soul talk: Psalm25:5

I spent Thursday afternoon in the office of the Homeless Liaison of the Kansas City, Kansas School District. Her name is Staci Pratt. She’s been working with homeless students for almost a decade and in our two hour meeting she told me real life stories that broke my heart and left me with the certainty that I must do something.

What that something looks like….well, let’s just say I’m figuring it out. I have a lot to learn.

Apparently there is a relatively new law in Kansas that prohibits the state from taking children (ages 16-18) into foster care unless there is proven physical, or sexual abuse. In some cases, even when abuse is known, the state does not act (probably at least part of the reason is a lack of resources). The result is that there are now 30 childen in KCK School District who are homeless. Some are lucky enough to find a shelter. Most live on the street, or on a friend’s couch.

The hard part is that these kids really want to graduate. They have dreams for a future.

So what will I do? Well, my family and I are praying about the possibility of hosting one of these teens.  I also talked with a family at our church who have a heart for foster kids. We’re developing a plan to learn how others are meeting this need around the country (St. Louis, Milwaukee, Los Angeles). We have a lot to learn.

Maybe a year from now this will all result in the establishment of a “New Hope Children’s Home” in KCK. (Do you know about or orphanages in India and Thailand?) I don’t know what the answer is, I just know we have to do something. Which means, I have to do something.

I am bent toward an interal spiritual life, so it’s important for me to plan the external. Robert Mulholland, Jr. writes about this in his book, “Invitation to a Journey”. Our personality styles can help us to identify our spiritual preferences, but if we’re not intentional we’ll get out of balance and become spiritually unhealthy. So, while I default to one style I need to be sure to include others.

Here are some of the ways I connect with God…

I ride my bike; read a good book; listen to great music, or to the wind in the trees, or the sounds in the night, or silence; watch the waves break on the beach; study my Bible; teach from what I’ve learned in my study, serve a friend, pray.

How do you connect with God?

A friend set me up so that my tweets automatically update my Facebook status. And using reader.google.com I can share my blogs, or any blog I’m reading, which will update my tweets. This is all so cool!

But, I’m conflicted. I love this stuff, and read as many blogs as I can (in about 30 minutes a day). I’m wondering if this habit really contributes toward a persons spiritual growth. What do you think?

I should tell you that I love to learn; reading books, blogs, and listening to podcasts, have become my primary source of learning. Still, somedays my life just seems to be filled with too much noise.

When I first started following people on twitter, I had their tweets sent directly to my cell phone. It was a little cool knowing what Mark Batterson was doing every moment of the day, or what Leonard Sweet was thinking about. But I’ve turned that feature off, and now the only way I actually read tweets is when I log on to twitter on my computer or iphone. I try to do this about once a day, but I’m not very regular.

So…I’d like to know what you think. Is twitter, facebook, blogging, etc. just more noise, or is it really contributing to our growth in Jesus?

If you aren’t a fan of Reggie McNeal I honestly don’t know why. This guy challenges and inspires me in ways few writers/speakers can. I absolutely love his latest book, “The Missional Renaissance,” and recommend it without hesitation.  I honestly believe this book could change the church in ways we have not seen in 500 years!  It is an absolute must read! and more than that, it is a must live!

Reggie’s book touches the heartbeat of the serve revolution that’s taking place in our society. It challenges the assumptions that the health of a church is based on attendance, buildings, and cash, and leads us to measure the health in changed lives, and changed community.

If you’ll forgive this statement, I know it may seems like a political affront, but President Obama, and many in our country today believe the government is the solution to our problems. I believe Jesus is, and I believe Jesus will work through the church to do his work. We’ve just got to lead the church to talk about the whole gospel.

We’re pretty good about leading people to salvation in Jesus Christ, (actually maybe we’re not), but the gospel is about more than salvation – it is the GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom of God.

Reggie’s book lights a fire in me to be the kind of leader and follower who lives out the whole gospel and inspires others to do the same. I hope you’ll buy a copy and read it.

A friend told me recently that the word “righteous” has lost much of its meaning in our day.  I’ve thought that it meant, “living according to God’s law,” or “living in a godly way.”  This, according to my friend, is just a shadow of the full meaning of the word.

In ancient days when a building was constructed it was declared “righteous” if it was built according to plan. Carrying that meaning to today enriches the meaning of this word for me. The Bible tells us that no one is “righteous” but God alone, and that we are “made righteous” by the blood of Jesus.

If I were to paraphrase this definition I’d put it like this. You were made for more, and you can only be who you were made to be if you submit yourself to the master builder, Jesus.

Righteousness has little to do with obeying the law, and everything to do with submitting to Jesus. As each day passes, I am compelled to follow Jesus and submit to Him. My tendency is to constantly take back control, and build my life as I see fit, but I know that unless He is the builder I will never be rightly built.

I’m sure someone will correct me, but I believe that Jesus talked more about the “Kingdom of God” than he did anything else. What is the most visible expression of the KINGDOM OF GOD that you have witnessed recently?

Years ago, while I was serving a church in the DC suburbs, a member of my  church insisted I attend the “March for Life.”  The March is an annual on the mall in Washington that demonstrates against abortion. I marched, but little has changed.

Here are my most recent thoughts about how to effectively battle abortion.

Let’s make adoption so attractive that abortion will loose credibility as an option in the public’s mind.

It seems to me, all pro-life, anti-abortion, advocates, should be even more passionate about adoption and foster care.

My perception, which may be false, says that adoption is seen as the less desirable option for the woman, or couple, considering abortion. Somehow abortion is favored. Could someone figure out how to make adoption so desirable, and so attractive, and so successful and common, that abortion lost all favor?

One significant step is for churches to fully embrace foster care and adoption. I’m glad to see the beginnings of this at my church, but we have so long to go. WOuld you partner with me to pray for churches, and for Christians, to fully embrace adoption/foster care?

I am not an expert at anything, least of all parenting. Still, there are moments when I am impressed with a significant truth, usually from scripture, or from a great Christian communicator, and these impressions are worth passing on.  Here is one:

1. Stop having “church” conversations and start having “God” conversations.

I’m BIG on church. So please understand thatI am not demeaning the church in any way. In my parenting of our daughters I can recall dozens of times that I’ve picked them up after an event at church and asked something like, “How did it go?” or “How was the meeting?” or “How was the event?” You’ve probably done the same. The problem that I see is that the conversation that followed the question was often centered around the event. I wish I had intentionally led the conversation more toward God. Here are some questions I wish I had asked more often:

a. What did God teach you through the time there?

b. Do you feel closer to God, or more distant from him as a result?

c. Where do you sense God may be leading you as a result of this experience?

I know, these are deep questions, and I’m sure they could be phrased in better ways, but I will leave them as is, for the purpose of asking you to think about it…how can you lead your children to understand that life is ALL about loving God, and too often we fall SO short of this by just talking church.

Here’s something to ponder, “Stop thinking about evangelism as something we do. Start thinking about evangelism as the result of how we live.”