One Life…

I think we were made to shine. There are colors and nuances yet to be exposed in all of us. We hide ourselves to fit into the darkness that has wrapped around this world, but every now and then light reflects off our surfaces and the beauty we were created with is revealed.

My father thinks that life is one of the worst things that could happen to a person. It’s filled with pain and emptiness. He’s apologized for bringing me into such a broken planet. I think I was brought here to bring him hope he could never have imagined alone.

Fourth missional value: Hope is what the mission offers

The mission must always be conveyed as hope for the world because that is what the good news is. Followers of Jesus are to be voices of hope, encountering culture and relevantly communicating the purposes of God for all humanity. Today people are not looking for a hell to get out of or a heaven to get into, but a reason to live and to die. The world must know that this is what the God of the living offers.

Those who have come to know the Creator of the universe must see the hope of God in people. Just as God believes in us more than we believe in Him, we must believe in people more than they may believe in themselves. The hope is not something new to believe in, but a new life as it was intended to be lived. This hope is in a life before death, not just after. The mission offers the world hope of life, and life to the fullest.

My community of people who are unlike myself.

I’ve been leading a small community of spiritual seekers the last year. My wife and I are the only Christ-commited followers in this incredibly diverse group. Black, white, european, asian, ex-catholic, hindu, new-age, atheist color the community. Yvz and I look forward to this gathering every single month.

It’s collectively evolved into what we all call a ’spiritual circle’ framed around faith, love, and hope. Some of you might thing these are the elements of a ‘Mosaic’ community, or the Thessalonian church in scriptures, but it’s really the heart of every human being.

Faith, With all the different backgrounds, cultures, and traditions, there’s an underlying conviction that there’s more to life. That there is a reality beyond what we perceive day to day. Something greater, if we took the time to reflect as a community, that we just might tune in and discover.

Love, is at the very core when everything else is stripped away. This idea of community, relationships amid diversity. There’s something about hearing one another out that validates our humanity. We share food, lives, stories, and of course good times.

Hope, in that we each time we gather we are not only challenged and inspired mentally, but that it pours out it to our day to day lives. We take what we discover about ourselves, one another, humanity, the Creator, and share it with others and allow it to ripple through our individual communities, believing that we can contribute to humanity in the process.

Last night was no different. There is a sense of calling in this group of people who would not naturally relate to one another for any other reason. The person who led last night’s discussion has literally six-degrees of seperation from me. To be honest, this group is more committed than many Christian communities I have been a part of. I love these people and value who they are and the richness they add to my life.

Third missional value: The mission is motivated by love

Every human being no matter far from God is invaluable to God. There is no mission without love for people – not as targets as often is the case, but as precious people made in the image of God. Jesus did not see the last, the lost, and the least, as charity cases, but as authentic people that he related to with compassion. The mission is deepest and widest, when God’s redeemed, love people as genuine human beings.

Unlike in the past where it has often been that one must first believe the right doctrines, then subsequently become the right person, and then finally were finally permitted to join the inner circle of community, Jesus demonstrated the reverse. Jesus’ mission was motivated by love as demonstrated by his radical inclusiveness. His mission invites people to belonging in community and engages them to becoming the people they were each intended to be. As God’s undeniable love presses against the hearts of people, the hope is that they might find themselves passionately believing and embracing the love of God. Love lies at the heart of the mission.

I’ve lost track of how many people that I’ve encountered who think that life is just about being a christian, or a good citizen, or worse yet just getting by. One of those people was me.

People have said to my face that I was a waste of potential growing up, but I didn’t mind at all. In high school I had told people that I planned to be dead by thirty because nothing really mattered anyways. In the school yearbook, they have a section called ‘most likely to…’ ie. become a doctor, an actor, etc. my name was next to ‘most likely to live in a box’.

All that changed when God grabbed a hold of my soul.

second core value: Every person is called to be on mission

The good news of God always comes to us on its way to someone else. It must never be contained or possessed. The call of Jesus goes far beyond acceptance and heaven. Every follower of Jesus that remains on this earth continues to live and breathe for a reason. Every child of God is called to join the Father on His mission of sharing his heart and passion with the entire world. This mission is not only to the gifted or the elite, but is entrusted to every person regardless of ability. God believes in each one of us more than we could ever believe in Him. His mission is our mission.

