Watch the Service

You can watch the service "You Say You Want a Revolution" from GCC's homepage or download the podcast. The monologue is 20 minutes in and the song is 56 minutes in. The entire service is definitely worth watching, but if your attention span is down these two elements would be a blessing to you.

Merry Christmas!

You Say You Want a Revolution

Tonight's service at Granger Community Church was incredible! DC Curry performed a thought-provoking rap/monologue about the true meaning of Christmas that blew me away. The message by Mark Beeson was about the fact that we all make a decision about what we will do with Jesus. Deciding not to think about it or to wait and make a decision later means that you are making a decision now to not follow Christ. The service ended with an unbelievable performance of the song by David Crowder Band titled, "Glory of It All". The lyrics are very moving and the man performing the song had a voice that was off the charts. I'm not sure who he was but he has a serious gift and I hope to see much more of him in the future. I would buy his cd without hesitation.

It is easy to just expect excellence from GCC because that is what they deliver ("Excellence honors God and inspires people"), but tonight took it up a notch in my mind. Thanks GCC for raising the bar and bringing us back to the true meaning of Christmas.

Credit Card Fraud

I was woken up this morning by my credit card fraud dept calling to verify my recent purchases. I'm actually surprised it took this long for them to question my coast-to-coast spending habits. Oddly enough my purchase at Fenway Park followed quickly by multiple purchases in Portland, Oregon didn't trigger their alerts, but a late-night gas purchase in Indiana followed by a yahoo bill (which wasn't mine) payment grabbed their attention. I don't understand their thinking, but I am glad they caught the irregularity although it is rough to be without a credit card for my travels. Thanks Bank of America!

Letter to a Christian Nation

I just finished this interesting book by Sam Harris a well-published atheist who dislikes the term "atheist". His reasoning is, "I think that “atheist” is a term that we do not need, in the same way that we don’t need a word for someone who rejects astrology. We simply do not call people “non-astrologers.” His point is duly noted.

This is a book dripping with anger and resentment towards Christians and in some ways I can understand his perspective. Here is how the book starts,

"Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse."

I enjoyed reading this book to gain some insight into why someone legitimately doesn't believe in God. I like hearing reasons and think it is vital that we are open enough to genuinely listen to others whose views differ from our own.

The section of the book that was most interesting to me was about Doing Good for God.

"If compassion were really dependent on religious dogmatism, how could we explain the work of secular doctors in the most war-ravaged regions of the developing world? Many doctors are moved simply to alleviate human suffering, without any thought of God. ... Missionaries in the developing world waste a lot of time and money (not to mention the goodwill of non-Christians) proselytizing to the needy.... By contrast, volunteers for secular organizations like Doctors Without Borders do not waste any time telling people about the virgin birth of Jesus. Nor do they tell people in sub-Saharan Africa-where nearly four million people die from AIDS every year- that condom use is sinful. Christian missionaries have been known to preach the sinfulness of condom use in villages where no other information about condoms is available. This kind of piety is genocidal. We might also wonder, in passing, which is more moral: helping people purely out of concern for their suffering, or helping them because you think the creator of the universe will reward you for it?"

Several thoughts on this:

• Of my friends in medicine who are also interested in international health work I can't think of one (myself included) who is motivated by some reward from God. We are involved because the inequality and tremendous suffering is unnecessary and wrong. Of course I am motivated by the fact that I know God loves these individuals and doesn't want to see them suffer, but it has nothing to do with rewards.
  
• I agree that it is genocidal to try and tell people not to use condoms that could help slow the spread of HIV. At the same time, I think education needs to go deeper than condom use to the root issues affecting the rapid growth of HIV.
  
• Being a Christian means more not less (something I learned all about at Taylor University). It means that in addition to providing health care we will teach them about a God who loves them. It doesn't take away from the medicine, but it adds to it. In many situations I have witnessed, everyone is involved in the ministry but the physicians aren't taking time away from the medicine to do this but are allowing others that aren't actively involved in the medical side of the ministry to spend more time doing this.
  
