The Decade From Hell

No doubt, my favorite time of year is the Christmas season. But perhaps even more exciting than that is what follows. I am addicted to those “year in rewind” shows, and every channel’s got them!

The Top 10 Political Scandals of 09, The Top 10 Most Influential People of the year on Oprah, The Top 10 Music Videos on VH1, MTV and CMT, The Recap of Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC, The Weather Channel’s Worst Disasters of 09…and the list goes on.

So it seems natural that, at the dawn of a brand new decade, we look back at the previous one, if for nothing else but for a little reflection.

The new millennium was ushered in with every soul on planet earth crossing their fingers. Y2K was coming, or was it? Scary right? We had no idea what scary really was! It wouldn’t take long though to figure out; the most obvious, of course, was the September 11th terrorist attacks, no doubt the most pivotal moment of the last decade, and probably in American history.

I remember that day clearly. I had just finished a college class and decided I’d run to my car and zip to Taco Bell to grab some lunch before my next class. When I got to the parking lot it was so flooded with cars I couldn’t get out of my parking space. My first concern, of course, was the Taco Bell I most likely wouldn’t get to eat in time. Then, someone yelled out of their car window for me to turn on the radio. “America was just attacked”, they shouted. I turned on my radio and like everyone else, sat in disbelief. Could it really be? Needless to say, I forgot about the Taco Bell.

I had just joined the Air National Guard a few months earlier. I never saw this one coming. I didn’t answer my phone for a week. I was afraid of the inevitable, and the inevitable did finally come for me just a few weeks before Christmas. The dreaded orders had arrived. I was going to Afghanistan, by request of the President himself.

To reflect on the rest of the last decade makes my head hurt. No wonder Time Magazine titled their December 7, 2009 issue, “The Decade From Hell”. There was the first Wall Street crash from failing tech stocks in 2000-2001. The September 11th attacks led us into a global war on terror, including Iraq and Afghanistan. We had Anthrax letters, the D.C. snipers, the Wall Street scandals of Enron and WorldCom. Then right smack in the middle of last decade, in 2005 was the worst natural disaster in American history, Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,500 and cost more than $100 billion in damages. The slow response and chaos that followed was nothing short of disastrous.

The housing bubble is something Katie and I are personally paying for. Come to think of it, you are too. We all are. I read that the bailouts cost every American nearly $45,000 each. Yeah, you’re paying for it too. Our house has depreciated so much in value in the last 6 years from when we bought it that to sell it will equate to significant loss for us. Any renters out there? We're moving...

Wages are dropping, unemployment is soaring and Americans living below the poverty line increased to 13.3% in 2008. And our financial trouble is affecting the entire world. But it’s not just financial problems we’ve faced the last 10 years…

There were more mass shootings and school shootings like the Virginia Tech murders (32) and the recent attack on Fort Hood, than in any other decade. There were more large-scale terrorist bombings around the world in this decade than in any other. There were the never-ending Political Sex Scandals, Drug and Steroid Scandals by some of our favorite Athletes and Olympians, the Crash of the Auto Industry, soaring Gas Prices, Color-Coded Threat Levels, Abu Ghraib, Scott Peterson, Bird flu, Swine flu, (My flu, Your flu), Global Warming, Larry Craig, Bernie Madoff, Ahmadinejad, a $1.75 trillion deficit for 2009 alone, H1N1, Ted Haggard…shall I go on?

Of course, we as Christians are immune to this stuff right? After all, we live under the blessing of God. We are set apart. Aren’t we? Quite the contrary. We are set apart, but we are not immune nor should we act like we are.

To whom much is given, much is required.

As Christians, we stand at the brink of incredible opportunity. Are we outward focused, concerned and consumed with bringing light and hope into a dark and desperately lost world? Or are we inward focused, concerned about the effects of the world reaching its’ cold ugly hands into our families and homes?

What has the message of the church been this last decade? “The American Church is in DECLINE”. “Only 4% of this generation are Bible-Believing Christians”. “The American Church is following in close step with Post-Christian Europe”. “The American Church is dying”.

