Have you ever been waiting to turn left at a set of lights for what seems like forever, then when you finally thread the gap in the traffic, you almost hit a pedestrian or biker who is using the crosswalk?

You get so wrapped up in ‘making this light‘ that you forget that there’s TWO types of oncoming traffic you need to avoid.

Well, that happened to me this week. I was supposed to pick up my wife at five, and I was running a few minutes behind. I waited impatiently for the cars to pass, then saw a very small window of opportunity, so I took a hard left as fast as I could.

Suddenly, I saw someone sprinting across the crosswalk to catch a bus. I hammered the gas and they just missed getting smoked by my trunk. I checked the rear-view mirror just to make sure I didn’t clip them accidentally. Fortunately, I didn’t. Unfortunately, they missed their bus.

It took an entire 2 seconds before my conscience kicked in, I pulled a U-turn, and went back to offer them a ride for a.) almost killing them, and b.) being part of them now having to stand in the cold for 22 minutes.

There was no one there. In fact, there was no one anywhere in the area. Whomever I almost hit, whomever missed their bus; was gone.

Strange eh?

The point is, I did the right thing. And I learned a valuable lesson- slow down, you idiot…and keep your eyes open.

I also learned several spiritual lessons because of this experience. But today I’m going to do something a bit different:
Now it’s your turn to go back, re-read this post, and find the spiritual lessons that apply to you.

Best of luck, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Drive carefully!

Jay

New post by Michelle on her evening spend serving 50 prostituted women

A few weeks ago I spoke at a men’s retreat near Georgian Bay. During one of the talks, I spoke briefly about how Starbucks has a history of taking advantage of people; specifically, about 70,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers in the Sidamo region.

After lunch, a good-looking man about 30 came up and sat down beside me. He wasn’t all too pleased.  He informed me that he was the regional manager for every Starbucks from London to Guelph to Kitchener to Waterloo.  He’s in charge of training hundreds of managers of Starbucks, each who manage dozens of employees.

He wasn’t happy that I’d said the things I said. He fed me the line that ‘Starbucks buys the most fair trade coffee in the world.‘ I reminded him that they also buy the most UNFAIR-trade coffee in the world, and that the numbers are substantially higher.

I was very honest with him- his company’s shareholders care about one thing: profits.  The only reason they’re buying fair trade at all is because the people are letting their money speak. Starbucks realized that if they didn’t change, they were going down.

The manager agreed.  The most of the company cares not for people, but for profit.  But he also insisted that he was different.  As a Christ-follower, in a very secular environment, he’s finding ways to subvert the corporate model in favour of the least of these.

He told me how the week before, he spend a few thousand corporate dollars to take 6-7 store managers downtown to a drop-in centre. They spent the afternoon cleaning tables and chairs and floors for about 70 homeless people.

Because unlike what his company values, this man is creating a culture that cares.

Maybe God is calling you to create new culture.
Maybe God is calling you to create a new community.
But maybe, God is calling you to simply transform the culture within a community that already exists.

All three are very necessary for the Kingdom of Heaven to grow.  Find your place.

Jay

So I went to see Coldplay with my wife last night. (that link is for a free live album by the way). A few thoughts:

• Chris Martin is very man pretty.
• I’m wondering what there biggest song is- Yellow? Talk? Fix You? Viva la Vida? Lemme know.
• They sound just as good live as on record.
• Apparently there were 43,000 people there.  Tickets ranged from $40 to hundreds. Do the math. Dang.

But let me say something on the record: I very much dislike Toronto.

I hate Toronto. Took me two hours to get downtown. Parking was $10. Food was overpriced. Server lady was meaner than Hitler. Some drunk guy was smoking in front of us. Took us 2 hours to get home.

BUTTTTT…

• No two were the same.
• Everyone is so special, so unique.
• Each has a story.
• God has a plan for each of them. (THAT’S what He’d been doing for all those years- planning!)
• Each of them is wired differently.
• Each of them has a dream.

Since this is my blog, I suppose I can use it for whatever purpose I see fit.  Today, it’s my confession booth.

I was doing some writing last week and I wrote a list of “Struggles I’m Having”.  Here’s one to try on for size…let me know if you’re struggling in this area at all as well.

Valuing some people more than others.

