October 2006

A few months ago I wrote a tribute to my wife and her creativity and sacrifice.  An update…her website,  www.lizzyanne.com is live.  Check it out!  Drop her an email.  Order, maybe order again, browse a little more, then maybe place another order…

And if you are living in the Nashville area, you can check out her stuff live and in person by going to ReDo  (www.redoyourhouse.com) on the square in Franklin.   

Choose to believe something different.

33 Million people uprooted by war.  Currently, 33 Million people world wide have been forced from their homes, to make-shift villages where they face a daily struggle for the necessities to survive and the risk of death from malnutrition, disease, or war. 

The average American uses 100 gallons of water a day.  Most refugees are lucky to receive 5 gallons a day for their whole family. 

For about an hour today, my students and I were able to expereince the life of a refugee through an exhibit presented by Doctors Without Borders.  At the end of the exhibit was a tent with literature, posters, and T-shirts.  A small postcard caught my eye.  Put your ideals into practice.  I had just spent an hour listening to our tour guide, once a refugee from Kosovo, share his story, attempting to educate and provide me with an opportunity to experience the ache of humanity, an ache felt by too many and too few.  I kept thinking, I want to go and be a refugee for a week.  I want to feel that ache on a deeper level, I want to relate.  And then those five words…Put your ideals into practice.  In a moment that was about 30 seconds long, but felt like a lifetime, I felt sadness, then anger, I choked back tears, I made a quick list of what my ideals once were, and what they are becoming.  I was smacked in the face with the reality that the majority of my christian life has been spent in selfish pursuit.  That in our design, there is an inherent God-given desire to care for humanity, and my christian experience has served to lead me away from that God given desire.  It was as if 33 million people screamed collectively, “follow Jesus this way.” 

What the heck have I been so busy doing.  What have I made so important that I couldn’t feel my own ache let alone the ache of others.  I may be selling myself a little short, but I’ve been a ”christian” for 20 some years, led in ”ministry” for eight.  I haven’t done shit, accept for hide-out behind a title and try to act spiritual. 

33 Million people uprooted by war.  Put your ideals into practice.

Choose to believe something different.     

Want to know more…please go to www.doctorswithoutborders.org