monday morning assortment

As the title suggests, this is an assortment of things associated with our time together yesterday...

First thing first, (dedicated to my good friend Kelsey), Michaela Hutchison became the first girl in the nation to win a state high school wrestling title while competing against boys. She's a sophmore! Also, Epiphanny Prince of Murry Bergtraum High School scored 113 points in a game Wednesday, breaking a national girls' high school record.

Second, if you've got about 20 minutes, here's a good way to spend it: watch Bono (lead singer of U2) give his "sermon" at the National Prayer Breakfast last Wednesday. Or you can read the transcript [free registration required].

What I love about Bono's words is that he is combining what we read about in James 2 yesterday: "You can no more show me your works apart from you faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works. Works and faith, fit together hand in glove."

I'm still thinking about something he said:

“A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it. I have a family, please look after them. I have this crazy idea...

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.

Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.”

It is clear, Jesus was, AND IS, concerned for the poor--the poor in spirit and the poor in body. Let's join him! The more I've been with "the poor" in these past couple of months, the more I've discovered Jesus. The more I've been with "the poor" these past couple of months, the more I have felt alive.

I dream of being a community of people who are ready to join God in what he is doing in the world. I dream of being a community of people who don't just talk about faith, but live faith. Let's be people who do what they say, practice what they preach, live what we believe...you get my drift. Jesus said some crazy-radical-upside down kinds of things: "if you want to be first, you'll have to be last," "if you want to be greatest, you'll have to become a servant of all," "blessed are the poor, those who mourn, those who are persecuted...," "woe to the rich," "if you want to save your life, you'll have to lose it..." So, let's not jump on the bandwagon of Jesus unless we're ready to count the cost of following him.

Yet, if we're going to count the cost then we better include Jesus other words: "I've come that you may have life abundant," "I tell you these things so that my joy will be you joy," "take my yoke, join up with me, my burden is light, and you'll find rest for your souls," "I will never leave you or forsake you...."

Are we/you ready to read scripture, listening for God's Voice...then go out and do what we hear him saying?