"Brevity is the soul of wit."
"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."
I truly believe less is more.
This concept isn't only with possessions and stuff.
The more and more I think about it in different and all areas of my life the more it seems to make sense.
I've always loved these two quotes and I have no idea who first said them. But they speak so much truth to me.
If I had more time I would have written less, always makes me think so much.
This morning I don't have much on my mind. I don't have much to say to You, Oh God.
I've been thinking about going to Egypt in March
I've been thinking about Jared at the men's group this past Thursday.
He never seems to speak but he always shows up. This Thursday when he prayed it was short but it impacted me more than any of the teaching or other prayers that night.
I don't know if he did it out of pressure, I don't know if he meant it, But he prayed and it was moving to me.
I think about evangelism a lot. What does it mean to evangelize? At what point has it happened? Are we looking for a sentence to be spoken? Are we looking for certain actions to be displayed? I think about all of the past wounds evangelism has caused. I think about the horrible destruction of cultures in the name of missionaries.
I often wonder what evangelism looks like through the eyes of Jesus. I can safely assume it's nothing like what is commonly known in America. It has to be.
I feel strange telling other cultures they are wrong and I have the correct truth.
But lately I've been feeling a strange tension against that.
I listen to Jared talk and his life isn't where he wants it to be. I know The Way. Or at least I think I know it. I'm trying to know it. I don't believe it will solve suffering and make life perfect but I do believe and would stake my life that it is the way to peace and love in the truest sense of the words.
I think about Egypt. I think about walking into their country, their traditions, their history and telling them how wrong they are and how right I am. It makes me want to barf.
But yet, lately I've been looking at the anger and unforgiveness of the world. And no matter how uncomfortable I feel saying I have the answer...in a scary way...I do believe I have the answer. I'm not saying I know how it all works just yet but at the same time. I do trust and would put my life on the line to protect and practice this way of life. This week looking back on Martin Luther King's life realizing how much authority and confidence he preached The Way.
He believed it and even more incredibly, it worked, it is truth. The things Jesus said, if practiced, work. They change systems, they create peace, they give strength. I believe that and I want to share it with the world.
I don't want to turn Egypt into America. I don't want everyone to speak English and wear t-shirts, eat burgers, but I do want everyone to love one another, I do want everyone to forgive, to relax to love. I do believe those are the ways we should all live.
I feel this great truth within me. and I feel this tension of fear that today my culture tells me that whatever you personally feel is right and it's fucked up if you try to tell someone else how to live or you try to say your way is better than theirs.
I don't want to go to Egypt to "convert" people. But I do want to go to Egypt and to the ends of the earth and tell people to love, tell people to forgive, tell people not to worry. But these things are not Earthly. They are characteristics of God and if we want to tap into them then we will need to tap into God. I don't know all the ways people can or have reached God but I don't want to narrow the ways God can and does work.
Now I am caught in this place where people tell me not to tell people how to live. But yet the way Jesus taught us to live, I truly believe is The Way. It truly is good news.
I have no intention of expressing all of that to You this morning. I wasn't even aware some of that was inside of me but it feels good to speak that to You. It feels good to express my heart and all of these tensions and this life of trying to find the balance.
This Monday I will be taking over for Dan at the Pantry while he is gone. What do I say? What can I say?
How do I spread the good news? Do I believe it truly is "good news"?
The Steel Wheels - Kiss Me Like a Stranger
"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."
I truly believe less is more.
This concept isn't only with possessions and stuff.
The more and more I think about it in different and all areas of my life the more it seems to make sense.
I've always loved these two quotes and I have no idea who first said them. But they speak so much truth to me.
If I had more time I would have written less, always makes me think so much.
This morning I don't have much on my mind. I don't have much to say to You, Oh God.
I've been thinking about going to Egypt in March
I've been thinking about Jared at the men's group this past Thursday.
He never seems to speak but he always shows up. This Thursday when he prayed it was short but it impacted me more than any of the teaching or other prayers that night.
I don't know if he did it out of pressure, I don't know if he meant it, But he prayed and it was moving to me.
I think about evangelism a lot. What does it mean to evangelize? At what point has it happened? Are we looking for a sentence to be spoken? Are we looking for certain actions to be displayed? I think about all of the past wounds evangelism has caused. I think about the horrible destruction of cultures in the name of missionaries.
I often wonder what evangelism looks like through the eyes of Jesus. I can safely assume it's nothing like what is commonly known in America. It has to be.
I feel strange telling other cultures they are wrong and I have the correct truth.
But lately I've been feeling a strange tension against that.
I listen to Jared talk and his life isn't where he wants it to be. I know The Way. Or at least I think I know it. I'm trying to know it. I don't believe it will solve suffering and make life perfect but I do believe and would stake my life that it is the way to peace and love in the truest sense of the words.
I think about Egypt. I think about walking into their country, their traditions, their history and telling them how wrong they are and how right I am. It makes me want to barf.
But yet, lately I've been looking at the anger and unforgiveness of the world. And no matter how uncomfortable I feel saying I have the answer...in a scary way...I do believe I have the answer. I'm not saying I know how it all works just yet but at the same time. I do trust and would put my life on the line to protect and practice this way of life. This week looking back on Martin Luther King's life realizing how much authority and confidence he preached The Way.
He believed it and even more incredibly, it worked, it is truth. The things Jesus said, if practiced, work. They change systems, they create peace, they give strength. I believe that and I want to share it with the world.
I don't want to turn Egypt into America. I don't want everyone to speak English and wear t-shirts, eat burgers, but I do want everyone to love one another, I do want everyone to forgive, to relax to love. I do believe those are the ways we should all live.
I feel this great truth within me. and I feel this tension of fear that today my culture tells me that whatever you personally feel is right and it's fucked up if you try to tell someone else how to live or you try to say your way is better than theirs.
I don't want to go to Egypt to "convert" people. But I do want to go to Egypt and to the ends of the earth and tell people to love, tell people to forgive, tell people not to worry. But these things are not Earthly. They are characteristics of God and if we want to tap into them then we will need to tap into God. I don't know all the ways people can or have reached God but I don't want to narrow the ways God can and does work.
Now I am caught in this place where people tell me not to tell people how to live. But yet the way Jesus taught us to live, I truly believe is The Way. It truly is good news.
I have no intention of expressing all of that to You this morning. I wasn't even aware some of that was inside of me but it feels good to speak that to You. It feels good to express my heart and all of these tensions and this life of trying to find the balance.
This Monday I will be taking over for Dan at the Pantry while he is gone. What do I say? What can I say?
How do I spread the good news? Do I believe it truly is "good news"?
The Steel Wheels - Kiss Me Like a Stranger