• Faith,  Uncategorized

    Are You Available?

    Tweet Not for date. Not for a job. Not for an event. But for a friend who is struggling. Or the stranger behind the Starbucks counter. Or the employee at the grocery store.   Are you available?   One thing that I go back to over and over as I study Christ’s life is how available He was.  No matter what he was doing,  he was watching out for the needs of those around him. Whether it was feeding them, paying attention to the touch of his cloak, listening to them, or stopping to look up in a tree, Jesus made time for others. He did it every day in whatever He…

  • Faith

    Bloom Where You’re Planted

    Tweet Or what I am learning about the word “never”   Rewind a little to July 15th, 2010.  I packed up my belongings and said goodbye to Southern Indiana vowing NEVER to return. Sure, it had been an ok five or so years, but I was done. I was not coming back.   Moved overseas, had a an awesome year, blah, blah, blah…   It’s now July 12th, 2011 and what am I doing? Packing up again to move back to Southern Indiana. Literally almost a year from the day that I said I was leaving for good.  Every single door opened and so clearly fell into place that I had to eat…

  • Faith

    Holy Discontent

    Tweet What makes you cry? What messes with you? What punches you in the gut? What can’t you stand? What wrecks you? What  makes  you mad? What is your Holy Discontent? Holy– Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power. sacred; specified, set apart for a religious purpose Discontent-a restless longing for better circumstances A restless longing for better circumstances based on the sacred, not the temporal. An alignment of our hearts with God’s heart for the world.  The idea comes from a sermon by a guy named Bill Hybels. You can download the message here. I highly recommend it. However, today the question was asked to my church.…

  • Faith

    A Prayer for Today

    Tweet I borrowed this from my friend Matt’s blog. Check him out here and see what awesome adventure he is up to.  This is going to be my prayer for over the next several months and I challenge you to consider what areas perhaps you need to be a little more uncomfortable in.   “May the Lord bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live  deep within your heart.   May God bless you at anger, at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.   May God bless you with tears that shed…

  • Life Inspiration

    It Starts Today

    Tweet Your life. It starts today.   Simple enough statement. But super complicated meaning. Society has twisted this statement and I believe uses it as a marketing ploy to keep us unhappy or at least to keep us from being content. To keep us always wanting more. Think about the messages communicated daily.   Life starts when you graduate highschool. OR graduate college. OR get your first real job. OR get married. OR have kids. OR retire.   It’s always starting when you reach the next big milestone.   This idea has been driving me crazy lately. For several reasons, but namely because the following is a conversation I seem…

  • Community

    Better Way Imports

    Tweet 27 million.   That’s a number you should know.   It is the number of slaves in our world today. The number of people with faces, families, dreams, and stories that are forced into slave labor or human trafficking. If you think about it long enough, it is a very daunting number.     What can you do with a number like 27 million when you are just 1?   That is a question I have wrestled with for months. Last year, I had the unique opportunity to sit in on a week of training put on by the FBI and the Polaris Project and the local  Coalition Against Human Trafficking. It was…

  • Faith

    Fitting In Is Overrated

    Tweet So I quit. I give up. I am done trying to fit into the mold. Because really, who made the mold anyways?   I am 25. Single. And not looking.   I don’t want a nice house with a white picket fence and a two car garage.   I could care less about climbing the corporate ladder or having a 6-figure income.   I want to spend my life serving the people who Jesus served-the poor, the captive, the broken, the people on the margins of society.   And I have been trying for far too long to fit into what society or the church or my friends thought…

  • Social Justice

    Recap: The Justice Conference

    Tweet Mind-blown.  Humbled. Energized. Motivated. Broken.   Those are just a few of the words that scratch the surface of the incredible two days I spent at the Justice Conference. Next year, I will be dragging my friends to it, even if I have to fund their way because I believe this conference is too important and too powerful to miss. After sitting for two days, listening to speaker after speaker share their heart for justice and the broken condition of our world, I cannot sit still. Granted, I have never really sat still, but this was the kick in the pants I needed to take the final plunge into the…

  • Social Justice

    What Is Justice?

    Tweet What is Justice? from The Justice Conference on Vimeo.   This is what I am up to for the next few days. I head out tomorrow for a long weekend in Portland to attend The Justice Conference.  For more information, head over here. Otherwise, wait for the blog post when I return!

  • Faith

    Called To A Higher Standard

    Tweet You have probably noticed this.   Christians or people who claim to believe in God are judged more harshly. If you put a Christian and someone who does not claim a religion next to each other and had them do the same thing, more than likely, the Christian would be more harshly criticized.  For a long time, I really struggled with this. It did not seem fair. Until I was talking to a friend the other day who does not profess a belief in anything really.  They also happen to work with a lot of Christians. And as they went on about their work situation, I was getting really frustrated. These…