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4/7/2006

Dear Friends,

I have come to the end, and now need your help to continue. Today I read Chapter 40 of The Purpose Driven Life, and in it my life has come full circle, from beginning to end, in a single thought—my purpose. Like you, I can see it clearly by the opportunity in five subordinate words—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. By the one word, by the many, I am made whole.

Throughout my life I have known a certain quirkiness in me, an oddity, a difference from others that made me … well, self conscious. I listened to what was not easily heard; I saw what was not easily seen; I read between the lines; I felt something those around me knew not. I was different, and it was not a difference in which I found joy. I suspect that many of you can relate, in some way. I was not afflicted; I was affected. And though I greeted affliction with fear, I secretly wondered how it would be, how it might change me. It gave me over to inner transformation; just a moment’s worth. To feel what another felt, to see a world through another’s eyes, to know the oddity in another’s lot that came to them so easily by their circumstances, and so impossibly by my own. To this day I can be seen inhabiting another’s shell, metaphorically, as though his condition would better inform my own. It often visibly changes my face; my lips begin to mouth his speech, my body his mannerisms. It raises curiosity in my wife, perhaps, even other emotions.

I have been a man of words, fascinated by their meaning, by the edifices created of them, by the power of their expression. Yet, for most of my life I missed seeing in them what was plainly in sight. I missed the Word. I missed seeing the Word of God, not only in its apparent form—the Bible—but also in its expression; a life lived for Christ. I missed the solution that was hidden in plain sight. I missed my purpose.

I had come to this place before; it is the end of the road, … and the beginning. I had known that something was going on, even before I “knew” that something was going on. I was being nudged along, chased if you will, until I caught up with my pursuer. Blaise Pascal is known to have said: “The heart has reasons of which reason knows nothing.” I have learned the deeper meaning in this otherwise confusing mind puzzle. I have come full circle, and have met my purpose. Like you, I have answered the call.

When we gather to ask the Lord’s blessing on the life of a newborn we entreat the congregants to a commitment. It is the promise to raise that child in the full light of Grace, by our willingness to do so, by a decision to be involved. In this last chapter of the book we have carried these 40 days, Rick Warren begins: “In the Upper Room, as Jesus was concluding his last day of ministry to his disciples, he washed their feet as an example and said: Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Once you know what God wants you to do, the blessing comes in actually doing it.”

In the beginning of this missive I asked for your help. I am asking again. Though I have learned my purpose, a mortal dress for some years, it is in the doing that I am blessed, as you. I am rededicated to that purpose, by the travel in me these past 40 days, by the opportunity I see in you. Would you join together to give me a great gift; will you give me the gift of your love by committing to helping me continue on the path of righteousness? And will you do it for all who are called … children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God, from little Noelle to the wizened among us—from the beginning to the end. In doing so, you will have given to the least of His. I think you know … the rest of the story. 

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his 026fb4, he gave the right to become children of God—

13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Amen

FJR

4/5/2006
Weakness: Gateway to Success 

Within sight of great success are most often the accomplishments and achieving behavior that characterizes it. But some would have us believe that such habits are as easy to come by as packaged gum; just subscribe to any of America’s ‘success’ gurus’ programs and you’re on your way.

For months the butt of sarcasm over his speech-making, President Bush now receives regular praise for his emotion-filled and engaging talks. Admittedly, criticism of his delivery skills and tongue twisting have revealed more than the Mugsy-like linguistics of an indifferent lexicon mangler.  Moved to become a more effective communicator, the Prez has re-W’d his efforts, transforming the once stigmatic presenter into a class act at the podium. Oddly, this "apparent" handicap appears to have helped elect and reelect him.

Likewise, both Moses and Winston Churchill shared the stutter of a dislocated mission. But when each met his calling, all that was, was no more. The Bible tells of countless followers whose weaknesses marked their kismet journeys, as though only those who struggled and failed could qualify for ultimate success. The apostles Peter and Paul were unlikely choices to lead Christianity past the first century--a poor fisherman who thrice denied knowing Jesus, and a Pharisee who carried out the Hebrew law by hunting and leading to death converts to Christianity.

What is it then about weakness that qualifies success? This is more the subject of a week-long seminar, but for the moment consider these thoughts with me.

