Giving Your Life Away

"The healing of evil - scientifically or otherwise - can be accomplished only by the love of individuals.A willing sacrifice is required. The individual healer must allow his or her own soul to become the battleground. He or she must sacrificially absorb the evil.

Then what prevents the destruction of the soul? If one takes the evil into one's heart, like a spear, how can one's goodness still survive? What will be achieved beyond some meaningless trade-off? I cannot answer this in language other than mystical. I can only say that there is a mysterious alchemy where the victim becomes the victor.

As C.S. Lewis wrote,"When a willing victim who committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does...

Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world."
- from People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck

We're In the Paper

From It's Like Herding Cats - A pastor's life

Take a look. And don't forget to come to supper and the concert tomorrow beginning at 6:30PM

Three Days In...

"So is this week (eating rice and beans) doing what you thought it would do?" asked the reporter from the Daily News.

If by that you mean that every time I whine about eating rice and beans I remember those who didn't make a choice to eat them...

Then yes. This week is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

I came upon this passage today -

23 Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.24 But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature.25 No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.
John 2:23-25 (NLT)

Fact is, we are so out of sync with what God values that it's very difficult to approach poverty with the heart of Jesus. We need to get slapped. We need to be shaken. We need to be made to awaken to the human cost of our indifference.

So if this week does that, I will end it thanking God and waiting for orders.

Lunch - Day 1 of Worth the Sacrifice

The bags of herb seasoned rice that our Child2Child girls put together to help us along is what I had for lunch today. Pretty darn good fare with a little pepper sauce.

Bunny added 3 cups of water and a little olive oil and with the whole bag of ingredients it cooked up perfect.

Buy a bag and try it out. Money goes to Amazima, you encourage the girls in mission action, and you stay on your rice and beans course (Worth the Sacrifice)

Rice and Beans Rwandan Style

Hand, Meet Forehead

Was trying to explain to a friend why we at New Hope were doing the "Worth the Sacrifice" week (Jun 21-26) of eating as the orphans in Uganda do, and this post rolled into my Google Reader.

You should read the whole thing, but here's a sample.


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“Would you rather your children have grown up in Uganda or in America?”

That was one of the questions David Kuo asked at our dinner with leadership development students while we were in Uganda. A man who is a Ugandan national, a father, a pastor, and leader answered without hesitation,

“Uganda.”

Some of us seemed a little shocked. America. It’s the land of opportunity. It’s safe. You can get medical attention. At least three meals a day.

“Exactly,” the man said. “You know where your next meal is coming from. You have jobs. Paychecks. In Uganda, you may not know where your next meal comes from. You have no money. You have nothing to depend upon but God. And i would rather have my children rely on God more than i would want them to be distracted by everything else.”

Amen. Our adults need to live that way too.