These messages may be true, but let’s not miss the moment. Yes, the Christian church is in decline. Yes, it’s been one hell of a decade (pardon my expression). Yes, we are definitely feeling the effects, in our churches, in our homes, in our families, in our wallets.

I’ve preached these messages. I've preached these messages with passion! I believe them. I believe that the church is in decline as much as I believe all of the other stuff I've posted in this blog.

But I also believe that the message isn’t that the church is in decline.

The message is really, “The Church is About to Dominate”.

Everyone likes to root for the underdog. Why? It’s exciting. Everyone likes a challenge. Everyone likes to see someone or something that looks like a lost cause come from behind and win. Thing is, we only look like the underdogs at the moment. Let's stop believing Christian America is a lost cause. It just looks that way right now.

So, as we look back at the last decade, and we look ahead to the start of a brand new decade, we stand at the brink of the greatest opportunity the church has ever seen.

In the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of a global war against fundamentalist terrorists and evil dictators, in the midst of a financial meltdown, in the midst of a church in decline,

Our finest hour awaits.

Join the movement.
Seize the moment.
Let’s not rewrite history; let’s create history.

What's it going to take from you? Where's the urgency? Where's the passion? Where's the selfless sacrifice? We are called to be a light to the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden or shaken. We are called to be catalysts of change, movers and shakers.

In the darkness is where the light shines the brightest.

This is the finest hour the church has ever lived.

We will rise.

We will dominate.

We will win!

Bald Little Black Girl

Her name is Anabell Nayelly Palma Mera.

She's a 6 year old little girl who lives with her mom in a small costal fishing village on the northeastern part of Ecuador. We've never met.

The information on the card is minimal. She likes dolls, going to church and is considered an average student in her kindergarden class.

But then what? What else? What else is there to know about the little girl in this picture?

This card was just one of many cards buried beneath thousands of others in a worn out cardboard box at the Catalyst Conference I attended a few months ago in Atlanta. There were no hecklers. There were no extravagant pleas for sponsorship. There was just a small table where all of the other tables were, all of the other tables that gave away free t-shirts and materials to get gullible people like me to buy their product. After all, that's why we go to conferences right? To hear speakers talk about interesting topics and then leave with a bunch of products that we don't need and that we'll never use.

At this table though, there was no product. There were no free samples to take home. Just card after card after card after card. Story after story. Picture after picture.

I have to admit, Compassion International is no stranger to me. I've been to at least a dozen conferences, concerts and events where Compassion set up the same small table. I even hosted a Worship Together Seminar at a church once. And guess who was there, with that same table covered in cards? Compassion International.

I remember spending a lot of time at their table talking to the representative. After all, he was setting up in my church, at my conference. He was nice. He had full sleeves (tattoos covering both arms for those who need to know the definition of sleeves) and gigantic spacers (earrings that stretch out the earlobes to near catastrophic extremes) and a fohawk that put mine to shame (think Ryan Seacrest). Not to mention he could definitely pull off the skinnies a lot better than I could (super tight jeans), which is much of the reason I've shelved the skinnies, at least for the winter until I can manage to shed a few pounds.

But back to the table, with the Compassion guy. He talked about how much he loved his job, traveling and supporting the cause of Compassion's kids. And what else, he didn't try to sell me or guilt me into sponsorship. Maybe he figured the pictures spoke for themselves. I mean, how anyone can stand by a Compassion table and stare at the faces of those precious children living in the most unfortunate and godless conditions and not feel the urge, the urgency, the overwhelming conviction and compassion to open up their wallet and bring one of these beautiful children into their lives is, I dunno, dead?

But who am I to judge right? I mean, dozens of opportunities passed me by. Maybe I wasn't compelled because I didn't take the time to really look, to listen, to obey. Interestingly enough, as I passed the booth at Catalyst, having just signed up for an annual subscription to the mighty Catalyst Filter, a resource for church leaders that includes being shipped the Aqua Box 4 times a year, I felt the urge, a conviction really. Here I was, spending a hundred dollars on an Aqua box that will ship me books and CD's I probably either already have or don't really need anyway, and there are pictures of children covering this table, desperate children, each with a story, a need, waiting for me to respond. So I stopped.

