Heroes

Heroes, sure I got heroes. People who have influenced me, who have said, done and been things that made my jaw drop, my herometer soar. If there were real hero cards I would hunt for these guys and brag about them on the school yard. Trade them.....very unlikely.

who are they, well typically regular joes like you and me. living amongst us, doing ordinary things....for the most part.

why am i reminded of them? why do i write this blog now? Well because one just died, another is undergoing chemo treatment. These people have enriched me, fed my dreams, changed me without even realizing it. Let me give you a glimpse at some of them.

David Brett- an evangelist, a new zealander, the guy who bought a castle because God said so, the guy who shows up unannounced here and there, the guy who taught me to clean windows to make money for missions, and to sell a car to buy plane tickets, the guy who let's light shine in China- who travels there still today even though he is undergoing cancer treatment. If ever you have a friend that met jesus on a plane...ask if they met David.

John Hutchison- who recently passed away. The first Brit I ever met and the first minister I ever knew who loved to see people healed, a mentor of Benny Hinn, and as i remember one of the best, deepest laughs of any who've I have had dinner with.

Telma Cajas- a courageous woman who leads the underpriveleged women of Guatemala, by loving them, helping them, hugging them one person at a time. Her words linger with me forever, ' without Jesus, there is no development.'

I have some new heroes too......

They are friends who take crazy risks for Jesus and sometimes succeed and sometimes don't.

Check out Todd Cantelon- a risk taker, producer, film maker, a fantastic preacher and he a makes a mean breakfast

Check out Rick Bergen- an amazon loving, church planting fanatic who is the real! DEAL! Currently he is developing a new church, mission, and ministry just upriver somewhere from where he was.

When in Zambia listen for Barry and Frida Ilunga- the most sincere, humble, church planters I ever met. Where will you find them? on some bus, on the back of a truck or walking through some village planting a church, usually with one of their 10 kids.

Is it idol worship to participate in such praise of men? No, this is simply sharing the news of God's greatness. Like it says in the bible 'i have heard of your fame.' Great things are worth talking about. Men are just men, but their pursuit of God inspires me, fuels me, causes my mere mortality to shake for fear and my dreams to become large--Large enough to even suppose and even believe that God could use EVEN little ol' me.

city lights at night

I was reminded last night as I watched 'the Hour' on CBC of something I have been thinking about for a while. George ST., the host, was telling a story about how he was driving through the desert and about to run out of gas. He had no clue of where he was. His only choice was to follow the road ahead of him. The fear and sense of impending doom of being stranded in a desert with no gas became overwhelming and suddenly....he saw lights-dim lights in the distance . Having grown up in a Christian home he thought, perhaps it is a dream, perhaps I am going 'home'. He continued to head toward the light, but instead of finding Jesus as the source of the light-he found Las Vegas.

How long has it been since your last authentic, bonified spiritual experience? An experience so clear, and definitely the almighty that it stands out to you like a light along, your darkened desert path. If it has been a while you may be thinking, what have i done wrong, where did God go? I think as Christians we think that such experiences should be the norm. In fact, we talk candidly about God speaking to us, and say things like 'God told me.' We can string a line of great moments in life, together in such a way that we sound like we should be on a mega tour as an amazing spiritual giant, but in reality they probably have occur over years and years. There is for me always space, sometimes long spaces between experiences.

I need to remember that although God may speak and I may even see angels-the Christian life is not like heaven on earth. Christians do not have 24-7 Moses in the cloud experiences. The pursuit of such super spirituality may even be counter to God's purposes.

More often, I like George find myself on a road, running out of gas, in the dark with only the road ahead and a light in the distance. Just as cities in Europe have a lot of road between pilgrimage destinations and holy places, our lives may have a lot of space between definable spiritual experiences. The great thing is, no matter how long the interval between us and our next spiritual experience, there is both a light in the distance and an assurance that the road we are on will get us there.

6 Degrees of Separation

The idea of 6 degrees of separation has become a popular past time. The idea of course is that no 2 people are more than 6 degrees separate from each other. This means that you are only 6 relationships removed from anybody else on earth.

In preparing a talk on relationships for our youth group I discovered we are 4 degrees from the spiritual advisor to the president of the United States, we are 3 degrees from the keys to the garden tomb, we are related to famous bands, musicians etc..

Statistically it could be true. If you want to join the human experiment you can join related games like.....facebook- a social network that allows members to compare friends. Facebook also has a 6 degrees application where you can join a social experiment linking all humankind. One of my favorites is the Kevin Bacon Experiment which seeks to link all actors to Kevin.


HERE is the crazy thing! Despite being so close to such huge fame, to massive influencer's, to have such imaginative tools like facebook- we are still miles and miles apart. Where does being 6 degrees from each other really get us??

Despite only being 6 relationships from an orphan dying of aids, 5 from the dollars that could save them, 4 from people who could minister justice, 3 from local injustice, 2 from local politicians, 1 from myself the first source of the problem. I realize I am a barrier creating separation. Campaigns like make poverty history, and others make me realize despite being so close, we are so disconnected. Our actions still so impact the world through the things we buy, the way we live.

The potential to make such a huge difference. The power of becoming influencer's so near our finger tips.....How do we turn this around? How do we use our 6 degrees to influence the world?? It could be that the whole 6 degrees of separation, discussions of small world concepts, the movement towards carbon neutral living, may all just highlight one thing- the weight of sin and selfishness and it's ability to thwart justice.