There is not an angle that has not been covered in the Jeremy Lin hurricane that has hit the sporting world.  So fast and furious was the onslaught, so overpowering was the flavor that almost overnight the world changed before our very eyes.

Within a span of one week  (one week!) a 23 year old basketball journeyman has become the most popular celebrity on the internet; the most talked about subject on FB and Twitter; the inspiration of countless blogs (SMH) and articles (btw this is my fav by Bill Simmons).

Given the small window of opportunity his play not only earned him a spot on the team and won the trust and confidence of his teammates and coach, but it has actually helped stimulate the economy,  create a new vernacular for the English language, galvanize a whole demographic to think and dream beyond the pigeon holed, preconceived, preconditioned expectations of society, and most amazing of all, it lifted the New York Knickerbockers out of the dungeon of basketball irrelevancy to become legitimate playoff contenders.  Yes there is a God.

As you can imagine one of the topics of debate among talking heads is the fact that something like this was simply unimaginable before it actually happened.  Nobody comes out of nowhere and takes the NBA by storm.   Not this way.  Not this fast.  Not this transcending.  It’s almost like the whole world has been transported to one man’s dream.  We are all living in the Lin matrix.  When’s he gonna wake up?  When are we gonna wake up?

But the thing is Lin has game.  He’s always had game.  Had it in highschool.  Had it in college.  Yeah I know he can’t go left, turns the ball over too much and his outside shot is iffy.  He’s not the quickest cat on the court and for some odd reason struggles on the free throw line.  But when it counts he makes it count and most importantly leads his teams to wins.  So then we have to ask ourselves why did so many people miss?  Why didn’t the experts see what is so painfully obvious to everyone now?  On virtually every level of basketball the scouts struck out.

Why?  Because it happens all the time.  Bill James  the statistician and author who inspired Billy Beane of Moneyball said, “We are just not as smart as we think we are.”  He goes on to say, “We buy into simplifications of the universe which give us the illusion of understanding…Those simplifications — computer models, adages, homilies, religions, philosophies, experience, etc. — are very often just dead wrong.” 1

Whether it’s the “loser” we rejected in high school who eventually went on and “made it,” the ugly duckling who became a supermodel, or the guy who was picked last on the playground who became the talk of the town, it happens all the time.

That’s the most frustrating thing about life.  We are bound to the imperfect evaluation of people in power who are just not as smart as they think they are.  Sure Jeremy Lin proved his haters wrong.  When given his opportunity he blew the doors wide open.  But most people in this world are never given an opportunity.  When are they gonna give me a chance?  If I can just get my foot in the door!  Why won’t she return my call?  Why doesn’t he see that I am so much better for him?

If your livelihood, your happiness, your sense of self is dependent on the evaluation of people who are not as smart as they think they are, then you will never be happy.  The good news is, it doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter who’s in power.  And it doesn’t matter what they think.  It doesn’t matter if they never come to see.  It doesn’t matter because God is smarter than we think He is.  He’s more powerful than we could ever think or imagine (Eph 3:20).  He sees what nobody sees and He knows more than there is to know.  He is the only one who truly matters.  And what the Bible says He does to those who trust Him is sing over us with joy (Zeph 3:17).

Why?  Not because we’re all that.  Jesus lived the life we could never live and died the death we all deserved to die.  He took what we deserved and gave us what He earned.  And because of it we will not only be selected,  accepted, and given our “chance.”  We will be celebrated (1 Cor 4:1-5).

Stop working for their approval.  Stop waiting to be accepted.  Start living by faith in the Son of God.

(1.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/jeremy-lin-star-athlete-missed_n_1279108.html?ref=business)

There is nothing worse than to have a deep, indescribable, undeniable, and unquenchable thirst. Where your mouth is parched, lips cracked, body listless; where you are on the brink of dehydration.  There is a multitude of horrific ways one can leave this world but I cannot imagine any to be any more agonizing than the slow tortuous death of dying alone in the desert.