1.          The jokester Heny Youngman offered when asked: “How’s your wife,” ……”Compared to who’s?” Getting past the humor reveals a fundamental truth in the thinking process--the simple polemic of comparing one thing to another. For most of us the comparison sets a standard to which we aspire. Bad is bad; good is good; but “gooder” is better still. So, we see in this didactic that the human condition is one of striving to do better. But, better than what?  This is the real question.

2.          It has been said that a man cannot know success until he has tasted failure. And, that success is much harder to manage than its underprivileged cousin, failure. If we have it in us to grow, then getting good at something is improving on weakness, at least in comparative terms. I love to see the struggle; it's the only place in which growth occurs.

3.          “The measure of a man is the size of the things that undo him.” Well said, no doubt by one who knew his weaknesses very well. I could take credit for this one. But within the words lies another fundamental characteristic of the human condition--the God-like interest in searching our hearts to disclose the wrong in us. After God, this talent is the exclusive domain of the individual, since it is clear in scripture that men are not capable of knowing the heart of another, nor should they find it necessary. This translates to the principle of righteousness that disavows a man from going to the motivation of another. When we find the wrong in us, we are inclined in one of a few directions--denial, rationalization or reconstruction. The life-bearing system that is man under God leads us mostly in the direction of the latter, or forever in conflict over it. Whatever our individual choice, it is weakness that forms the building blocks of successful behavior.

4.          “In weakness, there is strength.” So goes the seeming oxymoron that was spoken by Jesus as he encouraged men of faith. (1Cor 2:3-5; 1Cor. 15:43; 2Cor. 12:9; Heb 11:32-34) It is well known that the first step in any recovery program that transforms alcoholics, drug abusers, and people abusers, is to admit who they are and to take responsibility for it. The bible says that God will cure no illness that does not want to be cured. Very few survive the first meetings of AA who also find it impossible to admit their faults.

Richard Nixon was one of those who could not come to terms with his sin publicly. He died a bitter man, unavailable to forgiveness by his own choices. Bill Clinton, as well, euphemized his own missteps in the hope of preserving a presidency that was tainted by scandal and legal word twisting. What can we take from these and others who have denied the path of righteousness in searching the wrong in them? (Ps 139:23 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.") It may be the well known fact  that people will reveal themselves, eventually.

Lewis Thomas once wrote: “We are built to make mistakes, coded for error.” With equal clarity William Hazlitt wrote: “It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.”

Now, the final question! Will we have the courage to admit that we are flawed, and to extend the power of God through our weaknesses by His strength?  Will we dare to tell our children that they too are flawed, and that the fruit of their heritage as branches of the Vine is the faith that obtains from such weakness? And finally, will we heed the call to the mission uniquely prepared in us by God? (Eph 2:10 We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, that God prepared in advance for us to do)

 Over the course of these 40 days it has been my privilege to talk to you from the heart. I think of this kind of communications as ‘silent notes writing.’ It has been an exercise in learning to love those I do not know. Perhaps, this is also the heart of the missionary, to love his neighbor so completely that he commits his life to affecting him for Christ.

Thank you for allowing me into your homes, into your hearts. It has been salve for a great weakness in me, a timid heart for Christ when a bold one is His preference. The final week of this journey of 40 days draws a focus on missions. To be anointed by God to participate in a mission is a privilege, but also an obligation. It is the 5th purpose of God’s plan for us, each and every one of His. What must we do? Pray, encourage, support those already in the mission field. Then, find our own. Perhaps, in this you will look first to your weakness.

FJR

PS—If your mission requires no extraordinary expense, as mine, perhaps you will reexamine your giving to other missions. I am without defense in suggesting that you do so, personally bereft of mercy without Grace as I am. But I do so, nonetheless, because I am set apart to do good things … like my brothers and sisters in Christ.