How this one came about was no good.  I was reading a blog post by Dino Rizzo about speaking God’s Word with Joyce Meyer in India in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of people.  Amazing right?

Yes, except that in my head I said to myself “yeah, but they’re only Indians.” To which God responded gently, “yes, and I love them too.” I felt horrible.  I’m such a tool.  I felt absolutely sick at my complete lack of care, simply because in their culture way more people come out to hear God’s Word preached.  It’s easier to draw a crowd when your population is huge, so I just wrote them off.  I considered them less simply because they weren’t like me or my friends.

I leaned back in my IKEA Poang chair and sighed- I am an absolute loser.  It brought back some other instances where I’ve done the same thing.  How I treat poor people.  How I’ll take so much more crap from a rich person. Other cultures.  Different levels of education.  People with past sexual sin or a lot of junk in their past.  How I treat attractive girls versus what I consider unattractive, as if I’m the judge anyway!

It’s horrible, I hate it, and I know it’s wrong.  God loves everyone.  Everyone has the same value to Him- priceless.

And I’m not the only one who does it…

At Catalyst two years ago, there was a huge book-signing line for Erwin McManus.  About 10 feet away, Erwin’s right-hand-man and lead pastor of their church, Eric Bryant, was trying to hand out free copies of his new book.  People weren’t that interested.  He wasn’t the star they’d come to see.  He was a ‘nobody.’  I went over and talked for about 10 minutes.  He gave me a book, signed it, and gave me his card.  He was a great guy, and his book was excellent.  Most people got Erwin’s scribble- I got to hear a man’s heart.

What about rating pastors?  Most pastors get all the glory, and everyone backing them up get nothing.  What the heck is up with that?  If there’s one place where there shouldn’t be any childish celebrity, it should be in the Body of Christ.  Jesus Christ is my hero.  He’s the man I set above all else.  No one else is good enough for me.  And that’s precisely why I’m called to love everyone else.  Because no one was good enough for Jesus, but He still took us in.  We love because He first loved us right?

And so, I’m doing my best to be intentional- to make it a life habit of helping the underdogs.  Of befriending the poor.  Of being kind to waitresses.  Of slowing down to communicate with people still learning our language. To be nice, kind, even love strangers.  I want my life to count for Christ.  And so I’m trying to value everyone…the same.

That’s my confession today.

We need 1,500 more people to sign the HungerPledge by noon today in order to send food to 560,000 people…please forward this to everyone you know!  It’s a simple way to add your voice and help the poor.

Here’s the easiest way to do it…click on the line below that says ‘Pledge Now.’   On the site, pledge to either give/volunteer/share and fill out your name, etc.  Pick a random state!  Then post this link to your profile to share with others…thanks!

I watched Unleash online with about 800 other people.

Unleash is a church conference hosted by Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina.  I’ve been there twice and love what God is doing to that area through His people.

While Mark Batterson is the most quotable writer, I think Perry Noble is the most quotable speaker…

Wake up and smell the Starbucks…the church is falling apart and its our fault.

God uses people with leprosy..he uses people that are falling apart.

We’re gonna die…so we might as well die trying.  Change.  Your church is 1 or 2 decisions away from doubling in size

If it was your money, you’d do something about it.  When the church becomes as important to us as the stock market, they we’ll change.

You’d die for your grandkids to come to Christ.  Would you change your style of music for them?

CHANGE OR DIE.

Newspring is full of passion.  One of our greeters witnessed a funny experience:  a 4-year-old was having a hissy-fit in the parking lot because he wanted to go back inside.  “I just wanna go back to the damn church!”

You gotta preach on giving.  “But people will leave.”  Only the people that aren’t giving.  Same with adultery.

Hire a godly, anointed youth pastor, fund the youth ministry, and get out of the way.  Triple your youth budget.

Churches fighting…stop competing, start completing.

Ignore the jackass.  In Greek, that means ‘blogger’.  Stop paying attention to them.  Start casting more vision.  Soar above.

You’re only as deep as the last person you served.

Our church likes being missional.  Duh.  That’s like a fishing saying ‘I like water! I like water! I like water!’

The reason I’m obsessed with numbers is because I was one of those numbers.

Who’s mad about numbers…God or Satan?

The church has so much power under the hood, they just gotta STOMP IT.

For those of you who missed it and want to watch the main sessions, you can do so right here baby.