Words from a friend

My friend and colleague Matt Booker wrote something that struck me today. He wrote, “I ask you to show up fully prepared and present for each session; pay attention to what has heart and meaning, tell the truth without blame or judgment and be open to outcome rather than attached to outcome. I will do the same.”

It’s interesting how different being open to an outcome is from being attached to an outcome. Obviously we all have wants, desires, needs, likes, wishes, hopes, dreams. These are, simply put, outcomes we are attached to in no small way. However, maybe the specifics of some of those desires may need not be accomplished to produce the true essence of these dreams. Could we not be open to an outcome slightly different than what our feeble imaginations can picture as perfect?

It’s time I started writing again. It’s been a long hiatus. I sense it is good for my soul to write.

FAD

I started a new facebook group today. I'd been wanting to do something like it for a few months now, but haven't had the time or motivation to make it happen. But a couple weeks ago I created a new blog called fashion-n-design.blogspot.com that became the venue for me creating the group. It's already been a great time. And peeps are getting a kick out of it too, so it's totally worth it. And there's a crew of FAD consultants who are gonna take it to the limits. A lot of my blogging attention may begin to be geared that way (not that I've been a bloggin fool like my friend Brian who just started bloggin like mad this month) and if you don't see a post here for awhile, just go there. I guarantee it will be a little entertaining. And you never know, it might even prove useful. Cuidanse. Estamos en contacto.

Decompressing

From JUNE 3, 2007

Currently sitting in a quaint living room with some buds in Austin, Texas. Yesterday Pat and I drove 18 hours from Mexico City, Mexico to our friends' Tony & Carmen McAlister's place in Austin. It was a great trip. Here's a couple of scenic pics I took from the driver's seat while Pat held the wheel.

About 2 hours from the Mexico/US border on highway 40 from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo.
Another one:

And now I am trying to enter the process of beginning to decompress from my two year international STINT (Short-Term INTernational) in Mexico. Loved it. Was amazing. And re-entry has already been interesting. Plenty more to come. Many stories and experiences to share. But before then, I think I need a nap.

Jail time in Mexico

So, my roommate, whose a super guy and super fast is currently posting a blog on this very story now. I haven't read his yet, but I'm sure it's good and funny. The interesting thing about blogging is anything blog worthy you gotta get up fast.

Anyway, here's what happened.

I ran into my room to answer my phone and as soon as I heard the voice on the other end I knew something was definitely wrong. She was crying, and in between each little breath she was trying to communicate something to me. My heart was racing (like when Nate and I got a call from the girls saying they thought someone was in their apartment; they had locked themselves in their rooms each with a broomstick and lamp post, nervously awaiting as we ran the 3 blocks to their place--it turned out to be nothing--but my heart was racing like that this time around) and I soon learned that Skye was in the back of a Mexican police car.

Here's what went down. Skye has been praying for people in the Zocalo of Mexico City and has consistently gone there to meet with, have Bible studies, and show them love through giving them food, buying a meal, or throwing a birthday party. She has sought out people who no one else will give a chance. She also has dreds, which she got about 5 months ago from some of the people she is ministering to: they make their living by giving henna tattoos, dreds, and braids to tourists. They don't have licenses to work in the zocalo but they cannot obtain them either. And it so happens that today the police came for a whole bunch of them, many of whom are Skye's friends.

Skye was with one she had shared Christ with before and the cops came around them both and told Skye she needed to empty her pockets and bag and get in the car. She initially said she wouldn't get in, but then they made her. That's when she called me. The cops accused her of smoking marijuana, even though she just showed up to be with her friends. She insisted she hadn't been and they searched her fingernails for any traces of the plant and then threw her in the car.

When I spoke with her I tried to calm her down and reminded her it would fine soon enough. I calmly spoke, quoted some Scripture, and tried to care for her as best as I knew how. Once she was in a calmer mood I told her how great of a story this will make. She chuckled in Skye form. Shortly thereafter, we got the details of the station they were heading to and then made immediate plans to come pick her up. She arrived before we left and they put her in a cell with her friend and we finally got ahold of the police station. One of my roommates was able to talk with the cop and tell him she's a missionary with us and they pulled her out of the cell.

As she sat in the station a lot of different cops said she should just leave, but she was worried someone would come after her. One eventually sat down and talked to her. She told him what she's doing here and shared the gospel with him. He wanted to take her dancing. She graciously alluded it. And he asked again why she hadn't left and then proceeded to tell her it's a civil station and they cannot hold foreigners. So she walked out the front door and Nate and I were almost there, so we picked her up and got the whole story a few more times and then decided to go to the movies.

As we were walking through the mall she said she was experiencing some major culture shock. Moments ago she was sitting in a Mexican jail cell sharing the gospel with a poilce officer and now she was walking through a mall to go to the movies. We kind of chuckled at life and what God brings our way as missionaries, and how He shows up and meets us every time in the moment.