3/31/2006

I looked in the mirror the other day; I didn't like what I saw. It reminded me of a movie scene in which Mel Gibson took off all his clothes, put a paper bag over his head and looked in the mirror through tiny eye holes. I wouldn't recommend it, unless of course, you look like Mel Gibson. When I found the courage to look again, factitious alternatives to what I saw suddenly gained my respect. The scariest thing was that the harder I looked, the better I looked. It's amazing how the mind plays tricks on us. The funniest thing is that after considering the person in the mirror, I began to see the real me, the one God made. And the shape of that person was decidedly better looking. What I saw then was the person planned by God, the work of Jesus Christ, foreknown by God, revealed in His spirit, and apparent by the gifts, the heart, abilities, the personality, and the experience uniquely made in me.

In his amazing book, The Purpose Driven life, Rick Warren writes: "The Bible uses the term "heart" to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections we have. Our heart represents the source of all our motivations--what we love to do and care about most.... The Bible says, "As a face is reflected in the water, so the heart reflects the person." Our heart reveals the real person--what we truly are, not what others think we are or what circumstances force us to become. It determines why we say the things we do, feel the way we do, and act the way we do... The Bible says, repeatedly, "serve the Lord with all your heart."

I still feel innervated when I look in the mirror, at least for the first minute. That is, until I look a little closer. It is then that I see the image of hope that is my birthright, the "invisible" man that God sees, the one He wants me to be most aware of. Isn't a wonderful gift to be in such "plain sight" of Glory?

FJR

In Plain Sight
by John Fischer

“In plain sight, yet invisible at the same time.” This statement struck me from a newsletter I received on behalf of an inner city worker. It was how one person described a time when she was at a low point of homelessness in her life. “Out of sight, out of mind” was one thing, she said, but to be “in plain sight, yet invisible at the same time” was the worst.

This has to strike a cord in all of us. Our societies are so fragmented now that there can exist a great divide separating us from the people we encounter every day. Here in southern California, just to drive from one place to another you can pass through districts of enormous racial, social, and economic disparity. I can’t imagine it is much different in any other city. In such an environment, I can feel the temptation to make whole people groups invisible to me so I don’t have to deal with what scares me or what I don’t understand about them. But if my purpose is to serve, I don’t get to write anyone off. Part of serving is seeing. And part of seeing is becoming sensitive to the invisible people who are in plain sight.

It appears that Jesus was always drawing a crowd made up primarily of invisible folks. It was a lame, blind, leprous, and insane group of left-behinds that seemed to gather around him wherever he went – people who if society had some place to put them so they would be out of the way it would. But since they can’t be put away anywhere, they become invisible. But not to Jesus.

Making people invisible is also a way we can avoid being called into service. “If I make eye contact with that guy, he might ask something of me.” Well of course he will! (I know what I’m talking about here, because I’m always trying to get off the hook.) And if I don’t have money to give him, I have something. Perhaps it starts with seeing him, and then I might discover what to do. Peter once healed a lame man begging by the road, because he didn’t have any money to give him. Imagine that! Well I don’t have any money, but I can heal you and completely turn your life around from here on out!

No one is invisible to Jesus. And if you and I have Jesus, we have something to give. For starters, we have the gift of seeing someone, and for someone who has been invisible in plain sight for a long time, that is an incredible gift in and of itself.

3/29/2006

Late into a regular Wednesday morning meeting last week one of our group arrived. He sat down, and with some uneasiness began to talk. He said that he'd been sleeping with his son the past few nights and that getting all the sleep he needed was hard to come by under the circumstances. We, who are in the group, know that his son has so-called "special needs." Jeff continued to talk about the circumstances of the past few days, and the challenges his son's condition presents. It was an outpouring that consumed the last minutes allotted for our meeting that morning. As he continued, we were all drawn to him for the frankness of his expression, for the innocence in his heart as he came haltingly, to the reality that his family lived with--his son had "special needs."

As he continued, without pause, it was clear he seemed to come to an awareness of the blessing that his lot had become, though I am certain it was not a new thought. Not only was his son "in need" with sometimes pressing demand, but his uniqueness had magnified the wonderful qualities made only in him. His son, while challenged by his "special needs," was also interested and engaged in most things common to ten year old boys. And, his special bearing was an apparent gift that had become a joy to Jeff and his family. Further, as Jeff explained it, his son's "needs" had made him acutely aware of his own needs, not coincidentally, for God's working in his life. "My son is a blessing," he added. "And he has taught me so much about myself and of God's purpose in my life that I cannot imagine life being better under any other circumstances."

