Lost within the boundaries of ever expanding grace and love—as a wanderer in a foreign land; a vagabond traversing the crust of the earth, choosing, with grateful heart, to relinquish everything except for what’s true and truly valuable–there is overflowing, resounding, indescribable peace. To explore the notes of a new rhythm; dance without worry; follow a path wherever it leads; let go of ill profit; paint without expectation; surrender unnecessary gain; and to live for the unveiling of the mysterious journey ahead, is solace for the weary heart and comfort for the weakened mind.

The vagabond has not ill-advised debt dripping from his pocket, flat screen TV strapped to his back or lap top computer rolled inside his sleeping bag. There’s no ostentatious mortgage pinned to his pants; luxury car in his pocket; 401k wrapped around his sandals; or Louis Vuitton cell phone pouch hanging amidst his metal pots and extra pairs of hiking boots. He carries upon him what is essential, for all else is simply wasted energy, space, and weight to be carried mile after mile; a burden measured in ounces for the avid, discretionary sojourner. To be tied too tightly to this world and the things it holds forth as important is dangerous and unwise for the one seeking something more than the so called treasures of modern day living and loving. Released grips; open hands containing nothing but what can easily be given away are crucial to the enduring message of what we have come to proclaim. Although unknowing, we are willing, and our course is to move forward, passionately engaging the path while confidently making decisions based upon our belief in the mystery of the unknown, the beauty of the unseen, the expectancy of experiencing the unexpected. Rise tomorrow, we know not if we shall, but if we do we will do so for the sake of more than the petty acquisition of new things. We will rise for the acquisition of new opportunities. Opportunities to share love with those who are blind to it, who cannot perceive it or its potential capabilities within their own lives and circumstances–we rise to show forth love, hopeful the translation is not lost on their blank faces and impassable eyes.

O how they neglect love, yet the chance to share with them ours is what drives us to wake every morn. How we get there, what we see along the way, and who we impact while going are all yet to be determined. Things left to encounter just as they come, for important things such as people, hearts, conversations, and memories are acquisitions which cannot be planned ahead of time or written down on a calendar weeks before they are scheduled to occur.

The schedule is to move, dance, run; throw one’s self to the current, stand strong against it, and steadily move upstream. The schedule is in the moment–enjoying and relishing every breeze, drop of sunshine and wisp of wet, morning dew, thinking of nothing more than reveling in God’s surging creation around us. The schedule calls for seeing people as real and not ignoring them; not treating them like drones or replaceable parts easily moved in and out of lackluster situations, happy to come out with paycheck and annual escape from routine work attire. The schedule involves loving people—taking the time to smile, say hello, make eye contact, share food with, teach, nurture, carry, and serve. The schedule is woven into the journey, and where it leads the adventure of following comes closely behind.

Put aside your expectations and follow the path lit for you today. One delicate step in front of the other, the light shining only to make way for what is directly in front of us, yet onward we prevail, onward we move, further we step into each space as it is given us and behold, another step is lit once more. One small stride at a time, we journey closer to the fringe and closer to freedom. One small step at a time, we share the joy of fellowship, of joining others as they pursue the Giver of true peace, the Master of all those who are faithful. One small step at a time, always moving, always attempting the unexpected and extraordinary for the glory of Another whom we live and strive for in everything we set out to accomplish. One step at a time, the path before us we will follow and rest not until our days come to a close and we abide closely with the One who sent us.

The Map

I find a certain level of nostalgic comfort and satisfaction in defining my self-calculated limitations–in placing brackets, spaces and dashes around and between everything I’ve done and have yet to do.  I enjoy pinpointing highlights and accomplishments with multi-colored nails, sealing and solidifying my well pruned resume of a life into its appropriate place.  Miniature trophies of red, green, yellow and blue, distributed evenly over time, accurately recording my special impact on the world.  This is when I was born.  This is when I graduated.  This is when I got married.  This is when my career began.  This is when I retired.  Pin.  Pin.  Pin.  Pin.  I find semi-sweet solace in pseudo beginnings and faux endings–in having the in-between gaps planned and filled accordingly.  I take comfort in organizing my life into perfectly aligned yet adjustable spreadsheets filled with data from the past, present, and future.

I tend to organize and plan my faith in the same way.  I have a faith time line, vertical hash marks and all.  I want to remember the exact moment it started, trace the mega-conferences I attend, record the people saved in my presence, anticipate future mansion size in heaven, and hand select my neighbors before I get there.  The beginning and the end.  Christianization is typically commenced by saying a one-time, forever cleansing, hope revealing, life fulfilling, prayer.  Want to go to heaven?  Repeat after me.  That’s it.  Say the prayer, get saved, become a Christian, see you in heaven some day.  Happy trails.

Hell Is For Democrats

I once had a good friend who loved Jesus.  She would say beautiful things such as, “Jesus knew how to take care of people,” and, “He knew how to love the outcasts–the scorned, disabled, and diseased.  He was compassionate, loved His enemies, and fed the hungry.  He loved the loveless, and we could definitely use some more lovers around here.”  I didn’t know much about Christianity back then.  I’m not sure much has changed.  The more I learn about Jesus the more I realize I cannot fathom His love, cannot describe His grace.  Even in the midst of my friend’s obvious love for Christ, I managed to convince myself that she was not a real Christian.  After all, becoming a Christian doesn’t start with an inner willingness to love and follow Christ, it begins with a ritual, with a well known prayer in the presence of another Christian.  Just repeat after me.  I watched as my legalistic efforts to force my friend to say a prayer and subconsciously add another colored pin to my life achievements map slowly pushed her away from the church.  She developed a certain distrust for so called Christians, and Sunday mornings left a bitter taste in her mouth.  She finally quit going after being confronted in the church parking lot by a middle aged woman with short, brown hair and a thick, black Bible.  The woman pulled my friend aside, set her heavy Bible down, and confidently said, “Hell is made for Democrats.  People who support John Kerry will wind up in Hell.”