The Gospel of John tells us that when Jesus hung on the cross he said “I thirst.”  There is not a more appropriate expression of unction that could have captured the essence of what Jesus was enduring than those 2 words.  No, it was not just because he was physically yearning for water.  It was because for the first time He experienced spiritual hunger.  For the first time in the history of…well history, His soul cried for the affection and affirmation of His Father.   Never had He ever experienced anything less than the fullness of life.  Never had He ever gone empty, never did He ever feel the debilitating sadness of heart from being abandoned or rejected.  But there He was, for the first time, in the center of the utter pit of darkness thirsting for the satisfaction of His Father’s love.

Never will we ever understand, in this life, the extent of the utter despair that Jesus endured when he was forsaken by God His Father.  You may feel like  you’ve been there.  You may even feel like you are there now.  But there’s a difference between being in a dark place and experiencing utter darkness.

The band O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) sings in Heaven “I don’t wanna go to heaven if I can’t get in.”  I imagine a lot of people feel the same.  But the thing is heaven is not just an improvement over what we see and know.  It’s not just a preference or a style.  Heaven is life.  And the alternative is darkness; utter unbearable eternal darkness.  A place where people who are dying of thirst never ever die.

And that friend is where Jesus went.  That’s what He went through.  And He did it so that we might have life.  So that the deepest yearnings, the greatest longings of our souls would be fulfilled.  He came to give us the living water.   Our deepest most profound cravings and thirsts find their fulfilment in Him.

After about 35 minutes on the treadmill yesterday, I was pretty thirsty.  It’s been a while since I’ve been that thirsty.  It was pretty bad.  I felt pretty terrible.  But then in a flash, at the fountain, everything changed.  Water never tasted so good.  There may be nothing worse than the parched longings of a thirsty heart, but there is also nothing better than the refreshing satisfaction of a God filled soul. Yes we may thirst, but take heart Christian we will all be filled.  We will be filled because Jesus went thirsty.

Underoos.  Ok I admit it.  I wanted them.  If you are old enough to remember 8 track tapes, I bet anything that you did too.  Unfortunately my mom never even gave Hanes or the more conventional Fruit of the Looms a consideration let alone those super duper super cool underpants.  Me and my bro grew up sporting those wretched Korean made and Korean tagged whitey tighties.  A product of the gifts and glad tidings of my relatives from the motherland…there was nothing remotely glad about those tidings.

Unlike most other objects of desire, as a kid, this particular covet was not a product of the pressure to be like others or to go along with others.  I don’t ever recall friends talking about their longing for those colorful long johns.  But I wanted them.  I wanted them because there was this undeniable need to pretend I was stronger, faster, smarter more powerful than I actually was.  Underoos just seemed to make it easier and more fun to do.  It was why I wanted them, it was why I imagine so many kids wanted them.

I know as a pastor I am supposed to discourage people from getting all into the Halloween spirit and things (and for good reason).  But this is what makes Halloween so fun.  Living someone else’s life always seems so much more fun.  For that one day (unless of course you’re into cosplay) we are allowed to pretend.  We are given the license to make ourselves up and wear underoos over our clothes.  There is something about putting on a costume and bearing a mask that gives you confidence; it gives you power.  It covers the imperfections, hides the shame.  You can forget about your problems, lay aside your inadequacies and live out your fantasies; at least for a day.

For Christians every day is Halloween.

Though we were wretched, poor, just flat out unacceptable and intolerably unattractive to God because of our sin, He forgave, accepted and embraced us.  Why?  Because He lowered His standard?  Because He chose to forget?  No because by His grace He applied to us the beautiful, perfect life of His Son Jesus (the Bible calls this “righteousness”).  He loves us not because we are good, not because we are trying harder to be good, not because we are generous or kind.  He loves us because He has clothed us with the righteousness of Christ.  Christians are not better people; just covered with the beauty of God’s Son.