I think I am the great shrinking man; I keep meeting ordinary people with extraordinary behavior that cause me to feel small. Jeff effectively closed our meeting with his story; it was something of a prayer in my mind. But not before leaving me with a stunning thought. Aren't we all people with "special needs"?

I continue to wonder how truly small I must become in order to see the greatness in the simple act of obedience to God through our circumstances.

Perhaps, when you can see me no more, when I am smallest, I will finally have reached my destination.

FJR

Loving that person with 'special needs'

by John Fischer

Donna is a contributing reader who provides some insight today about connecting to those around us with special needs, which, in her mind, would be just about everybody.

Donna writes: "I keep getting people who, when I tell them I work on the Special Ed. bus, get all serious and very solemnly say, 'It takes a special person to work with those kids.' To me they are really saying, 'Special needs people make me uncomfortable and since I don't have the 'gift' to work with them, I'm glad you do.'"

"I met a man in a bookstore once who said that if he could sit down face to face with God, he would ask him why he let some people be born with handicaps. I got to thinking about that. Who's to say that 'special needs'

people are inadequate? Is he saying their lives are not as valuable as his?

Of course if God would heal them that would be wonderful, but if he doesn't, that doesn't mean they can't have meaningful lives. Maybe they are here to teach the rest of us. If we say they aren't valuable and have no purpose then it's a very short step from there to lots of horrible things."

Donna's reasoning as to why this is wrong is what makes her comments so insightful. She believes this kind of thinking is wrong because, in reality, we all have special needs, and we all need the same thing: someone to see the real person that we are and love us for that.

Donna continues: "I've learned to see people with handicaps as real people with some special need. And when it comes down to it, don't we all have some special need? Don't we all have an uncle that we don't dare bring up politics to because of his reaction? Don't we all walk on pins and needles around women in the family who are 'PMS-ing?' Don't our spouses have buttons we don't want to push?"

"So I think we should all give special needs people a break and look beyond the dribbling, the wheelchair, the funny speech, the shriveled hand, and find a new friend."

It occurs to me that it's going to take someone willing to get over my own dribbling, shriveled-up nature to be my friend, and if for some reason they can't, I have to wonder if I have a friend at all.

Anyone want to love a person with special needs? I hope so; otherwise, no one is going to get any love here.

3/20/2006

525,600 Minutes
Carla and I spent the weekend on the Great White Way. Our daughter Meg and roommate Brittany flew up to NY to visit family and enjoy the theater. They caught four shows; we bailed after three in two days. They were fun and instructive. In one we heard a song titled 525,600 Minutes. It struck me that few of us count our lives by this infinitesimal denomination. As a poet, it's a thought I've entertained before. The song goes: "525,600 minutes; how do we measure a year"? Indeed!

The play "Rent" (in which it appeared) is an adaptation of Puccini's opera, La Boheme, or so it seems. A group of artists living the life of bohemians (as they were called in Puccini's day), are in the grip of death, finding life a struggle, and ultimately a joy. Sound familiar?

How do we measure a year? If we listen carefully to the sound in our souls, that mellifluous music that plays only to a giving ear, we hear the echo of a single moment, the one moment God has given us to enjoy completely. Indeed, the only moment we can count on in this life before life. Maybe, you'll hear what I heard so many years ago, what John Fischer heard in listening to the still small voice in his soul as he played Terry Scott Taylor's ballad. I pray that for you and me eternity is in this very moment. Let's listen, together, as we prepare purpose filled lives for Christ.

Time
God created only a single moment in time, for eternity -- eternity able to dissolve time. We are in time, and can only glimpse eternity. He is eternity. We can be reconciled with eternity in the same way that God created time -- by loving the moment completely.

Those without this image of God often want most that which he prays will never happen -- separation from Him.

He gave his son over to perdition that we might gain true freedom by complete obedience to Him -- an unconditional love that is the only window to eternity and the one harmonious moment that spells His desire for us.

