I am sitting in Borders, about one hour away from being on the radio with my friend Nick – sharing about the work of Doctors without Walls Street Med Santa Barbara and their need for funding, and I realized maybe I can get one last Christmas blog in… Merry Christmas to you all.
When I think of my journey of the past few years, I often get confused myself. Trying to tell people what happened or why I am doing what I am doing can be a bit strange as well. Reactions to the tale are never the same.
I was listening to the radio today and someone was talking about Deism, the idea that The Creator started it all up and then that was it… it is based on reason, seeing that someone probably started everything but then vanished because what we see can give as much evidence that God is not here as much as He is here…
All I know at Christmas is that the message is that He is with us, and that He is still active in history, and that He has not hidden himself away somewhere. God became human and became poor in history and that event has radically changed reality.
Or, it should…
I think we, the church, are coming out our infancy toward maturity. That is the way I feel, and as I speak at churches most people agree that we need to be out in the heart of culture more, but we all are grappling with how that is done. We the church must receive the message first, the counter cultural gospel that calls us to be more than consumers, but to become selfless givers like the Lord himself. We will know we are maturing when we look like Him, when our communities are actively practicing what God set before us.
Before us now is the greatest opportunity of history – the world indeed asking, begging, seeking, knocking for compassion. The door is wide open for lovers. I think of every leader within just about every non-profit and church I know, and they are all expressing a need for support and volunteers to meet the need.
Talked with someone from the Food Bank and the need is the greatest ever, and they are not sure they can help all the families coming.
Santa Barbara Street Medicine will need to make up $50,ooo they will not be receiving via a grant this year.
Young life has seen a 30% drop in giving.
The time seems ripe for us, God’s little experimental band of women and men, to see what it means to share resources more and more, and lay down some of our own dreams for the poor.
Jesus left us this way, that He emptied Himself, became a servant, became poor – an example for the most powerful way of life.
God is with us, with you, with everyone, beckoning a return and a trust – it begins with us… Merry Christmas!