She said it was one of her goals for the semester--to get thrown in jail. Well, she got what she wanted. After we spoke the first time when she was in back of the cop car heading to jail, the tears having stopped, and some color coming back into her face, she knew very well this would be a story she can tell for a lifetime. And when we parted ways after spidey 3, she left with a smile saying how great a story this will be for the rest of her life.

I can picture her even now, grandkids all around, talking with their wild grandma who was a missionary in Mexico and got thrown in jail. There will be many ooohs and ahhhhs. Wait to go Skye. You're my hero.

First Drafts: life & movement planting

I'm currently involved in coaching a team of Staff in Mexico City as we seek to launch missional Christ-centered communities on some 400 universities consisting of 1 million university students. Needless to say, the task can often feel a tad bit overwhelming. Add to this the constant difficulties of living in a city of 28 million people, speaking a different language, urban fatigue (walking to the metro to take a bus to walk another 1/2 hr to a campus), and cultural suprises, and you are beginning to get a feel for what our daily lives are like.

In September and October we stepped foot on 85 campuses looking for students that God had prepared to reach their peers and transform the communities around them. It was exhausting and overwhelming, yet very rewarding to see how God would show up in the process. Not just because of the students we met, but also because of the ways he was growing and changing us.

During this time I had to constantly keep the vision we were setting out to accomplish before my team, and I used outside resources to help us gain focus on the important things and not get too bogged down in results or lack of results, depending on the day.

One of the outside resources I used was the book I referred to in a recent blog, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing and Life. We went through two chapters that I thought would really speak to what we all needed to hear. The first dealt with writing first drafts and it rang home true for each of us. Here's a few excerpts with my comments on how it helped us with movement launching...

"...first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the unitiated" (p. 21).

As we read this I asked a question, "Is this how you picture, more or less, that others experience their time on campus?" Meaning that they walk onto campus ready to conquer another day of movement launching, stoked, amped, full of faith, knowing exactly what they are going to say, and that God is going to show up in mighty ways. They all nodded.

Each person always thinks that the others are super movement launchers, when in fact we are all ordinary people following a supernatural God. I don't wake up breathing in the air of movement launching. I wake up wishing I hadn't stayed up so late watching that episode of 24. I wake up (though I hate to admit it) often wishing it was the weekend and it is only Tuesday. I wake up needy and wanting and desperate for God to show up and prepare the way for us, or all else will fail. And this was helpful to discuss.

Here were some of the things we came away with as we discussed movement launching and applied the idea of writing first drafts to later obtain "good second drafts and terrific third drafts."
+ Movement launching is a process.
+ We are pioneering this ministry called Enfoque Mexico, so this IS our first draft. We're figuring it out as we go, so there isn't a place that we should be at already. We're learning as we go.
+ It's not easy to write first drafts. It hasn't been. It's work. It's messy.
+ Some days we only get a sentence down on paper and others we get ten pages worth of stuff to follow up on.
+ Currently we're just trying to put everything down on paper, going with it, following it, and later we'll make some changes to improve it.
+ After writing the first draft there is a fear that people will judge us for it, rather than seeing the potential within it.

Anne Lamott goes on to say on page 25, "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something--anything--down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft--you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft--you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy."

And this is indeed what we are doing as we set out to pioneer spiritual movements. We are simply trying to get something started--anything at all. And then hopefully giving direction to that something with a little more clarity. And lastly, helping people involved formulate and tackle new ways to touch and transform their communities with the hope found in Jesus Christ, thus making them into a multiplying spiritual movement. It's a process with failures and successes all along the way.

But they all start with getting something down first, letting our first efforts be first efforts, and improving them from there. Thanks Anne for your insights into life and writing. They have helped us maintain a little sanity as we think about seeing a city transformed and lives and communities touched. More to come.

Read on. Enjoy. Comment.

Writing & Life

I wrote the below in LA a couple months ago and never posted it. It's still a work in progress, but I will be posting some of my learnings here soon. Read on. Enjoy. Comment.

"Been awhile since I made any amount of effort to write anything. Hopefully that changes soon, but I'm a bit of a pessimist knowing the urban fatigue I feel most every day. However, currently I'm in LA for my boy Pat's wedding, so I have a little more energy.

I read some of a book last year that I really enjoyed and then set it down over the summer, only to pick it up again this fall. I'm grateful I put it down then, because it has been ever so timely to read it now. I re-read a few chapters to pick up where I was again and have seen how aptly they apply to my team and ministry.

The book written by Anne Lamott is called Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and I love it. So does my team. I have taken them through two chapters so far that I think really apply to us in life and planting movements, and each chapter we go through is a breath of fresh air for us in the midst of the messiness."