In my dreams I see her laughing;
In the mist she’s still at play.
So each morning I go looking
For the child who could not stay.
Now she fills the fallow green fields
With a memory-laced perfume.
Oh how she loved the morning
So God took her in the afternoon

Finding Eternity Here
by John Fischer

Terry Scott Taylor* has written a tender, bittersweet ballad that kills me every time I hear it. It is about the loss of a dear friend who loved to rise early to the beauties of “dawn’s golden colors” and dance across a “quilt of morning dew.” And when she prayed in the morning, her prayers “cracked the mountains of Virginia, and touched the hem of Jesus’ will.” So when it was her time to leave this life, according to Terry, God came for her in the afternoon because she loved the morning so much.

Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help but reflect on how insignificant one more morning on earth would be, compared to the eternal glories in heaven into which she was about to be ushered. And yet, at the time, the morning was the most glorious thing she knew, and Terry has created a picture of God not wanting to touch the sanctity of their morning experience together, almost as if He would miss it too. I believe this beautiful metaphor captures something true and significant about our human relationship with God.

God cherishes the time we spend focusing on Him. Otherwise, why would He have created us, let us go our own way, and then invite us back through the forgiveness brought about on the cross of Jesus Christ, if it wasn’t to experience the spontaneous nature of our worship from the point of view of our forgiven humanity? Didn’t He create us to revel in His grace and in the beauty He made? Something about finding and treasuring moments with God as imperfect human beings on a tired, fragile planet is valuable in and of itself. So much so that God himself cherishes it, and would revel in one more morning of our earthly praise, even while eternity stretches before us in all its fullness and completeness.

Which brings all this down to you and me today. What do we have “one more of” that would make experiencing it worth living one more day? Why would God leave you here? What have we yet to do and experience with Him? Don’t miss it. Treasure your experience of God in this body while you can. We are not just marking time until heaven, we are finding out what this human experience is for. Every moment is significant now. Don’t be so eternally focused that you can’t find eternity here.

In my dreams I see her laughing;
In the mist she’s still at play.
So each morning I go looking
For the child who could not stay.
Now she fills the fallow green fields
With a memory-laced perfume.
Oh how she loved the morning
So God took her in the afternoon.

[From “The Afternoon” by Terry Scott Taylor, on the album, “Avocado Faultline”]

* Terry Scott Taylor (of the rock group Daniel Amos, Lost Dogs, and a host of other musical incarnations in his lifetime) is on a very short list of singer/songwriters whose geniuses, in my opinion, were lost on a Christian music label and audience that could never understand what they were trying to do. Hopefully they will still be found by those who can.

3/18/2006

In a discussion with my discipleship group this morning we were reminded of the biblical urging to keep our vigil high for Christ. It's the how in this principle that often confounds us, and by it grows our feelings of inadequacy over our failure to do so. STOP! Justification has already been dealt with; we needn't address this issue ever again. In His infinite love Jesus died --once and for all--to cleanse our sins, from the beginning to the end of time.

But what of that practice (walk) that seems so difficult to maintain, and which drives us to distraction? The plan is simple, the practice easy to grasp, the execution often so hard. We are told what to do--be in the Word, pray over all things, fellowship, become in involved in discipleship, acts of worship, and ministry. And still, it eludes us. Here's an idea I picked up from another that Carla and I have been using since the early days of our relationship. Whenever you see a penny pick it up and read the inscription on the front, any coin for that matter. But pennies have become the portable CD players of the age--nobody wants them. Stores give them away; people routinely refuse to take them as change. And they litter parking lots and sidewalks all over America. Yet, on every penny--so easy to come by--are the words "In God we trust."

When I pick up a penny and read that message I am immediately drawn to Him who knows my heart and prepares all things. The opportunity to be all that I can be in the next moments--for the glory of God--is firmly implanted in me before I take my next step, speak the next word, think the next thought. It works.

In the devotional below John Fischer asks us to join him in considering the growth of our souls. He reveals that it takes some effort, a comprehensive approach to build this important edifice. He goes so far as to suggest: "If your soul is undersized, it is because you haven't been paying attention to it." Perhaps, for you, as for me, there is work to be done. Along the way pick up a penny; it'll get you started.
 