The Christian life, in the end, is waking up every day knowing we are allowed (no commanded!) to put on the clothes of Jesus (Col 3:9-10;12-14; Rom 13:14).  Listen to what CS Lewis says about the Christian life in Mere Christianity

To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realize what the words mean, you realize that you are not a son of God. You are not a being like the Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are a bundle of self-centerd fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it…

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. That is why children’s games are so important. They are always pretending to be grownups—playing soldiers, playing shop. But all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits so that the pretence of being grown-up helps them to grow up in earnest. 
    Now, the moment you realize ‘Here I am, dressing up as Christ,’ it is extremely likely that you will see at once some way in which at that very moment the pretence could be made less of a pretence and more of a reality.

Halloween is people of all ages dressing up and pretending to be the person they could never be, living the life they could never live, for fun.  Christianity is people of all ages dressing up and pretending to be the person they will one day be, living the life they will one day receive, for good.

Who do you want to be this Halloween?

One of the reasons I love reading the Bible is because it is chock full of ironies.  Just one example from the Old Testament book of Esther.  So here is Hamon who is preparing a gallows to hang his mortal enemy Mordacai.  Hamon’s hatred for Mordacai runs deep, real deep.  So deep that seeing Mordacai suffer and die will not suffice, he wants to see anyone and everyone who is related to Mordacai suffer and die.  That my friends is some serious hate.  Maybe you know someone who hates that much, maybe you have hated someone that much.   If you have then you can identify with Hamon’s thirst for blood.  And since Hamon was in a position to wield the power to make it happen, he devises an incredibly maniacal plot to kill Mordacai and exterminate his people all the while making out like a national hero.  As the story unfolds things seem to be going according to plan but then in a sudden turn of unexpected events things get bad for Hamon in a hurry.  Like a rabid pitbull who has turned on his owner, so Hamon’s plan turns and bites him in the rear.   Long story short Mordacai (the good guy) comes out on top and his people (the Jews) are saved.  Hamon is exposed for the scoundrel he is and in the end is hung on the very gallows he built for Mordacai.  My favorite part of the whole story is the moment of truth.  The point where Hamon comes to realize his plan is like a house of cards and his ruin is inevitable.  It is when Esther the beloved Queen (who unknown to them happens to be Mordacai’s cousin) reveals her identity and outs her enemy!  Hamon has infuriated the King, threatened and assaulted the Queen and made a complete donkey of himself.  What I would give to have been able to witness first hand the silly look on his face when glory turned to horror in that moment.  Priceless.  That’s the power of irony.

So in a show of solidarity towards the 99% of their American brethren, the world has joined the Occupy Wallstreet movement.  From Madrid, to Rome, to Hong Kong, to San Jose, people from all cultures and countries have gathered to show they are sick and tired of the fact that the concentration of wealth lay in the hands of a select few.  I wonder when people are going to realize the incredible irony of the whole thing.

Here are some hard facts.  There are approximately 6.6 billion people in the world today and close to half of that live on less than $2 a day.  There are just over 300 million living in the U.S. (less than 6% of the world’s population), yet Americans control half the world’s wealth (yes that is a bit better than 1% controlling 43% but not by much!).  If you make $10,000 a year you are in the top 84% in terms of wealth in the world.  If your household earns $50,000 a year, you are in the top 99%.  In other words if you are reading this you are likely not among the 99%.  You are among or you are closer than you think to being in the 1%.

Now I realize that most of those who are actually demonstrating in America are probably unemployed.  And I realize that the issues and reasons for the demonstrations cannot and should not be reduced to a single economic position.  But to me the irony seems pretty blatant.  I know that there will not actually be a Hamonish moment of truth where people in the world will be like “hey wait a second!” or when the people camped out on Wallstreet will realize they are attacking a straw man.  But the anger directed at the 1% does seem a bit hypocritical.