I asked the representative to find me a little girl, knowing that my 2 1/2 year old daughter would relate best to sponsoring a little girl closest to her own age. They began searching through a vast pile of cards and handed me two, both of which had big red letters stamped across the front, "Urgent Care Needed". That meant, I was told, that these two little girls had been to many conferences and concerts and events where many Christians had walked past the table and failed to stop.

Compassion is unique in that their cards aren't mass produced. Quite literally, each card is only produced one time, with one photo of one real child in need. What you see if what you get. If someone takes a card home, or worse yet, takes a card and tosses it in the trash, that one, real, special child in desperate need doesn't get sponsored. It can take months, even years for a child to reenter the system; time that many of these children just don't have.

So there I stood with two cards.

On one card, a bald little black girl from Africa; where exactly in Africa? I didn't look.

On the other card, a 6 year old hispanic girl from Ecuador, who looked a lot more like my own little daughter, with hair and all. So with little thought, I handed the other card back and signed up to sponsor Anabell. I wrote out my credit card information and checked the box for automatic withdraw so as to keep myself from not following through or keeping my pledge.

With my $35 dollars a month this little girl is going to be able to go to a Christian school and spend her entire childhood learning about Jesus. With my $35 dollars a month she's going to have access to medical treatment and other Christian-based programs for her and her family. And, she's going to be apart of our family. As I write this, we've begun preparing our special Christmas gift package that we're going to send her in just a few weeks. And, we'll correspond with each other. Her picture is posted on our refrigeration. I told my daughter Morgan that Anabell is her new big sister. Hopefully, in a few years I'll even be able to afford to take my family to Ecuador to meet Anabell and spend time with her and her family.

But there's something else. Something that's haunted me.

Something I haven't been able to get out of my mind.

It's that bald little black girl from somewhere in Africa.

I didn't even bother to read her card. I made a split-second judgment and chose Anabell, because she had hair. I passed on the bald little black girl because I thought my daughter would connect more with a little girl that looked more like her.

Before, having never sponsored a child, I felt okay about my life, like a good little Christian. After all, I've devoted my entire life to ministry, to helping people. The tricky thing about doing the right thing is that sometimes you suddenly realize how much of the wrong things you do. It's like, I had participated in something so pure, so honest, so heavenly that a light was illuminated inside of my heart.

It was as Isaiah 58 says, "Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon."

The motivation, the judgment, the inadequacy, the complacency; I could see it all.

And the little bald black girl from Africa; I couldn't get her out of my mind. Then I thought, what if Jesus had treated us the way I treated those two little girls?

What if, while on the cross, he looked down at me and said, "I don't relate with that guy - PASS". "That girl's gonna have an abortion - PASS". "He's going to abuse his wife and children and end up in prison for rape - PASS". "She's going to live her entire life and never realize the plans I have for her - PASS". "He's going to be selfish and ignore me - PASS".

Truth is, thank God he didn't. Jesus willingly gave his life for me, for you, for each insignificant one of us. He gave without judgement, without condition, without blinking an eye and without an ounce of second guessing. And Jesus' message for us, for Christians, for Christ-followers is not that we seek out life, but that we give out life; not that we seek out blessing but that we become the blessing; not that we demand sacrifice but that we become willing living sacrifices for the sake of his Kingdom and the good of others.

There's something illuminating, something pure, something heavenly about taking care of the needy. Jesus told the rich young ruler who had everything and had apparently kept all of the commandments since his youth that there was just one thing he was still missing, to sell his possessions and give to the poor.

A few weeks ago I received a gift from a friend. It was book and inside the front cover read, "For the guy who has everything". It's true. I have everything. And most of you do too.

I'll never know the name of that bald little black girl from Africa.

I'll never know if she was sponsored or not.

I'll never know if she grows up to know Jesus or if she dies of starvation or disease before she becomes a teenager.

But I'm only one person.

And Jesus' message to love the poor and lay down our lives wasn't just for me. It was for you too.

Jesus said in Matthew, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven."

It's more than hundred million dollar churches.

It's about loving the way Jesus loves.

It's about sacrifice and giving.

It's about meeting the needs of people.

It's about changing lives.

