Hungry Kids

Who would leave a 6-figure job to work as an inner city school nurse? The kids at New Stanley grade school call her nurse Margie. Her job as a wellness consultant took her all over the country teaching school faculties how to live healthier lives. In Texas, a principal brought her a little girl who had been beaten: either in a fight or by a parent. Margie said, "I'm not licensed in Texas." The principal wouldn't take no for an answer. After the girl was patched up, the principal said, "We don't have a school nurse. Why don't you come work here?" Margie said, "I live in Kansas City." "You could move," the principal replied.

Margie didn't move to Texas, but knew God was calling her to work as a school nurse. She ended up working in a grade school in Kansas City, KS. She resisted the idea more because she thought school nurses only put on band aides. What she found were kids complaining of headaches and stomach aches. When she asked them if they had eaten breakfast, they said "no". She started keeping granola bars in her desk. She would ask if they had eaten supper. "What's that?", the kids replied. "Well, did you eat anything last night after school?" "No." Nurse Margie knew that more than granola bars would be needed.

She contacted Harvesters, to see what help she could offer to these hungry kids. They got her connected with the backsnack program. It provides weekend food for kids who receive free or reduced lunches at school. But there was a hole in the Harvesters' program. It ended before the school year did.

Enter one of the guys from the Caffeine Crew Bible Study. Our group is already involved in feading kids in South Africa and helping orphans in India. But there are kids in our own back yard in need. Several of the guys met with Nurse Margie and said we would help fund and provide the manpower to fill the backpacks for the remaining weeks of the school year.

The need is ongoing. Nurse Margie has a waiting list for kids wanting to be in her "backpack club". We're just a small group of men meeting at the Country Club Coffee Shop early on Fridays. But how can we not reach out and stand with such a one as nurse Margie.

Sanitized Society

"Death and taxes are the only certainties in life." I'm sure you've heard this before. But an alien visiting our planet would argue that in this country it's only taxes. Rarely do we have to confront the reality of death. One reason this is so is that people live much longer now. I read a statistic that the average life expectancy was 47 years in 1909. I'm glad for the good health and sanitary systems we have in this country. But we've done more than just sanitize our environment. We've sanitized our life to the extent that we've isolated ourselves from having to face the reality of death.

We know the meat we eat comes from animals who were once alive. But we only see the package of steak in the cooler. People who are terminal are sent to hospitals and hospices to die. And our pets are "put to sleep" in the vet's office. We get to leave the room before the final breaths are taken. We don't have to face death until it comes to someone close to us and even then it usually takes place somewhat removed from us. . We are informed our loved one has died. We have a chance to get ourselves emotionally ready and then we're ushered in to see the lifeless body for a few moments and then we move on.

I've come to believe that the way we deal with death in our culture has deprived us of a deep human need; we need to be confronted by death. And since we've sanitized the real thing our of our experience we feed on imitations through television, books and movies. A good murder mystery holds our attention. And crime shows and war stories may horrify us, but we are still fascinated by them. But we know it's not real. Still, deep within us is a need to be reminded of our mortality. So our media culture has invented a "safe" way for us to do that. It's like riding a roller coaster. We get to feel the danger without really facing the danger. We get our "fix" of death and then go on about our lives.

These thoughts have been rolling around in my head for several years. But the discrepancy between "fake" media death and the real thing came clear to me this afternoon as I sat with Q--our dog--and watched death slowly take him. He hadn't eaten for days, and we watched him get weaker and weaker. Our days became times of a death watch, wondering if he would die in the night or while we were at work. I was glad I got to be with him at the end, although, I don't know if he was aware of anything at all.

And even though death ended his suffering and I knew in my head it was inevitable, deep inside of me something cried out that this was wrong. Today, seeing him up close, I know in my bones that death is my enemy. He may be welcomed at times, but an enemy he remains. Of course, I know the theology. I know the story of our fallen world and how death came to be. But true knowing is intimacy, not merely concepts.

Our sanitized society has removed us from this intimacy of knowing and facing real death. Perhaps it was a noble idea to spare us from pain. But I believe we are robbed of a vital part of our humanity--fully facing the result of living in this sinful world. And, in contrast, we are robbed of fully embracing the message of the Kingdom of God: that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. I've had the concepts in my head that death is my enemy. But today I know it in my heart. So I pray "Thy Kingdom come" and look forward to the time when both death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire.

Why Are Greenies So Annoying?

I don't want to pollute the earth. I really don't. But I find that the environmental movement attracts people who are boorish, rude, and egotistical. In conversations they never have a clue that some of their dogma may be doubted or in error. Even if you have facts on your side, there is no disagreeing with them. If you raise an argument, they make you feel as if you alone are responsible for toxic waste, global warming, and the loss of the snail darter.

I encountered just such a person a few weeks ago at a Chamber of Commerce networking event. His second sentence after our introduction was a launching pad to a 5-minute monologue on the environment. When he got to the part of how wind and solar power was the future salvation of the planet I began looking for how to get away from him. His idea was that we'd all have wind and solar generators so we could be free from the evils of carbon emissions. Never mind that my house would have been dark and cold that day because of heavy overcast and no wind.

I didn't argue. I knew it would be useless. He was a true believer. He didn't care about my opinions. He really didn't care to learn anything about me. He only cared about himself and his cause. I noticed that other people avoided him as well. Perhaps they already knew what I was just discovering: this man was a conversational black hole.

The environmental movement seems to attract these kinds of people. They're devoted to their cause and believe it's their mission in life to make everyone agree with them.

Funny thing is that I've met Christians who were the same way.