Here’s my point.  Yes there was a spiritual point for all this.  Even if you are in the top 1% of the world, you probably do not feel like it.  You could always use a little more, you cannot help but feel like there is never enough.  Half the world, 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day.  You have enough.  But the problem is you just don’t feel like it.  I am not trying to make you feel bad or guilty or have some sort of charitable agenda behind all this.  Just saying.

If you are a Christian, you came to trust Christ as your Lord and Savior.  What this means is that you came to realize the extent of your moral, emotional, relational and spiritual debt to God.  You were totally bankrupt; and without hope.  But God did not leave you in debt.  He sent his Son to get you out of debt and into great wealth.  So you believed in faith that He would do this, that He did this.  Now the Bible says everything He has is yours!  (Matt 15:31; Rom 8:32; 1 Peter 1:3-4)

Nothing you do can get you more (there is nothing more to get), and nothing you fail to do will give you less.  No one can take it away and nothing anyone could ever do to you will diminish its value.  It is untouchable.  You have God.  And so you have enough.  Enough to share.  Enough to give away.  Enough to overlook the offense.  Enough to get over the hurt.  Enough to help others when they are hurt.  Enough to get over ourselves and turn our gaze to a harassed and helpless world.

But we don’t.  We don’t because we just don’t feel like we have enough.

Christian you have enough.  Stop living like an orphan and acting like a beggar.  You are the 1%!!!

Fed up with the status quo, tired of the rhetoric they finally did something about it.  Who?  The 99%.  A flash mobish grass roots movement that hit the streets of NY, Boston, Chicago and other metropolitan cities leaving the financial districts in an uproar.  Many thought it would die down, that people would disperse and the movement dissipate like other demonstrations, but like a lingering odious odor you can’t identify or seem to locate, this one just won’t go away.  It’s just getting stronger, more offensive and drawing more attention.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about just google “occupy wallstreet.”

People have grown so frustrated at the state of the economy, the lack of job opportunities, the growing federal and personal debt, financial inequality (that 1% of the population owns 43% of the wealth), the lack of responsibility for the privileged, the lack of accountibility from those in power, the lack of health care, the fees, the war, the weather, the cable man…(well you get the point), that what started out as a focused streamlined assault on the 1% has mushroomed to become an invitation and call to action for anyone and everyone who has an ax to grind against the establish order.

I get it.  People are mad.  People are motivated.  People are motivated because they are mad.  Motivated enough to demonstrate, motivated enough to make some real personal sacrifices so that they will be heard, in the hope that something might be done.  What will they actually accomplish?  In my opinion that’s not the point.  The point is they are united they are acting, they are reacting.  Inertia has been overcome by motion.  It may very well be modern day class warefare but anything that motivates 99% of Americans to cross political, racial, socio-economic, and cultural berriers to form a united front is pretty remarkable.  It is amazing what a little anger can motivate the masses to do.

Sometimes I wish people in the church would get mad.  Yeah I know people in the church get mad.  But not that kind of mad.  I’m not talking about the prideful divisive mad that fractures congregations because they went with the other carpet color or because she got overlooked or he feels underappreciated or disrespected.  I’m not talking about the kind of self righteous hateful mad that leads to cruel and oppressive judgmentalism towards the very people they were called to reach.  I’m talking about the kind of madness that melds God’s redemptive people into a unified irrepressible force that advances the good news and the good work of the kingdom of God.  Anger directed at injustice, oppression, and the evil forces that cause pain and spiritual confusion in the world.

The Bible tells us that there were several occasions when Jesus just lost it.  As far as I can see in every instance where Jesus flies off the handle he does so to either condemn the powerful but unregenerate “religious” for their inaction or to catalyze his followers towards forceful yet redemptive loving action.

I came accross a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. in John Piper’s book Bloodlines that I found very convicting.  This is what he said:

“There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed.  In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society…but the judgment of God is upon the church [today] as never before.  If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authority, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20^th century.”

