These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.

Do these words have any meaning to us? Why is security such a god?

What do you think about all the time? I'm willing to bet there is one thing that floats around your mind all the time. Stop right now and say what it is, good or bad. Now think, was it good or bad? If it was good, just how good is it, really? It is incredibly good? Blow your mind good? Is the thing you think about so impossibly good that it just makes you go insane with energy during those times that you are really considering this thing?

Am I a retard? Yes. But this is my blog so deal with it. Here are the kinds of things that blow that door open for me every now and then. There is a cheesy movie made a few years ago by MTV called Save the Last Dance. The story is about some girl who loves dancing but her mom dies and she moves to Chicago and ends up rediscovering her passion for ballet blah blah blah... typical feel good movie with a nice moral. There is a one-second scene in that movie I'm sure no one ever notices, but it is when the girl is about to move away from her friends and she passes another girl in the hallway and the other girl just grabs her hand and starts praying with her about the move. All you hear is "Holy Father something something..." The scene lasts two seconds at the most but was a moment of zen for me when I noticed it because that was a glimpse, in a major movie, of how the world should work. THIS is what I think about. I think about a friend I went to go see a couple of weeks ago who has joined with two others to help take the gospel into the middle east. An impossible task that is no doubt going to overwhelm their tiny three-person team and bring unimaginable frustration. For what task? Here's the way I see it: so that, somewhere in the future, one young arabian girl might pass another in a crowded place, grab her hand, and start praying.

Tonight in our college class we ended up using almost all of our time talking about journaling. The catalyst was a statement by Rick Warren about using journaling as a way of documenting spiritual growth; which I absolutely agree. I am becoming more and more of a huge believer in the power of journaling, mainly because of the lives of the people that I know journal the most. Jim Elliot sat through a chapel at Wheaton College one day as the guest speaker made mention of the benefit of journaling, and just days later began the documentation of a life that would ultimately not just change the lives of some indians in Ecuador, but radically affect the spiritual commitments of thousands through generations. I am one of the many that have voraciously poured through his meticulous journals, laughing and crying at the spiritual roller coaster that he faced every day. How would I be able to share in his life if not for these writings? Of course he never meant them for the world. He never knew the radical call that his example would send through the Christian world. He just wanted to do the right thing day to day. He died by rejection - a spear through his body - but he would plant a powerful seed that would reach beyond his own grave. This, my friend, is how God really works.