My dream...

It is weird how the past week has led me to discover my actual dream.

Through the past week, I have been discussing with countless people about how the world has lost its love and compassion for people. We don't love people any more. We don't offer rides to our brothers and sisters. I will be honest, I didn't want to be part of Christianity anymore. I didn't want to associate myself with a religion that preaches about love but laughs at their neighbor. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. I didn't want people to think I was one of them. I, for a while, had lost all hope in humanity. Christianity, Christ, was about love. Christianity without love is just a theology study. A book club.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

Yeah, we say we care for those who suffer, but do we know about the people suffering down the street from us. Do we understand the concept of homelessness? Do we understand what it is like to be unable to pay bills? How many of us have struggled to make ends meet? I don't. I haven't. I don't even get it. But I will tell you this: I live in the middle of downtown Birmingham. Poverty and homelessness exists not far from my house. I see it. But I fail to understand it. I fail to do anything about it.
Last night, I went to the Tunnel of Oppression at UAB. If you went, I am so glad. If you didn't, I ask you to go next year. It was a phenomenal experience. I think a lot of us know what it is like to be made fun of.
The tunnel went through such groups as international students, poverty, disabilities, LGBT, STI's, addictions, racism, and a room of HOPE. All of these rooms put you in situations that kind of made you feel uncomfortable. They challenged everyone to reflect on their actions. While I cannot say I openly make fun of poor people or homosexuality, I can honestly say that I do not understand it.
So what did all of this, and the past week mean?
Well let me preface it with this. When I lived in Marietta, I used to volunteer at a place called MUST ministries. It was a place that brought in homeless people and gave them an actual place to stay. Sure, there were limited beds, but their goal was not to be a shelter. They wanted to pick people up and give them a means for climbing out of a hole.
When people get so low, they begin to beat themselves down. I want to work to open a place that does this. I want to bring people in and give them clean clothes, fresh meals, job skills, and help them find a job. There are a lot of shelters in Birmingham. And I think they are amazing. But the problem is that after one night, they are back on the street.
So this is my goal: To provide a place for people who need help and refuge.
But I need help. I need people. I need hearts. I need love. All of these politicians are talking about HOPE and CHANGE, but where is it?
So who wants to help me? Clothes? Fresh cooked meals? Beds? Sheets?
I am serious. I am about to email MUST and ask them how they got started. I will open this place. Maybe not in this year, but soon. Love is the only thing that will bring humanity up from out of the ground. Love is the only thing that will clean up a city. Hope is useless without love.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. " - Ghandi

I am giving up TV for lent. For Many reasons.
I have become incredibly complacent. In life. In work. In friends. I hope to God, this nips it in the butt. I plan on being more proactive. I don't watch a terrible amount of tv, but I have found that I am highly unproductive and not very proactive. This season, I hope to be more so. After reading Tao of Pooh and the section on Bisy Backson, I realized this: I am not one to run around trying to save time. I keep myself busy so that I cannot reflect. This means I don't take much time to keep to myself. I don't take much time to give God. I fill my days with nonsense. The quiet and solitude is alarming and frightening. I cannot stand it.
With Lent, I want to be productive. The season is about giving up or starting up the things that may separate you from God. This is it. I need time and loneliness to just talk with God. I need time to myself to talk to, well, myself.
I have big plans for lent: recycling, a garden, composting, cleaning, reorganizing and alone time.

I challenge all of you to take a look at your life. What keeps you from growing closer to God? What keeps you from growing as an individual?

The answer to these two questions usually go together. And for me, I plan on fixing it for Lent.
God gives us the strength to do so. Give up what is hard. Start what is harder.

Motivational time:
"When we take the time to enjoy our surroundings and appreciate being alive, we find that we have no time to be Bisy Backson's anymore."

Basically, Christ went in to the wilderness after his Baptism. This is when he states that man cannot live in bread alone. Here is why he went in to the Wilderness. This is WHY we give things up for lent...

To be tempted - it seems strange. We pray, "lead us not into temptation" but Jesus knew that that his experience in the wilderness would result in a powerful encounter with the accuser. This is an important point that cannot be ignored. We need to prepare to face and be victorious over whatever would beset us at the end of our own time in the wilderness. Our weapons should be the same as those of our Lord: the Word of God, handled correctly.

To meet with the Father - there were far fewer distractions in the wilderness. It may be worth thinking about this the next time you find yourself metaphorically in the wilerness, stripped of distracting opportunities to minister, you can focus on what really matters.

To prepare for power - without the first two, there would be no point to this final entry. It is after Jesus' baptism and wilderness experience that we see Him exercising real power to turn the world around Him upside-down.