Growing Your Soul
by John Fischer

Your soul is the place where you know there is a God even before you meet Him. The soul is that in us which longs for the right thing. And once we come into a relationship with God, it’s the place where we commune with Him. The soul can be filled with God or devoid of Him, but if it is empty, God is the only thing that will fill it. We can throw all sorts of pleasures and loves in there, but none will satisfy like God, because the soul was made to long for Him and no other. When God breathed into Adam, he became a living soul, forever longing for God’s breath to fill him again.

So growing your soul means to enlarge your capacity for God and truth. It’s all about learning to walk with God -- listening to Him through His word and through the natural revelations of Him that come through the things He has made, which includes all the people you know since they were made in God’s image. Growing your soul can also involve finding God in the ordinary life and activities we share in every day. It’s about being more conscious of the presence of God within you as you go about your normal routines of life. Growing your soul doesn’t only happen through spiritual activities like praying and reading the Bible; it can also happen in the way we do everything else. It’s a God-consciousness that enlarges as we grow it. When Paul says to pray without ceasing, he means to be more of a soul-conscious person.

This may be hard sometimes, even for the most mature of believers. We all go through times when everything around us seems dry and barren, spiritually. Our souls still long for God. David’s soul longed for God in a dry and weary land where there was no water (Psalm 63:1), and like a deer panting for water, his soul panted for the Lord (Psalm 42:1).

This is important to know, because it is not a longing that is over once we meet God. We still long for Him because we long to know Him more, and we sometimes lose sight of Him even though we know better. Just as we must regularly take in physical food in order to stay alive, our souls must have spiritual food in order to grow and be healthy. If your soul is undersized, it is because you haven’t been paying attention to it. It’s been telling you all along what it needs and wants. It’s time to do something about it.

3/08/2006

3/08/2006

Norman Vincent Peale, preacher, behaviorist who popularized "applied Christianity,"  used to say, "Whenever God wants to send you a gift, he wraps it in a problem, The bigger the problem, the bigger the gift." We have seen that successful people (like those who are faithfully devoted to their families, friends, joy in their circumstances, fruitful work, etc.) make a habit of looking beyond the surface of things, even into the most difficult situation for the positive in it, for something to learn, from which to benefit. It is this attitude (approach) that often triggers a focused insight or solution to their problem. Some have called this the super conscious mind at work, but whatever it is, we know that God created it in us to be used for good.

We have come to the second week of the blessed campaign called 40 Days of Purpose. It has given many of you a renewed sense of God's will in your lives, a blessing to last an eternity. Rick Warren suggested in his simulcast last Saturday that we cannot do this alone; it won't work. He continued that we need to be part of a "body" to make the purpose in us come alive. Relationships. They are stuff of creation, the mask of eternity, the problem and the solution. John Fischer speaks to the issue of the how and what of relationships with "seekers." It's who Rick Warren says we are to focus on in gathering others to the saving grace of God. I trust you will enjoy the story .... and that you will see the opportunity in it.

FJR

Adventurous Living
by John Fischer

A number of you wrote about the usual question around this topic: How close can we get to the world before the world starts to rub off on us? To this I would answer: as close as we can. Indeed, our faith needs to rub up against the world in order to be strong and get stronger. Faith that is never challenged makes for a pretty weak faith.

 I have been around Christians long enough to know that keeping oneself from bad influences can easily turn into an excuse for staying away from the world because it's just too unpleasant being around people who don't believe the same things we do. I understand that old lifestyles and addictions come into play here, but those so often become excuses to stay isolated instead of barriers to overcome.

 A chaplain I know at a Christian college likes to turn this question around. "How come we always default to 'the-world's-bad-influence-on-us' position? Why don't we ever think in terms of our influence in the world?" Indeed, this would seem to be closer to Christ's commissioning us as salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16). God sent Christ into the world to save it (John 3:16-17), and Christ sends us into the world to tell everyone about Him (John 17:18).

Remember, it's not about us. And since it's not about us, we need to get over whatever it is that is keeping us from being in the world and becoming friends with those who need Jesus. And I think Jesus can help with this. In fact, He is standing by with all the resources of heaven to keep us in His hand, and to get us to the place where we can reach out in love to those He came to save.

 "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world," Christ prayed, "but that you protect them from the evil one" (John 17:15).  

Apparently, God would rather protect us in harm's way than remove us to a safe place. How about that for adventure?

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