My friend had a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car.  She passionately talked about peace and voted for candidates who said they would attempt to keep it .  She ran away from that church weeping, and she never went back.  She encountered people there bent on endorsing war and voting for candidates who were willing to use bombs and bullets to get what they wanted.  None of that sounded like Jesus to her.  None of that looked like love.  None of that seemed like something she wanted to be a part of.

My friend knew more about love than I did despite the fact that she had never consistently gone to church, been a part of a Bible study, or gone to a big Christian conference.  She spent her days studying the Old Testament, reading Gandhi and Thoreau, and admiring the art of Salvador Dali.  She smoked pot occasionally, drank beer often, studied hard always, and dreamed of saving African children dying of AIDS, daily.  And she loved Jesus.  She loved Jesus so much, but I couldn’t see it.  I was blinded by her ignorance of the law.  She had, I believed, rejected God by her unwillingness to verbally commit to what I couldn’t truly comprehend myself.   In reality, she understood what embracing the love of Christ was genuinely all about.  For my friend, it wasn’t about saying a prayer.  It was about committing too and attempting courageous relationship with Jesus and growing in love along the way.  Her decision to follow Christ and love people was made before I enlightened her with “The Prayer.”  Beginning a lifestyle of love, taking on a Christian worldview, and following Christ wherever He leads requires a bewildered heart looking for hope and a belief that there must be something more to life than this messed up world.  It’s not easy.  It’s not comfortable.  The path is narrow, and few will find it.

The Journey.

Faith is in the journey, not just “The Prayer.”  It takes a lot of faith to walk with others as they travel over and through life’s ups and downs, but it takes only a little pressure accompanying a decent pitch to convince people to quote a tract.  Begin with ritual or don’t, but understand that the narrow path doesn’t end there.  Planted in the trenches of made-up church rules, I came to realize the hard-hearted legalism of my ways.  I long for the strength to take the colorful pins out of my brain, to wipe the prefabricated ideas of successful evangelism off of my time-line-faith, and to progress forward in love and compassion–supporting–not looking down upon anyone regardless of anything.  Let him with no sin cast the first stone.  Our calling as Christ followers is to love all people, uninfluenced by skin color, sexual preference, education, age, citizenship, weight, family background, or political allegiance.  It doesn’t matter what time of day your neighbor draws water from the well.  Cast no stones.  Have no outcasts.  Love.  All.  People.

Here is the challenge: Many visionaries, no matter how self-motivated (or whatever), never get their start-up…well…started up!  Blame it on, if your must, a lack of focus.

The new visionary, leader and entrepreneur all know that they can impact their community, city, state, country and world in a drastically positive and unique way.  They know (and believe!) that they can do something great.  They have the initiative, the proper attitude, the enhanced heart, the high flying mind set, the proper hair cut (what?).  In short, they have what it takes to really make a difference through their actions, business and perspective.  Yet for some reason they just can’t put it into MOTION.  Ever been there?

We are all either (1) looking to premiere our first great idea (2) looking to get our next great idea rolled out or (3) looking to improve our current great idea already on the market.  So how do we accomplish one or all of these things?  How do we set into MOTION that potential entrepreneurial energy which is currently stagnantly waisting away, not making money, not changing lives, not making someone else’s life better, in our revved up minds?  You know you possess the power to change lives, now how do you harness it and put it to use behind a great idea or goal?  Here are some questions and points to ponder in your search (Think, for real!):

1.  If you could be the greatest in the world at one thing what would it be?
   
2. If you had complete freedom of time, how would you use it?  
3. If you had all the resources in the world, what would you build, design or work at?
4. Take your answers from 1-3 and solidify them…write them down!
5. Your answers from 1-3 should reveal something deeper about yourself (your passions for example).  So go ahead and work at what your passionate about, what you really desire to do.  Make real plans to take a step toward making these answers a reality.  
6. Don’t take your life for granted.  Do that which you truly believe is worth doing, don’t make excuses.

How can you hit the TARGET if you cannot see the mark.  In goal setting, if you have none, than you cannot expect to ever move beyond where you are currently resting.  

Don’t make an excuse, make a goal and begin moving toward it.  Oh yes, and make the goal highly specific.

I don’t know.  Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?  -Einstein, in response to the question: how many feet are in a mile?  As taken from the book The Magic of Thinking Big

Maybe you are like me.  Maybe you spent 4 or 5 or even 6 years of your young adult life in a lecture hall, voraciously attempting to scribble down words onto a lined sheet of paper in hopes that later on that week you would be able to interpret what you actually wrote down.  Maybe you are like me, and you asked yourself, “Why am I doing this?”  

What we are taught in school is to push as much information, as many facts as we possibly can, into our overloaded, overworked brains.  We are then taught that those of us who are best able to keep those facts in our brain just long enough to spew them back onto a more formal piece of paper, called an exam, are the most successful of the group (class).  

What is wrong with this picture (or should I say reality)? 

For the majority of students, this way of learning and using our brains continues into the rest of our lives, leaving us with brains that function as mini-warehouse storage units rather than as well polished, active thinking machines.  Remember, (or learn for the first time) it is more important to use your mind to THINK rather than to STORE.  Most anyone with a higher education experience can store, but very few can actually think and process and create and imagine and…well, you are starting to get the picture.  

A fact storing person is only worth as much as the encyclopedia or Internet data base that he memorizes his facts from.  A thinking man or woman is a priceless asset.