The Shack

"How do you like the book?", the flight attendant asked? She saw I was reading The Shack, by William P. Young. I said, "It gives words to a song that has been playing in my heart for many years." She smiled and said she had stopped reading about three-fourths the way through. She told me a story of a "religious" mother who had rejected her homosexual son. She went on to say that she too had a homosexual son. "I could never reject him," she said. It appeared to me that she had found an entirely different meaning from the book than had I.

Her comment may be why this book has stirred such controversy in Christian circles. If you search Google for "the shack heresy" you'll find plenty of opinions. I didn't read any of them, except for a few headlines. I don't care much if others think it's heretical. As I said before, it's the words to a song that's been in my heart for a long time. I believe this book contains a timely message to Christians. But, as I saw in my conversation with the flight attendant, this message can be easily misinterpreted.

I think this quote summarizes for me the heart of The Shack's message:

"Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions. Most emotions are responses to perception--what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms--what you believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe. The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than me (God)."

This paragraph describes the deep and sometimes painful process that God has been working in my heart for the past decade. In short, God's been showing me that I too often put my faith in my religious upbringing, my theology, my knowledge of the Bible, spiritual disciplines, tithing, and a whole list of other self-important foolishness. Like other Christians, I've been fond of saying, "Christianity is a relationship, it's not a religion." But the way I live my life says differently. And when I reduce God to theology and following religious rules it's idolatry as surely as reducing God to a golden calf.

Now I'm sure some people will turn the message of The Shack into yet another theology or popular movement within the Church. Or, like my flight attendant, use it to excuse sin. Some may say that such a familiar portrayal of God diminishes His majesty and glory. But it's vital to see that this message is merely one facet of a highly complex fractal that is God's nature. God is known my many names in the Old Testament for good reason; He cannot be comprehended. And I'll bet we now only know a small fraction of the names by which He will be known.

The heart of God is for relationship. The Shack gives a creative picture of the intimacy God has within Himself and the intimacy He desires with us. The reason we trade this intimacy for dead religion is that such dynamic freedom is terrifying and messy. But such a life is what God desires for us. As I walk with Him, I learn what pleases or displeases Him. Freedom is not doing whatever I want. Freedom is giving myself to Him.

I pray we all opt for the terror and the mess so we can learn to live in His freedom.

Traveling Alone

Whenever I travel by myself I feel an odd feeling of disconnection upon arrival. Part of this feeling is from just being in a new place and trying to find my way around. Part of it is that whenever I fly in to a place I don't have an orietation of where north, south, east or west is. Part of it is the fact that I'm in a city full of people and I don't know a single one of them. For me, it's not a frightening feeling. It's more of an emotional vertigo. For me this feeling is part of the adventure of traveling. And it abates in time as I become familiar with the place I'm staying and the surrounding geography.

But even if this feeling subsides a bit, I still feel the tug of the connections to home. I'm just a visitor here. I'll meet other travelers and share stories, but all of us know that any connections we might make will be long-distance ones. I enjoy the adventure of travel, but the knowledge that I have a familiar place to return to makes such an adventure possible.

Make Big Money in Real Estate

I've discovered the secret to getting rich with real estate. You've probably seen ads on TV late at night telling you how you can become a real estate millionaire if you will just buy the book, CDs, DVDs, etc. They make it sound so easy to do.

But if you really want to make money in real estate you should follow this simple formula.

1) Buy some books or to to a training event. Learn the language of real estate investing.

2) Use your knowledge to buy a couple of investment properties. Don't worry if you don't make a lot of money on these, because the real money will come later.

3) Steal or borrow ideas from the books you're reading. Collect some of your own stories as well.

4) Start teaching real estate investing seminars. (Once you get here the money starts flowing.)

Last weekend I was at a real estate seminar. The price was low, and I figured they would be selling "advanced" training. But I figured I could pick up at least a few ideas from the "intro" class. The presenter didn't convince me that he knew much more about real estate investing than I do. Granted, this is a topic I've studied for a few years. But the "advanced training" package was offered at the "discounted price" of $14,000. Then it hit me--this is where the real money is to be made in real estate.

I've heard that only a small percentage of people who take such courses ever put the knowledge into practice. The people don't buy a real estate course, they buy hope. The promise is that if you take this course you can get wealthy investing in real estate. And they make the whole thing sound so easy. But I've found that the learning is the easy part. Putting it into practice is the hard part. Tony Robbins says that the old quote of "knowledge is power" is inaccurate. Knowledge is potential power. It is only in the application of knowledge that you realize the power of it.

I want to be a person who takes action. I don't need to spend big bucks on a seminar to do that.

Blog Action Day - Poverty

Blog action day is organized to get thousands of bloggers weighing in on a single topic. This year the topic is poverty. I know we've all been touched by infomercials or missionary presentations showing underprivileged and hungry children in some third world country. Often these presentations subtly lay on guilt to get us to open our wallets and give to whatever cause is being advertised.

Sometimes we find out later that a good portion of our money went to administrative costs. And in some nations the thugs in power often seize donations for their own use. The risk for me is that I can be cynical and grow hard hearted about the real problems of the poor in the world.

I've heard some say that what is truly needed is the spread of freedom in the world. Dictatorships and socialsist countries exploit their populations and care little for their people. While this is true, there aren't many practical ways we as individuals can change the politics of a third world country. But I think we can be involved to make a difference person to person.

There are organizations who are doing practical things such as digging wells. Our church sponsored 2 wells this year. There are also small missionary organizations doing what they can to give aid directly to the poor around the world. And I came across an organization that works to spred entrepeneuership around the world. Individual donors can make micro loans to people around the world who want to start or expand their own home business. The organization is Kiva. I've not done a thorough investigation of the organization, but I have to say that I like the concept. To me this seems to be a way individuals can work to give people a hand-up rather than a handout.

As an additional note, I'd like to see church groups develop some program like this. Think of what it could mean for local churches in these countries if they were the source for small loans to help people become self-sufficient.