If the church was as fed up with modern day slavery, sex trafficking, the plight of the poor and fatherless, racial reconciliation and the prospect that (for some of us) the vast majority of our friends and family members are headed towards an eternity of unspeakable horror; as the 99% are with the state of the US economy then I believe the world would be vastly improved.  It’s not that I believe we can do it, or that God has put it on us to accomplish it.  That’s not the point.  The point is not how much we accomplish or how many we save.  The point is to simply be in motion.  The church must overcome inertia by acting and reacting to the crying needs of a lost world.

The late Christian singer song writer Keith Green put it the best in his song Alseep in the Light: “The world is sleeping in the dark, That the church just can’t fight, Cause it’s asleep in the light…”

Madness is sometimes the only thing that overcomes inertia.

The outpouring of messages tweets, status updates and public statements in response to the news of his passing is pretty remarkable.  You know you’re a pretty big deal when the President pays tribute to your life the day after your death.

Jobs’ story and the story of Apple is well documented.  It is the story of rags to riches, from the garage to glory. But it is more than that, it is a story of never giving up and getting back up once you’ve fallen.  Jobs himself was fired from the very company he founded.  He experienced failure and fumbling only to return to Apple with a vengence.

Hollywood couldn’t have scripted a better story.  But as remarkable as this story is, it doesn’t explain the devotion, the loyalty, the affection his life and the company he founded elicited from the world.

Why was he so beloved?  I think it’s because Jobs’ life inspired us to believe that our existance could actually make a difference in the world.  He chided us not settle, he exhorted us not to simply work but to have fun.  Jobs made us believe that if we just worked hard enough, labored long enough and demanded more from ourselves, we would be impactful, we could be successful, we would be cool, we would be happy.

Some of the more famous Jobs quotes:

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe.”

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.  Don’t settle.”

“Your time is limited so don’t waste your time living someone else’s life”

His life came to represent all that we ever wanted from life, it represented what life was supposed be; impactful, successful, innovative, and most importantly cool.

News flash.  You won’t; you can’t.  Doesn’t matter how hard you work, doesn’t matter how long you wait.  The most inspiring thing about Steve Jobs is also the most discouraging thing.  He made us believe our satisfaction and ultimate happiness is a product of our labor.  This doesn’t help us, it just hurts.  It is a constant reminder of what we can’t do, what we will never be able to do.  I don’t care how long you practice, how hard you work at it.  If you can’t dunk a basketball, you can’t dunk a basketball.

Jesus Christ surpassed Steve Jobs on every level.  He was smarter, more creative, more discipline, more demanding, made a greater more lasting impact and was just plain cooler.  But the biggest difference was that while Jobs told us we could Jesus told us we couldn’t.

And that friends makes all the difference in the world.  Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He lived a perfect life, because we couldn’t.  He died the perfect death so we wouldn’t.  He came to be more than an example, He came to be our savior.  That is good news.

Jesus doesn’t expect you to live his life, he wants to live through your life.  So stop wasting your time hoping to live someone else’s life; give him your life!

Christina Kelly was a very successful editor of young women’s magazines; over a period of several years she was on the staff of Elle Girl, YM Jane and Sassy.  Some years back she wrote a confessional piece in which she asked:

Why do we crave celebrities?  Here’s my theory.  To be human is to feel inconsequential.  So we worship celebrities and we seek to look like them.  All the great things they have done we identify with in order to escape our own inconsequential lives.  But it’s so dumb.  With this stream of perfectly airbrushed, implanted, liposuctioned stars, you would have to be an absolute powerhouse of self-esteem already not to feel totally inferior before them.  So we worship them because we feel inconsequential, but doing it makes us feel even worse.  We make them stars, but then their fame makes us feel insignificant.  I am part of this whole process as an editor.  No wonder I feel soiled at the end of the day.