Maybe you're beginning to feel the urge, the conviction, the compassion to reach out this Christmas. There are children waiting. Perhaps, even the bald little black girl I passed by. I'm no representative for Compassion International, just a guy who feels the urgency to do what's right and ask others to do the same. There's always an excuse. There's always more time.

Try telling that to the 8-year-old Pakistani girl who was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "I want to have an easy job. A job where nobody hits us or hurts us."

I bet she could really use a friend. I bet she could really fall in love with a God who's sons and daughters opened their arms and wallets to her in a tangible expression of His love. And there are millions. What are you waiting for? Do something.

http://www.compassion.com

Hundred Million Dollar Churches

I just finished reading a great book with a group of friends. The book is called, “Jesus Wants to Save Christians” by Rob Bell. There are probably a thousand statements in the book that I could use for a blog topic, but I've picked just one that had significant impact on the way I view my faith and my responsibility as a Christ-follower. So here it is:

“Jesus wants to save [Christians] from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker.”

America makes up less than 5% of the world’s population yet controls 20% of the world’s wealth.

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses 400-600 liters of water a day.

Every 7 seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.

40% of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.

Never before in all of human history has the world seen a superpower as wealthy and as powerful as The United States of America. We have more at our disposal than any people group anywhere at any time has ever had. So here’s the premise of the book (something that will make you think):

Empires accumulate.

Accumulation gives birth to Entitlement.

Entitlement demands preservation.

Preservation is self-serving.

Preservation is costly.

The US accounts for 48% of global military spending. Less than 5% of the world’s population purchases nearly half of the world’s weapons. If we can spend a trillion dollars on a war, what else we could spend a trillion dollars on?

Most of the bible is written history told by people living in lands occupied by the superpower empires of their day. So it’s very difficult then to fully grasp and understand the Bible when we read it as a people born into the most powerful and wealthy empire the world has ever seen. We’re reading it from the privileged side of power, the opposite side from which most of the writers of the Bible lived.

I heard a pastor this week talking to his church about the need for some of his people to move out of their most attended and crowded service which is no longer growing because there are just not enough seats, to a different service time of which they offer quite a few, so that their church could continue to grow and reach more unchurched people for Christ. Sounds like a simple request, but do you think people are really moving by the droves to give up their seat at their service for someone else? Why should they? After all, they were there first. Why can’t they just encourage the new people to attend one of the other services?

A few weeks ago, while Katie and I were traveling, we caught an interesting story on the national news. They were talking about a church, a Christian church that spent more than 100 million dollars (one hundred million, in case you thought that was a misprint) on their worship center. Who am I to judge what another church spends their money on? After all, they’re a much larger church than any I have ever attended which means they have more money coming in every week which means they have more money to spend which means they can throw 100 million dollars into a church building that looks pretty and makes the Christians who go there feel very privileged. The question I have to ask though is, if we can spend 100 million dollars on a church building, what else could we spend 100 million dollars on?

It’s complicated I know. We are privileged. And yes, God has blessed America. We should be grateful and continue to expand and grow and influence. The problem is, blessing can become a burden, a curse, if it’s not handled God's way. We are made a blessing not for accumulation and self-gain but to be a blessing to others.

Christianity is so much more than a simple transaction about the removal of sin.

“To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity.” –Rodney Stark, Historian

Christianity is living life as Christ lived life. Christianity is standing up for the weak. Christianity is taking care of the widow and the orphan. Christianity is remembering our redemption through Jesus on the cross, remembering our Exodus as people who were once in exile and separated from God brought back into relationship with God through Jesus’ selfless sacrifice.

Christianity is remembering, remembering where we came from, remembering that we, who were once dead in our transgressions, have been made alive in Christ.

Christianity is identifying with the hurting, the sick, the poor, the oppressed and the suffering, even if the suffering is happening in another world, another place far from the comforts of our own privileged homes.

Christianity is movement, action. Christianity is to be embraced and expressed through selfless sacrifice and sacrificial giving. Christianity is lived.

So there it is. What do you think?

I think Jesus wants to save Christians from the exile of irrelevance.