Inspired by Sam’s mosaic values discussion, i’ll be posting some missional values i wrote up a while back. I’ll be using trackback’s for the first time and posting in chunk the next few days as Parke suggests. They way they’re written up is not in stone, but the convictions behind them are very foundational to me.

Please feel free to critique and comment.

First core value: God is the ultimate missionary

God passionately pursues every one of us with his love. Whether we are believers or not every one of us is, and continues to be, God’s mission field. Mission is God’s initiative, not ours. We are never alone on this mission. The Holy Spirit goes ahead of us preparing the hearts of men and women long before we arrive. Jesus serves as the ultimate example of seeking the lost and revealing God’s love. God’s missionary heart for people is not a crutch, but the inspiration, power, and example by which we move with Him on mission.

I’ve always loved the message of freedom and running wild found in the Scriptures, but there’s something also to be said about the trials and disciplines that lead to that life-transforming freedom that we sometimes neglect to mention. A couple quotes from the book:

The transformation of our character is more revolution than reformation. It is forged from battles fought far more than by beliefs held. It emerges out of crisis, not out of classroom.

Our capacity to run free is related to our commitment to stand firm. There is a discipline of the heart that marks the free spirit. All of us long to play the song in our souls, and more of us would do so if it didn’t require endless hours of studying the notes.

For Valentines, Yvz and I celebrated, by getting our small group downtown to connect with the homeless in our city.

We split into three teams and gave out some quality sandwiches, brand-spanking new socks, drinks, snacks and roses. I thought the roses would be an interesting idea, but only managed to give out a few of them.

A few people in my group had never done anything like this before, and I’m glad they all had a positive experience. One person did have an individual on the streets say to her “Don’t think you’re so innocent”. Truth is, we’re not, but how easy is it for us to come off that way?

For me, it was just refreshing to connect with our city as it really is. Rather than avoiding eye contact, as I often do, I spent a whole night trying to look into the eyes of those we wish just weren’t there.

I find the real challenge, is not nights like these, but everyday I go about and pass by people. Yvz and I want to always try to have something packed that we can give away when we go out.

This night makes me think of a great Goo Goo Dolls song called Better Days that I think should be our new Christmas anthem.

and the one poor child who saved this world
and there’s ten million more who probably could
if we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

You can find the rest of the lyrics here and watch the video here.

I got and finished reading Erwin’s latest, Stand against the wind, it appears a day before it’s officially released.

It’s a re-package of Uprising, flashier and in smaller chunks. I can see why it’s geared toward the 18-35 market. I like uprising and the experience guide more, but still, I think i’ll spend sometime commenting on it the next while.

Update: I just posted up some missional values under ‘my pages’ that I wrote up a while back.  Not sure how to get comments activated in that section at the moment.

I just got back from seeing the dentist. I don’t floss. Other than the moment before I head to the dental office. It’s painful every time. Especially since I’ve got an aversion to all things metal (I try to eat with plastic cutlery whenever possible). Everytime I go they remind me to floss, and everytime I go back I wonder why I didn’t. Why don’t I change?

I just finished reading a Fast Company magazine I borrowed from the library. It’s cover story is Change or Die. Though most of us say and think that we would change if the risks were high enough, the premise of the article is that we shouldn’t count on it. Even facing death itself rarely leads to change.

It says how 80% of the 1.8 trillion dollar health care budget in America is attributed to preventable behavioral issues. Two years after having a coronary-artery bypass, 90% of patients have not changed their lifestyles.

That’s nine to one odds against you ever changing. What do you think of that? You’re not going to change. I shudder at the thought of it. That much of who you are is who you are. That’s it. Or is it?

(You can find most of the article online here)

I just rented, and ended up keeping and buying the movie Millions. It’s a british indi-film that only made 6 million at the box office, but I absolutely love.

It’s a quaint and charming PG movie about a boy struggling to do what he believes is right, no matter how naive, in a world that doesn’t share the same values. There’s a mixture of Catholicism, mysticism, and fantasy throughout and makes for a great discussion. Go watch it!

This is a song from the soundtrack I can’t get enough of. It’s called ‘Nirvana’ by El Bosco and features a Spanish children’s choir.

Far too swamped to write… other than about what I’m busy with, but who in our day and age wants to hear about someone else’s busyness anyways?

above is a homemade burger I made for Yvz… lean ground beef mixed with chopped onion and spices, roasted tomatoes, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms on multigrain bread. mmmm..mmm….!

I found this picture in my camera. Yvz must have snapped it when we were taking care of our friend’s baby Isabelle.