…To be human is to feel inconsequential.  Every one of us has at some time or other felt this kind of inexplicable sense of inconsequentiality, that we’re unclean, that we need to prove ourselves.  Popular culture says to us, “Ah, here’s a way to be clean:  Be pretty.  Have flawless skin.  Change your look.  Get thin.  Look like a celebrity.”  But Christina Kelly says the celebrities themselves are incredibly unsuccessful in dealing with their sense of inconsequentiality through their beauty, while the rest of us feel worse because we can’t even come close to them.

To an imperfect, flawed, inconsequential and incredibly self conscious world, the righteousness of God was revealed. To those who were riddled with guilt and shame, who were stained, marred and irreparably damaged the righteousness of God was revealed.  To those who would never be good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, or ever have enough the righteousness of God was revealed.

In Jesus God showed the world what it meant to be righteous, faithful and good.  In Jesus God demonstrated what true power, intellegence and security looked like.  Jesus modeled every glorious and beautiful virtue we look to when we celebrate the lives of celebrities.  But he did so without the help of airbrushes, photoshop or a publicist.  And most importantly he did so because we could not.  Not to prove to us that it could be done, somehow making us  feel even more inaedequate or inconsequential.  He did it FOR us.  He did it not to prove it, He did it to give it.

The rightousness of God was revealed so that we who were unrighteous would be the righteousness of God.  Because of this Jesus’ fame will not make you feel insignificant; it will never at the end of the day make you feel soiled.  It will give you significance and at the end of the day give you a new song.

A very unlikely scenario.  But that’s exactly what happened in Haiti.  Not because they don’t care or are too lazy to do anything.  They just can’t.  It may be shocking to us, but it is what they have come to accept.  It is just how they live.  What else can they do?

Reports say that something like 80-90% of the donations that were collected in the relief effort for Haiti never made it.  In other words the Haitian poeple did not benefit and were not helped from the acts of giving and charity.  After seeing with my own eyes, I have no doubt in my mind this is absolutely true.

Jesus said the church is the light of the world.  Matt 5:14  What did he mean by that?  What he meant was the church is supposed to have such a positive impact on improving individual lives, families, neighborhoods, cities and nations; that the world could not help but recognize and acknowledge the importance and value the church plays in society.  I don’t know how true this is for the church in America but I know that this is absolutely true for the church in Haiti.

Haitians do not trust the government.  They do not see the governement.  But they trust the church.   The church in Haiti is doing everything it can to help tackle the social, economic and spiritual problems that are destroying Hait; leaving Haiti in a state of decay. People are looking to the church to help care for their children, their families, and their communities.  The Haitian church is the light of the world.

I am so thankful that God has led Harvest to partner with Baptiste par la Foi and Pastor Gaston through World Orphans.  90% of our monthly support of that ministry ($1,000) will go directly to help over 20 orphans they are reaching.  It may take some time before we become the light of the world for Columbia and Howard County MD, but through this partnership we are already the light of the world to Haiti!

What we found surprizing when we returned from the mission was how many of our “non-Christian” friends and co-workers were interested in our trip to Haiti.  Some were encouraged many were inspired and some even said they prayed for us.  Wow.  Very quickly we realized that God was not just using us to help reach Haiti; God was using our mission to Haiti to help us reach others.  We are the light of the world.

We were commissioned to be the eyes and ears of Harvest to Haiti.  On Sat Oct 8th 4PM @ Cornerstone Church we are going to do our best to share what we saw, heard, and did.  My prayer is that everyone at Harvest would “get it.”  Get what?  Get why we are doing this.  Get why God has called us to do this.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  Matt 5:14-16

Note: Harvest Haiti mission team Frank Shin, Dan Lee, Ethan Kim, and I visited Haiti Aug 27-31st with Ted Barlow through World Orphans.