Divided We Stand

My wife and I had the pleasure of taking a little road trip last week with the newest addition to our family, Macy Lee, who is already almost 8 weeks old! When we got home, a full mailbox and a pile of Wall Street Journals were laying in my driveway waiting for me to catch up on a week's worth of news updates and latest economic sagas. In that pile of newspapers, a particular article caught my attention. At first glance, it seemed like news-filler, but after I began reading I realized that God was showing me something profound and beautiful. So here goes...

It has been 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. But deep in the forest of Grafenau, Germany, a breed of red deer called Ahornia still refuses to cross the old Iron Curtain. This deer inhabits the thickly wooded mountains along what once was the fortified border between West Germany and Czechoslovakia. At the height of the Cold War, a high electric fence, barbed wire and machine-gun-carrying guards cut off Eastern Europe from the Western world. The barriers severed the herds of deer on the two sides as well.

The fence is long gone, and the no-man’s land where it once stood is now part of Europe’s biggest nature preserve. The once-deadly border area is alive with songbirds nesting in crumbling watchtowers, foxes hiding in weedy fortifications and animals not seen there for years.

But one species is boycotting the reunified animal kingdom: the Red Deer. Herds of them roam both sides of the old NATO-Warsaw Pact border but mysteriously turn around when they approach the since dissolved border, this although the deer alive today have no memory of the ominous fence.

One reason stated by wildlife experts is that the deer have traditional trails, passed on through the generations, with a collective memory that their grounds end at the erstwhile barrier. Females, who stay with their mothers longer than males and spend more time absorbing their mothers’ movements, stick even more closely to the traditional turf. (Excerpts were taken from The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Deep in the Forest, Bambi Remains The Cold War’s Last Prisoner”, November 4, 2009)

In 2002, wildlife experts began tracking the herds of red deer using electronic collars and surveying their movement by satellite tracking and video surveillance at the old borderlines. Red deer born of herds from the West side will venture, nose literally touching the now open air where the wall once stood to divide them, and they stop. They move no further. Neither herd has ventured over the place where the wall once stood, though today, nothing stands in their way from expanding their territory into what is now free land for them to roam.

There are two points I’d like to make.

The first is that most of us have never ventured beyond the wall. For many, we’ve gained collective memory through things learned and things experienced which have become dividing walls for us, blocking us from advancing fully into the territory that Christ has already predestined for us to wholly obtain. Though nothing stands in our way, we limit ourselves by looking at the world through human eyes rather than through divine eyes. We have been called, each one of us, to expand, to grow, to accomplish, to achieve, to take risks, to be great.

We are not limited in what we can do, become or accomplish. The biggest limitation that we face is not the difficulty of what is to be grasped or obtained but our own insignificant view of ourselves. It’s our view of ourselves that blocks us in, keeps us small and limits our potential. What we need is God’s view of who we are, what we are to become, what we are to accomplish.

Genesis 1 recounts the words of God toward mankind before the first man and woman were yet living. God said, “Let us make man in our image, to rule over all the creatures and over all the earth…then God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful [great, successful, strong, influential] and increase in number [expand, grow, create]; fill the earth and subdue it [without fear and without hesitation, everything is yours; as big as you can dream there is yet more for you than that].’” –Genesis 1:26-28

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

We’ve been called to be prophets to the nations. Jesus’ last command to His church as He ascended into heaven was to “Go and make disciples”, not “Stay put and remain in your comfort zones.”

Expand. Grow. Create. Influence.
Yet how do we do that, when we are stuck behind an invisible wall?

(Which leads me to my second point)

The church remains divided. We remain separated by doctrine and denomination. We remain segregated by culture, color and race. We have white churches and black churches. We remain segregated by generation, offering contemporary services for the young and traditional services for the old. We remain divided by the legalism that shapes our worldview and perpetuates the overwhelmingly justified judgment toward those who believe or look or act differently than we do.

The church stands with its’ nose against an invisible wall that was destroyed thousands of years ago by Jesus’ sacrifice to unite all of mankind to its’ creator and return all of creation to its’ fruitful beginnings.

Galatians 3:26-29 says to all of us, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Freedom is ours.

We are rightful heirs to the promises of God.

All we have to do is step across the line.

In the Hallway

One door shuts.

Another door is opening.