• While I don't set aside much time to read articles or books with such opposite viewpoints as my own I think it is important to do so every once in a while. I'm glad I didn't pay for this book, but I understand more of where some who don't believe are coming from and that was definitely worth the time investment.
  

Free Rice

Freerice.com. I've heard of this website and now that I have some free time I decided to check it out. Basically you play a basic word game and for every word you get right they donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). I've checked into it a little bit and it seems legit- basically by spending time at their website they make money via advertisements which is then used to buy the rice. The creator of the site also created poverty.com and thehungersite.com. You should check out these websites which are stunning.

I've played twice and my highest score on the game is 40. I have no idea what that means, but if it is good it is because of two years of latin in high school. If it is bad, it is because I learned surprisingly little in those two years.

Quotable Bono

“To those in the Church who still sit in judgment on the AIDS emergency let me climb into the pulpit for just one moment because whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is, or even if God exists most folks will agree that God has a special place for the poor. The poor is where God lives. God is in the slums with the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both of their lives. God is with the struggle we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor. God is with us when we are with them. It is not a burden, this is an adventure. Don’t let anyone tell you it cannot be done. We can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.” Bono
You can watch his speech here: NAACP Chairman's Award Acceptance Speech

I love that Bono is using his influence for a cause that truly matters. I truly believe that we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty. There is enough to go around! More to come on this as I continue to read Pathologies of Power by Dr. Paul Farmer.

Life

"Life is not a snapshot. You take a picture with a camera, and it freezes that moment forever, its part of the reason we like pictures. Its frozen in that moment forever, Its captured, preserved. But life's not like that. And when you are in a moment, and you're looking at yourself thinking, "I am a failure, I can't even serve God right, I can't even be faithful to Christ. I am a failure." You have to remember, life is not a snapshot. Life is a video. And I know it feels like this is a moment, frozen in time, but its not, The camera is still rolling. Tomorrow is different, the next day is different, five years is different. But not if you stay here. You can't stay here in this misery. So come to Jesus, ask for His forgiveness. And get on with your life. God has a plan for your life, and you are too young to quit now. You'll stumble from time to time, but don't think that your life is frozen in time. Its video baby. So go out there and Make a great Movie."
- Mark Beeson

Mark Beeson is the senior pastor and founder of Granger Community Church- the Church that truly brought me and thousands of others to Jesus. There aren't words to express my gratitude.

Ruth Bell Graham

This woman has fascinated me for many years but I became keenly interested in her when I learned that she felt called to be a missionary in Tibet and decided instead to marry Billy Graham. Who can truly question that she made a decision that has resulted in countless changed lives? She is often credited for much of Billy Graham's impact. I am in the middle of her biography which I would highly recommend. The book goes into quite a bit of detail about her struggles to decide if she should marry Billy Graham or not. Some of my favorite lines:

Prior to really dating anyone she wrote:

“If I marry:
He must be so tall when he is on his knees, as one has said, he reaches all the way to Heaven.
His shoulders must be broad enough to bear the burden of a family.
His lips must be strong enough to smile, firm enough to say no, and tender enough to kiss.
Love must be so deep that it takes its stand in Christ and so wide that it takes the whole lost world in.
He must be active enough to save souls.
He must be big enough to be gentle and great enough to be thoughtful.
His arms must be strong enough to carry a little child.”

After her first date with Billy Graham, she wrote the following prayer:

“God, if You let me serve You with that man, I’d consider it the greatest privilege in my life.”

Seattle's Best

I'm having a blast with Caellyn- my friend from Taylor. The high or low-point depending on your perspective was when she accidentally locked her keys in her car which was parked right in front of a very large strip club. So as we stood by some poles near her car just waiting for AAA to come I'm sure someone mistook our purpose. It was a fun moment.

Tomorrow I will be interviewing in a unique fashion- I'll be in the OR scrubbed in for hour after hour of questions. It will be a long day, but hopefully a good one.

Imago Dei

For the record, I am a huge fan of Imago Dei Community. It was incredible! I was greeted warmly by a member of the band who was very friendly and even invited me to hang out with a group that night.

