Jason Bean, a good friend of mine, sent me a greeting card with his picture imposed on it. It cracked me up. I thought I would send one out with myself. Enjoy and have a GREAT Christmas.
Just click on the link below or cut and paste into your browser:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=dc43f325a3ce45cf0c029a0G06122216
My wife and I are kidless for the weekend, which has been a nice and much needed break for us. And though we have numerous “stuff” that the two of must get done over the weekend we took some time out late last night to see a movie called “The Blood Diamond.” I don’t even know if I can put into words the impact this movie has made on me. Have you ever seen a movie where after watching it you find yourself dwelling on it for more than 4-5 hours after seeing the credits? I have seen a couple of them, but nothing like this movie. In the past, I have steered clear of this type of movie for fear of being too emotionally drawn to the views of such a movie and actually becoming changed because of it—but my wife really wanted to see the movie—so we went.
The Blood Diamond is about the civil war-ridden country Sierra Leone, in West Africa during the diamond wars of in the late 90’s. And though it is a rather peaceful country now, I was reminded of Africa’s current continental disaster—Dafur as I sat in my comfortable theater chair.
My thoughts after the movie were ones of compassion to the poor and needy and I couldn’t get the obligation that Jesus gave us before He left this earth—Go into ALL the world. Combined with James challenge to us, that or faith means nothing without helping the widows and orphans, I was moved to do something, but confused on what the something is.
Our entire world is hurting, even Mansfield, Ohio. Does God need me elsewhere if there is such a great need? And what can one man do? My mind has been spinning with these questions and questions much like them.
And I have no answers—except that God wants me right here right now. In 1 minute, I am not sure where He wants me. But for this time it is this place. And the job?—to change this place by being the LIGHT Jesus talked about in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5.16). That is my job.
Am I doing my job?—not near as much as I should be. What’s hindering me from doing my job?—my own love of materialism and self and my lack of complete trust on God.
My question to you—what are your excuses?
So I have stepped into another aspect of the STUDENT world. With all the hype about Myspace.com and Facebook.com, I thought I would take a look into this cultural phenomenon myself. I am now hooked.
First of all, it amazes me the number of students that I are readily accessible on these sites and the amount of information they are willing to share on them. For my sake, it is good because it gives me an opportunity to see into their world without being overly evasive. ON the other hand, they allow people to be evasive without the fear of sharing too much info.
Second, I am also suprised with how addicting such sites can be. I get excited when I get into the office in the morning with hopes that more people have ‘added’ me as their ‘friend.’ And get very excited as the Junior High Youth Pastor and I compete to get the most friends.
My realization, we spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME doing things that don’t really matter instead of building TRUE relationships with people. My remedy–e-mail all my Myspace and Facebook friends and tell them how I really feel!!
