Off to Israel

I fly to Israel tomorrow, and I'll be there for 13 days. Check out followtherabbi.com to get a glimpse. I fly into L.A. on October 10 and then hop on a flight to New Mexico for the Emergent Gathering.
So I probably won't post much (not that I've been all that consistent lately anyway).
So what have I been up to? Some cool things are happening with the "Jesus Dojo" and our first event...IF YOU HAVE 2, GIVE ONE AWAY. If you are in the Bay Area and want to hear more, let me know or check out the ReIMAGINE website.
I've been enjoying spending a little time over at City Team in Oakland. There are some great people working over there who truly love the people of Oakland. I'm excited to see Creekside partner with them this year.

Trusting the Father

My daughter bumped her head tonight and then quickly ran towards me and threw her little head onto my chest. She laid there for a while just wanting me to hold her. It was one of those moments you will remember when she graduates from high school or gets married or something like that.
I was so stoked that she would want me to comfort her, that she would trust me to take care of her in that moment. For a few moments she knew Dad was the only place to turn and he knew best. She threw herself into my arms with abandon. I wish she would always go to me like that.
It may sound simple or trite, but my daughter is daily teaching me how my true Father loves me. I want to trust him with my life in the way my daughter trusted me for a few moments. I want to throw myself into my Abba's arms and let Him comfort me and direct my life wherever He wants it to go.

HONEY, WE'RE RICH!!!

It is so easy to fall into envy and greed. A drive through a nice neighborhood or seeing a new BMW parked next to you or watching Cribs on MTV...and suddenly we don't have enough. The love of the God of the universe and the wonderful family and the health and the beauty of God's creation and a place to sleep and food and a car that runs...really, we are blessed.
God provides for our basic needs every day. He is so good to us.

Check out globalrichlist.com and see how rich you are. It reminded me how very blessed we are.

Thank you God, for taking care of all of our needs.

TRUST

So I keep getting into positions where I am forced to really trust God. I'm starting a new phase in ministry. I don't know how much money is coming in from support raising. I think some of my friends and family think I'm a little crazy. In the middle of it, this is so good! I have to trust God because I know I can't figure it all out and make it happen. God has been reminding me of the Israelites in the Old Testament...as I've looked at their story, I'm always hit by how often is seems like what God really wants is just for them to trust Him. He wants them to stop complaining and freaking out and whining and looking at other ways (and other gods)to make life work and just TRUST HIM.
This week is a big week for me. I've got my first actual public event with ReIMAGINE that I'm helping to make happen (Bay Area Emergent Cohort on Saturday), and I've got a luncheon in Danville on Sunday where I'm hoping explain the vision and passion behind my move to ReIMAGINE and ask people give money to help pay my salary. It's a big week, and I feel like crap. I got this weird flu/throat/head thing that just keeps getting worse...stubborn me wouldn't go to the doctor, and I skipped my chiropractor appointment because I was sick, and I can barely function. My head is so messed up and cloudy I can't even lay down and read a book. I stand up and get dizzy. I'm getting all sweaty again as I type this. I'm constantly coughing up nasty pieces of green flem...you get the picture. I just want to get out and meet with people and make phone calls and set things up, and I can't even think straight. Once again I have to trust that God loves me and that even if I don't get better tomorrow and even if everything bombs this week, He still loves me...and Jesus is still worthy of my love and and my life

Churches working together

Today I met with an old friend who is now at another local church in the Danville area. His church is linked with a church in Baton Rouge that has become a center for organizing relief over there, so he has a great conduit to a clear way to help and be involved. I was excited to meet with him and put our heads together to help our commuties become involved.
We would like to see churches in the Alamo/Danville area work together instead of separately on helping people. We believe this act of serving together will not only allow us to make a greater impact, but it will help our separate church communities learn to see themselves as God's hands and feet working TOGETHER to bless the world around us. I surely hope and pray that other church communities are open to partnering with us.
We are looking to send supplies and money and also send small groups of volunteers to Baton Rouge. May God use our small efforts to help these people.
May those who follow Jesus learn from the compassion he showed and taught throughout his earthly ministry.

"Being Poor" by John Scalzi

from http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/

Being Poor
Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they're what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there's not an $800 car in America that's worth a ****.
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.
Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won't hear you say "I get free lunch" when you get to the cashier.
Being poor is living next to the freeway.
Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn't mind when you ask for help.
Being poor is off-brand toys.
Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
Being poor is knowing you can't leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.
Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn't have make dinner tonight because you're not hungry anyway.
Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
Being poor is your kid's school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.
Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.
Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger's trash.
Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a ******** difference.
Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
Being poor is not taking the job because you can't find someone you trust to watch your kids.
Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.
Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner.
Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.
Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.
Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
Being poor is your kid's teacher assuming you don't have any books in your home.
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually stupid.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually lazy.
Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn't bought first.
Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar.
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 14 years old.
Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
Being poor is knowing you're being judged.
Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
Being poor is deciding that it's all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn't spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won't listen to you beg them against doing so.
Being poor is a cough that doesn't go away.
Being poor is making sure you don't spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
Being poor is running in place.
Being poor is people wondering why you didn't leave.

by John Scalzi

People dig Jesus

When asked what I do for a living, I used to reply and say that I was a pastor or youth pastor. Some people said I looked too young for that. Some people said, "Oh, that's nice." Some people said, "They pay you to be a pastor to high schoolers?" Some people quickly changed the subject. Some people asked what I did all week and if the kids drove me nuts.
When I say that I work for a non-profit organization that wants to teach people about the ways of Jesus, people are seriously interested. People really want to talk about Jesus and what He said and what His life means to us today. People really dig Jesus...they just really don't dig the thought of going to church. I could go on and on rambling about why, but for now, I'm just excited to tell people what I do and start talking about Jesus. I really like talking about Jesus, and people seem to like talking to me about Jesus, so I'm having some serious fun lately.

My wife is amazing

I've realized that being married to me may be just a tad difficult. Besides the clothes left throughout the house, the unwiped dishes, the inability to fix anything related to automobile or house (or really anything), the tendency to lose anything and everything, the forgetfulness that springs up from time to time, the ability to search craigslist for free items for hours and hours...I came to the conclusion that God wanted me to quit my nice, safe, normal youth pastor job with benefits and raise money for a salary to serve with a non-profit organization called ReIMAGINE.

Now, my wife knows that I like to think a little outside the box and dream. She also knows that I know that she likes to plan. She worked in the financial world for four years, and she is the queen of our checkbook and budget. She likes the money to be planned out and under control (she also likes to joke that if she ever died I would not remember how to deposit a check into our account, but that's another story).
So here we are with a lot of money left to find and the last check having come from the church. And how is my wife doing? She is amazing. God has given her a special peace and grace right now that just floors me. Yeah, she's a little scared, but she is okay. She believes we are doing the right thing and that God will take care of us. He will provide for us. The other day I talked to a mentor of mine who told me that a few women had commented to him that they don't know how she is doing it. Why isn't she freaking out? Why is she letting me do this? Isn't she scared? Why isn't she cracking? People know that I'm a little crazy anyway and don't really know or care how much money we have in the bank, but people know that this must be hard on my wife. In her own way she is having a huge impact on people around us. She isn't saying anything. She isn't doing anything but simply trusting God and enjoying life. When my mentor friend told me this, I started to tear up a little (don't know if my friend noticed this or not).

I am so proud of my wife. She is the most incredible blessing I could ever ask for.

Thank you, God, for putting her into my life. Thank you for giving her the grace to hang in there with me. I truly would be a mess without her.