They are doing a series called "The Advent Conspiracy" and literally the whole church is being challenged to opt out of the traditional consumerism of Christmas and pool the saved money for some great purposes. They are going to build wells for some partners in Africa who don't have access to safe water and buy items to hold an "Almost Free" sale for families in Portland who can't afford even needed items for their families for Christmas. The crazy part is that people were signing up in droves to be a part of it.

My favorite part of the service was communion. People came up in couples or groups of friends as they wanted to and took communion together as they embraced and prayed together. It was beautiful. They are truly a community and one that I would love to be a part of if I end up in Portland.

I want to go to China

While in Portland I toured a Classical Chinese Garden. It was remarkably peaceful and beautiful. The tour was interesting but reminded me of how apathetic I am about plants. I just don't care. I did not enjoy my plant biology course in college and still am unable to identify basic plant species or phyla? (is that even what they are called?)

It was so great to sit surrounded by water and just pray- for my future and all the decisions to be made, for literally every person who could possible read this blog, and other stuff. I love spaces and places that allow us to stop and just be still and reflect.

I can't say I enjoyed my Moroccan Mint tea, but I tried. I just don't like flavored water (coffee, tea...) especially when I have to drink it out of a thimble-sized cup. I guess I need carbonation or more calories for it to be enjoyable.

Beautiful Oregon

I feel so blessed to be traveling all over the US and meeting some of the leaders of the surgery world. The past couple days have been incredible as I have explored Portland and interviewed at their program. It is ridiculously beautiful here! Today I checked out of my nasty overpriced hotel downtown and am enjoying a hotel room with a view over the Columbia River Gorge. Tomorrow will be full of time with God while enjoying the sunrise, hiking to the top of waterfalls and then a fun drive to Seattle by Mt. St Helens. The last picture is the view from my hotel.

Imago Dei

In preparation for attending Imago Dei Community tomorrow I was browsing their website and came across 2 of their position papers that were fascinating:
Women In Ministry
Divorce and Remarriage
I love that they don't shy away from discussing areas of potential conflict in the church but rather they address them and truly take a position in a respectful way. If you have a few minutes I would encourage you to read these!

Boston

For the most part my time in Boston has been fun. I walked the Freedom Trail yesterday which was absolutely freezing and only moderately interesting. The history of our country is incredible and it was neat to see a few of the landmarks, but I walked many miles in cold and windy weather and therefore I wouldn't recommend it unless done in the summer time. It was awe-inspiring to stand at the Park Street Church where My Country 'Tis of Thee was first sung among other unique aspects of history. I appreciated their sign which said "Celebrating 200 years of God's faithfulness". Not many churches can post that!
The Granary Burying Ground was neat simply because of all the famous people buried there- Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and many others.
The "tour" was all downhill from there, but I did get to see lots of Boston as I stumbled around after sunset.
Today after interviewing I visited Harvard and wandered around Cambridge. I like the intellectual atmosphere. I spent the afternoon mulling over the question, "Could I live here?" and trying to picture what that would be like. I wish I could say more but I can't.
Tomorrow is Fenway Park and some more downtown wanderings before flying to Portland, Oregon. Just another typical weekend....

Churches Across the US

One of the fun aspects of traveling all over the country is visiting different churches.

As I mentioned in a past post I visited Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.

I also visited Christ's Church of the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona. This was a beautiful campus with lots of open space and plants. I sat next to a very friendly couple who made me feel welcome. The service included lots of singing and a message about the need to truly know and love our literal neighbors. It hit home as that is something I have been working on in recent months. I enjoyed seeing GCC's images from "My Lame Sex Life" on their "Pure Sex" series. No wonder GCC was voted the 6th most influential church in the US!

Saturday I fly to Portland, Oregon and I am so excited to visit Imago Dei Community where Rick Mckinley is the lead pastor. This is also the church where Donald Miller the author of "Blue Like Jazz", "Through Painted Deserts", "Searching for God Knows What", and "To Own a Dragon" is involved. I'm going in not knowing what to expect, but very excited to see what this community is all about.

I'm not sure what other churches I will get to visit, but I love the opportunity to visit different churches and see more of the beauty of the body of Christ.