My Core

Hello beautiful people! Last time I posted I shared with you that God is doing some amazing things in my life. I have so much I want to share but I'm trying to process most of them into a reasonably understandable, readable version preferably with words. :) It's a little hard to begin to put into words some of the things that God is teaching me right now. There are a few things that I know for sure though and I'd like to share them with you. I'm not sure who all my blog audience is, but here is what I call my core; my passions, beliefs, and callings. Things that are close to my heart and how I live my life. 

I love Jesus, first and foremost. I am grateful for what God is doing in my life and am excited for where He is taking me.

I love my three and half year old daughter Soda, who is the cutest dog in the world! She is spoiled and I have no problem with being the one responsible for that. :)

I am an ^ Elevator! Elevation Church is my second home, come check us out! I love my church and am honored to be apart of such a great move of God. 

I spend my weekends hanging out with 4th and 5th graders and teaching them about Jesus, greeting people, feeding the poor and hanging out with the homeless.

I believe in radically living out the Gospel in response to a radical death on the cross and a mighty resurrection. I will not settle for living a comfortable life when so many people are uncomfortable.I never want to be a comfortable Christian because Christ sure as heck wasnt comfortable for me on the cross.

I believe in resurrecting the global Church as a living, moving, breathing body of followers who go out into the world to serve. I believe the church is not a building, but a movement; not an organization, but an organism. 

I believe that reaching one person can change a family, changing families can change a city, changing cities can change a nation, and changing a nations will change the world.

The Blessing of Friendship

I have a friend named Richard. If you live in Charlotte, and especially if you go to Elevation Matthews Campus, you've probably seen him before. He sits between the two gas stations on the corner of Independence and Highway 51. Many would stereotype him poor. He has no home, rarely any food, and no family in sight. My friend and I have had the privilege of buying him Bojangles on the weekend and the greater privilege of getting to know him and sharing in his struggles. 

With the failing economy, Richard lost his job about six months ago. He has since had to downgrade from an apartment, to a trailer, to a tent, and now to an abandoned house. He had to give up his two dogs when he lost his trailer, two of his best friends as any dog owner would know. He is very intelligent and you very well might see him devouring book after book hoping someone will stop with some food. He loves thriller and horror books, Steven King and Dean Koontz being his favorite authors. He can tell you the time based solely on where the shade is and can almost exactly predict the weather. More than anything else, Richard just likes having someone to talk to. You could imagine the same feeling after going day after day in solitude. 

The poor are no longer just another struggling face to me, a common sight in today's world. They have a story, struggles, likes, and interests just like the rest of us. They are an individual made in the image and likeness of God, loved beyond belief. 

Richard is not poor in my eyes. We are the ones who are poor. He is greater in wisdom and overcoming obstacles than most of us. While he may not have many possessions and struggles to just get a meal a day, he is by far richer in ways that we could never understand, like his gratitude and humbleness. In ways that the we are too busy to stop and see, or even care for. 

I began this journey hoping to change other's lives for the better, but the fact is Richard and people like him are changing mine. The homeless are grateful for your food donations, don't get me wrong. But when we settle for just feeding the homeless we miss out on a whole larger blessing, the blessing of friendship. 

To Iraq

Okay, so I already posted this on my Facebook, but it has really impacted and challenged me to move, so I would like to share it will all my bloggers as well! This is a excerpt from Shane Clairborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution". I highly recommend anyone and everyone to get a copy and read it, every word. It if life changing and God is using it in an astounding way. It is also what God used to speak to me about starting C.O.R. (If you missed that post click here .)Get ready to be challenged, moved, and compelled to act.

TO IRAQ

I am going to Iraq because I believe in a God of scandalous grace. If I believed terrorist were beyond redemption, I would need to rip out half of my New Testament Scriptures, for they were written by a converted terrorist. I have pledged allegiance to a King who loved evildoers so much he died for them (and of course, the people of Iraq are no more evil or more holy than the people of the US), teaching us that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for. While terrorists were nailing him to the cross, my Jesus pleaded that they be shown mercy, for they know not what they were doing. We are all wretched, and we are all beautiful. No one is beyond redemption. May we see in the hands of the oppressors our own hands, and in the faces of the oppressed our own faces. We are made of the same dust, and we cry the same salty tears.

                I am going to Iraq in the footsteps of an executed and risen God. I follow a Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey at Passover, knowing full well what he was walking into. This Jesus of the margins suffered an imperial execution by an oppressive regime of wealthy and pious elites. And now he dares me and woos me to come and follow, to take up my cross, to lose my life to find it, with the promises that life is more powerful than death and that it is more courageous to love our enemies that to kill them.

                I am going to Iraq to stop terrorism. There are Muslim and Christian extremists who kill in the name of their gods. Their leadership are millionaires who live in comfort while their citizens die neglected in the streets. I believe in another kingdom that belongs to the poor and to the peacemakers. I believe in a safe world, and I know this world will never be safe as long as the masses live in poverty so that a handful of people can live as they wish. Nor will the world be safe as long as we try to use violence to drive out violence. Violence only begets the very thing is seeks to destroy. My King warned his followers, “If we pick up the sword, we will die by the sword.” How true this is has proved to be throughout history. We armed Saddam in the conflict against Iran, and we armed Bin Laden in the struggle against the Soviet Union. Timothy McVeigh, the most terrifying domestic terrorist in US history, was trained in the Gulf War, where he said he turned into an animal.

                I am going to Iraq to stand in the way of war. Thousands of soldiers have gone to Iraq, willing to kill people they do not know because of a political allegiance. I go willing to die for people I do not know because of a spiritual allegiance. The soldiers have incredible courage, courage enough to die for something they believe in. I pray that Christians would have that same courage. The command of the soldiers is handed down, through rank after rank, from a human commander-in-chief clinging to the myth of redemptive violence. My mandate is straight from the mouth of my heavenly King, through the lips of the Prince of Peace-to love my enemies-and yet I still falter. May we cling to the truth that every human is created in the image of God. Do we believe the children of Iraq are just as precious as the children of New York? A love for our own people is not a bad thing, but why should love stop at the border? We, the people of rebirth, have an allegiance that runs much deeper than nationalism.

                I am going to Iraq as a missionary. In an age of omnipresent war, it is my hope that Christian peacemaking becomes the new face of global missions. May we stand by those who face the impending wrath of empire and whisper, “God loves you, I love you, and if my country bombs your country, I will be right here with you.” Otherwise, our gospel has little integrity. As one of the saints said, “If they come for the innocent and do not pass over our bodies, then cursed be our religion.” May our lives interrupt terrorism and war, in small ways, in large ways, in moments of crisis, and in everyday rhythms. These are extreme times. And I go to Iraq as an extremist for love.

                “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24)