world and he is completely confident in that plan.  It’s his only plan.  There will be no other, for there is no need for another.  What God does is sufficient. 

Most days I believe that, but today in our staff meeting our pastor showed us this:

in the streets of mexico there resides a jesus that i know and love. 
and another jesus that i want nothing to do with.

I’ve been married for almost 21 months.  It really is the glory of God and the wrath of God in the same context.  She is the glory I’m probably the wrath.  That analogy is not very good, but I think you get what I’m talking about.

Anyhow, yesterday the glory of my life allowed me another glory. 

About once a week (or once a day) I go on Craigs List and click on the motorcycles and musical instruments and computer links and see if there is anything going on that might be of interest. 

I’m no video maker.  Not even close.  I’m a storyteller.  So this video is not as much a video as much as it is a story. 

There was a time in human history when followers of Jesus were known solely by the “way” in which they lived…

About a year ago I was reading through Jesus For President, a wonderfully artistic and thought provoking book by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, and on page 134 I saw this: