Cali Summer

4 weeks ago I had never driven a boat before in my life. I now have probably driven a boat in 4 weeks more than most boat owners have for years combined.

I would like to say that I have become a pretty skill full boat driver. Then again there is not much to it: throttle down and turn the wheel towards where you want the boat to go.

We have two boats. The backup boat I named Lou Ellen (displayed in picture). She is 21 years old. The other boat that has been broken for most of the summer I named Penelope was made in 1962!

Here at the Oaks they like to take the idea of God being a redemptive God really literally and use old broken stuff hoping that God will make it new.

Pyramid lake is beautiful... The first time I went there I said to myself, "I mean....I guess I will be able to spend every day here this summer."

Why Young Life is Great

I love being a young life leader. I was telling one of my friends here at this Oak's camp about my young life trip and how the kids on it are into all kinds of stuff that would be considered unchristian (i.e. smoking pot, messing around with girls, etc.) I was telling her that these are the kids that were on the trip and that were also SO willing to sit around in a circle and talk about Jesus, what it means to be a man of God, and what life to the full looks like. She stopped me and asked how it is that these kids come on a trip like Wilderness and are willing to talk about Jesus with us and are interested in all things I listed above and more?

This stopped me in my tracks only to help me realize that what she thought was crazy is exactly what makes Young Life is soooo great. Thank God for a ministry for shipwrecked souls like myself that were totally consumed with selfish desires but so badly was interested in hearing more about Jesus from these crazy Young Life leaders that just would not leave me alone.

How blessed I am to get to enter into the lives of so many lives and not do anything but point to Jesus Christ as the redeemer, reconciler, creator, and mender of all things.

Life Together (in the morning)

I love staying up late but I love waking up early to meet God in the quiet of the morning even more.

I recently began a "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is a classic on christian community that I have been wanting to read for awhile now. This particular quote is about the morning in which he encourages Christian communities to wake early to worship and meet God in the breaking of the new day.

Embrace rather than endure the new days that come...

"For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all the distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs.."Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give theh light" (Eph.5:14).

Book Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

This a book that every American should read. It is important to realize that this books is not fiction but a revealing tail of one man's life that gives insight into America's perpetuation of the empire of global capitalism.

In many ways John Perkins asserts that slavery and imperialism have taken on a new face. That face being large corporations, America, and private organizations giving out loans to developing countries that they can never pay back. The developing countries people, governments, and industries are then under the control of the wealthy and powerful individuals and countries that loaned the money in the first place.

It is an honest reflection on the REALITY of how America has interacted with the world for the past 40 years. And statistics prove that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened since 40 years ago. Hence, Perkin's confessions are a confession to his involvement in widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

He had been writing the book on and off for awhile but in the wake of 9-11, filled with guilt and a conscience telling him to confess how his life and EHM lead directly to the disaster of 9-11 he finally finished his story.

It reads like a spy novel laced with an unadulterated depiction of America's involvement in global capitalism for the last forty years. Everything from George H. Bush's invasion of Panama to loans given to Indonesia to forever keep them in debt to America.

The Strategy of Jesus

A good friend introduced me to this quote from Elton Trueblood. It is what I long for, what I spend so much of the day dreaming about. Deep down in my heart these are the words that I have not been able to express:

The Strategy of Jesus

There is no person in history who has impacted all of mankind more than Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus was deeply concerned for the continuation of his redemptive work after the close of his earthly existence, and his chosen method was a formation of a small band of committed friends. He did not form an army, establish a headquarters, or even write a book. What he did was collect a few very common men and women, inspire them with the sense of the spirit and vision, and build their lives into an intensive fellowship of affection, worship, and work.

One of the truly shocking passages of the gospel is that in which Jesus indicated that there is absolutely no substitute for the tiny, loving, caring, reconciling society. If this fails, he suggests, all is a failure; there is no other way. He told the little bedraggled fellowship that they were actually the salt of the earth and that if this salt should fail there would be no adequate preservation at all. He was staking it all on one throw.

What we need is not intellectual theorizing or even preaching, but a demonstration. One of the most powerful ways of turning people's loyalty to Christ is by loving others with the great love of God. We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be forced to respect it.

If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without being artificial and free form the dead hand of importance. A society of genuine loving friends, set free from self-seeking struggle for personal prestige and from all unreality, would be something unutterably priceless and powerful. A wise person would travel any distance to join it.

(excerpts from Elton Trueblood)