Have you heard that message? Doesn’t it sound exciting? Easy? It’s a message I’ve heard in the church a thousand times. Every time a chapter is closed another is beginning. Every time a season ends, another is starting. Every time a door closes, another is opening.

“ing”…

Until you've been there, until you've managed to find yourself in the "ing", this message makes perfect sense - A perfectly timed progression of events, moving from one door to the next, from one place in life to another.

Instant. Easy. Exciting.

But it’s the "ing" we don’t want to talk about. It’s the waiting, the moving, the happening, the progressing…

It’s the time spent in the hallway, when one door shuts and the next door hasn’t opened yet. It’s the waiting, the moving. It’s the trying, the proving, the growing, the questioning, the doubting. It’s the listening, the hearing, the knowing, the planning, the building.

No one talks about the hallway.

Yet it’s a familiar theme in the Bible.

It’s called Exodus.

Israel. David. Joseph. Jesus. The list goes on. They all spent time in the hallway, in exodus.

So why don’t we talk about it? Why does it feel so wrong? Why does the hallway get such a bad wrap?

The first question you’ll get when you decide to walk out the door is, “So where are you going now?” And if you don’t have an answer to that one, be ready for the follow-up, “Then why are you leaving?” The hallway can be confusing and uncomfortable. The hallway can even feel like punishment. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Exodus is a departure, a leaving, a movement. It’s motion, energy, action. An exodus is something you do, something you’re caught up in, somewhere you’re going, something you join because you don’t want to stay where you are.” –Rob Bell

The hallway is hard, but it’s a necessary part of our walk with God.

The hallway is where God speaks and gives direction.

It’s a time of growing, maturing. It’s a time of preparation.

We like to have things figured out, perfectly planned and put together. But God likes for us to rely on Him. We like to know where the closest and safest open door is before we let the door behind us slam shut. But God wants us to step out in faith and rely only on His all-sufficient grace, mercy and wisdom.

In the hallway we may look confused and misguided, but that's exactly how we maybe ought to look, because in that, the light of God’s perfect way shines that much brighter. Besides, who are we to pretend we’ve got this all figured out?

In the hallway, after you’re finished complaining and groaning, doubting God and questioning your lot in life,

make an attempt to just stop and listen.

God speaks in the hallway.

And when He has finished leading you and the next door finally opens, the light of God’s perfect way shines that much brighter and our past steps and seemingly misguided ways begin to make perfect sense in the scheme of God’s unchanging plan.

The hallway doesn’t always make sense, but in the end, it’s a necessary part of our walk with God. And when one door shuts another will always open. It's not our job to have our next move all figured out. That's God's knowing. He'll let us know when He's ready. Just be prepared to spend a little time in the hallway.

Listen.

Follow.

A door is opening.

This is just the beginning

"The instinct to challenge the process is a fundamental quality of every leader. When God created leaders, he equipped them with an unsettling urge to unpack, undo, and unearth methods. This explains your tendency to question everything around you. It's the reason you have such strong opinions - and such a strong desire to share them. God wired you that way. Deep in your heart you may feel that if you were in charge, things would not only be different, they'd be better. This is not a problem of arrogance or pride. It's simply the way God wired you. It's a good thing."

Thanks Andy Stanley, for those words.

My own biggest critic - Me. The person with the greatest power and influence to slow the forward motion of my progress with God - ME. God created us. God put dreams in our hearts. God placed talent in our hands and vision in our soul. He can't show us all at once how awesome a plan He has for us - we wouldn't believe it if He did. We would doubt. We would most likely run in fear. We are our own greatest critic, greatest limitation. Yet we are God's handiwork. We exist to be God's fingerprint on His creation.

People will doubt your call. People will even hate you because of your call (sounds like something Jesus said). People will fear you. People will tell stories about you and try to hurt you.

Our responsibility is to wake up every morning not worrying about who is against us or who is on our side but rather whose side we are on. Are you on God's side? Are you following His lead? Are you worrying about making your mark or making His mark? Are you concerned about the rumors? The doubters? The haters? Or are you concerned with knowing that you are on the side of the Creator? Really, what does it matter who is for us? What does it matter who is against us?

I am for God. God is for me. And this is just the beginning.