More to come soon on our learnings. Once again: Read on. Enjoy. Comment.

Musings on Marriage

Staying Married Is Not About Staying In Love, Part I

I have been spending some time processing my view of relationships and inviting God to break down wrong paradigms that have permeated the ways I see them. It has been very rewarding, but also quite humbling. As this is happening, he seems to be bringing more information my way to help me process, evaluate, and change old patterns of thinking to something that more aligns with his heart. The above article is one of these pieces of information I read today. It's insightful and speaks to our generation. I'd encourage you whether married or single, happy or dissatisfied, content or longing, to check it out and view a fresh and anew one persons take on God's view of marriage.

happy reading. drop me some comments on the article here if you have them.

LA to Mexico City (& the unnamed cafe)

Aight gang, it was a rad trip. And eventually I'll throw up some pics and share some stories... but for starters you can roll to my traveling buddy's blog and see what was written today from my favorite cafe. It's the place spoken of that will go unnamed. It's the place I go to get away from it all and disappear for a short while as I read, journal, people watch, drift off into never never land, and sip a little drip of the bean. There are walls lined with books, films, and music. Sofas, loungers, and wicker chairs fill the accessible two stories of the cafe with a wonderful tree sprouting it's way from the bottom floor into the middle of the second story (there's a third story I have tried to get into, but the door is locked). Anyway, I love it here. It's my little secluded island that plays a great variety of music and has the perfect feel to it. And Big-Un, if you read this, keep it on the DL that such a place exists. I can't have too many people asking me questions now can I?! Alright, I'll post a pic of it soon. I don't have my cord with me. Se cuidan.

What keeps you coming back to Jesus?

This is a question I have been asking a number of my friends in small groups and just hanging out. I have received a variety of answers. One of my friends said, “Jesus keeps dragging my butt back to Jesus.” And this is true at the core. Jesus brings us back to Jesus. Obviously, the fact that He is God is something that keeps us coming back; but I think each of us has an even more personal answer.

In normal friendships there are specific things that make us friends. It can be a whole slew of different characteristics: acceptance, steadfastness, kindness, playfulness, tenderness, strength, laughter, joy, simplicity. It could be the way a friend listens to you or draws you out with probing questions. Maybe your friend lets you win in ping-pong or shares your interest for desert storm trading cards ☺. Whatever it is, we are drawn to people for a reason, and I think it is no different with the King of the Cosmos—there is an attractiveness to Him like no other and there are reasons that we keep coming back to Him.

What is it for you? What about the God-Person of Jesus Christ keeps you coming back to Him again and again? For me, it’s that he knows me, he loves me, he is trustworthy, and he makes me laugh.

I will describe the first two together: he knows me and he loves me. A couple of months ago I was spending time journaling my heart movings to the Lord in a little place called Panera Bread. I was wrestling with the Lord on whether I should continue to bring him the longings, hopes, and dreams I have, that seem to be broken again and again.

I know I’m not entitled to receive anything, so I wondered what he wanted from me. I was also re-reading entries from earlier this year. One entry was titled: "People I need to love by faith"—and one of the people on the list was myself, with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 next to it. So I opened up my Bible and read from this address with the lens of God looking at me.

As I read, God reminded me of his great incomprehensible knowing of me. He KNOWS me—ALL of me. He formed the aspirations, dreams, desires, and yearnings of my soul. And he is hoping right alongside of me for them to come to fruition. It says in verse 7, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

As I read these words it reminded me of God’s hoping of things for me. His delight in seeing me receive his blessings. His joy when I receive them and his care for me and endurance with me as they do not come to fruition. He bears, believes, hopes, endures all things. He knows me and he loves me, and this causes me to trust him more.

Next, he is trustworthy. Need I say more? His track record is inscrutable. He never fails, leaves, or forsakes me. He ALWAYS comes through. He is faithful and trustworthy and selfless and kind and good—and his faithfulness means I am safe and secure no matter what. This makes me want to come to him more.

And lastly, he makes me laugh. He does. He brings a jab of humor, sometimes with a hint of sarcasm, and other times I trip over my own foot on a perfectly paved street and he is laughing with me. Sometimes he reminds me of an old memory, his presence with me in it and how hilarious it was. He is the funniest person in the universe and can bring a smile to my face like no other. He warms my heart with laughter.

These four things (and I am sure many others) are what keep me coming back to him again and again. He is indeed the giver of all good things and there is none like him. And in the end, if asked, I think we would respond in like fashion with Peter as accounted by John in chapter 6, verses 66-70.

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

It is in the Holy One of God that we have trusted, the only one who has the words of eternal life. He is so attractive.

Bringing the attractiveness of Jesus into the chaos with you.