“Did you see the film Titanic that screened about a dozen years ago?  The great ship is full of the richest people in the world, and, according to the film, as the ship sinks, the rich men scramble for the few and inadequate lifeboats, shoving aside the women and children in their desperate desire to live.  British sailors drew handguns and fire into the air, crying “Stand back! Stand Back! Women and children first!”  In reality, of course, nothing like that happened.  The universal testimony of the witnesses who survived the disaster is that the men hung back and urged the women and children into the lifeboats.  John Astor was there, at the time the richest man on earth, the Bill Gates of 1912.  He dragged his wife to a boat, shoved her on, and stepped back.  Someone urged him to get in, too.  He refused: the boats are too few, and must be for the women and the children first.  He stepped back, and drowned.  The philanthropist Benjamin Guggenheim was present.  He was traveling with his mistress, but when he perceived that it was unlikely he would survive, he told one of his servants, “Tell my wife that Benjamin Guggenheim knows his duty”—and he hung back and drowned.  There is not a single report of some rich man displacing women and children in the mad rush for survival.

When the film was reviewed in the New York Times, the reviewer asked why the producer and the director of the film had distorted history so flagrantly in this regard.  The scene as they depicted it was implausible from the beginning.  British soldiers drawing handguns?  Most British police officers do not carry handguns: British sailors certainly do not.  So why this willful distortion of history?  And then the reviewer answer his own question: if the producer and the director had told the truth, he said, no one would have believed them.

I have seldom read a more damning indictment of the development of the Western culture, especially Anglo-Saxon culture, in the last century.  One hundred years ago, there remained in our culture enough residue of the Christian virtue of self sacrifice for the sake of others, of the moral imperative that seeks the other’s good at personal expense, that Christians and non-Christians alike thought it noble, if unremarkable, to choose death for the sake of others.  A mere century later, such a course is judged so unbelievable that the history has to be distorted.”

It is no wonder that for so many, the cross of Christ is so incomprehensible.  Who does that?  But the truth of the matter is, Jesus has done exactly that.  He stepped back and sacrificed himself so that he could save us.  It sounds unbelievable but it is true.  And unless we believe it, unless we trust in him, we will drown.  And unless they believe it, unless they trust in him, they will all drown.

The truth must be told, even if it feels like no one will believe us.

They say it was a magnatude 5.8.   That’s pretty strong but even if the experience was pretty scary for you, I am betting that you’ve already forgotten about it.  You’ve already moved on.  For most of us the resignation of a certain CEO will probaby make a greater “impact” on our lives than the earthquake.  Just saying.  Yeah the storm we are going to get hit with this weekend looks to be bad too.  But my guess is that it’ll be in the news 24-7 for the next couple days and then we’ll go back to the same.

Anyway all this made me think about Haiti and Japan.  The 8.6 that hit Japan and the 7.0that hit Port-au-Prince, changed everything for them.  Some lost everything they ever had, others lost everyone they ever loved.  They wished it was simply inconvenient.  No, for them it was life altering.

Tomorrow morning (Aug 27) Frank Shin, Ethan Kim, Dan Lee and I will be visiting Haiti for 5 days.  In some ways the timing couldn’t be better, in other ways the timing could not be worse (speaking from our finite perspective that is).  We’ve already lost our original team leader.  There is a very real threat we might be held up by the storm.  Please pray for us!

We are going to Haiti to meet the church we have committed to support, the pastor who has been called to serve them and orphans who have been left behind because of the earthquake.  It is not a long trip.  Just enough time to introduce our church to them; to learn why we need to give and why more of us will eventually need to go.  We represent Harvest, but more importantly we represent God’s Son.  Please pray for us.

I don’t know why some are protected from the storm and others get swept up in it.  It is probably the first question most of us will ask God when we get to heaven.  What I do know is that God has been good to us.  And because he has been good to us he has called us to be good to others, he has commanded us to give to others.  We give not because we are good. We give because God is good.

Pray that the Lord will use Harvest to help Haiti see and experience God’s goodness.  I have a feeling the Lord is going to use Haiti to help Harvest us see and experience His goodness.