To maintain the mindset of someone with no current hope and no sight of future hope is something hard to grasp. As a student on a three day trip you have to pretend you don’t see an end in sight and live like you not only have to fight to survive today, but for every single day after that.

How do you minister to someone who truly doesn’t understand joy or hope? How to you connect with someone who knows that nobody can be trusted? So often, as Christians we attack people with our faith trying to save them spiritually without recognizing their need for physical salvation as well.

This is a little something called Holistic Ministry that I will probably be talking about in the future around here.

Explanation: I am in a class called Contemporary World Missions in which our insane professor insist we live as a refugee for a weekend to experience the life of those we would potentially minister to. Similar to the homeless experience I did a few years ago this is supposed to stretch us physically and mentally bringing the realization that this horrible weekend is many people’s lives.

Starting at 5:00pm we will be taken somewhere cold and lonely…and that’s really all we know. So, I will be posting a followup of some sort but your prayers will be appreciated as the weather here in the Miami Valley is not looking pretty.

I’ve been thinking about humility lately and all the Bible has to say about it. Sometimes I feel like Christians become pushovers in their humility. Now, I’m not saying humility is a bad thing (the Bible would clearly say the contrary), I just think we have the wrong idea about it. The Bible talks about Humility a lot, but about 90% of it is just talking about being humble before God (such as James 4:10). The thing I’m saying is that we don’t show pride of ourselves, but we must be proud of who we are in Christ (Galatians 6:14).

If we are to truly send the message we are commanded to send, we cannot do it as people who are not proud and bold in what we believe in (Acts 4:29, James 1:9). Proverbs 28:1 says, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." This is a call for us to stand our ground! Interestingly, the word pride is only used negatively once in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 4:6) so that means pride can be a good thing.

In my opinion, humility should just be the absense of the bad kind of pride. It’s just sad to see Christians take their humility as a hinderance to their message. Should we be rude? No. Should we be pushy? Yes! Show people your faith joyfully and proudly. Don’t let them forget what you believe for one moment. Boast in what your Savior has done for you and don’t ever relent.

2 Corintians 10:17
"Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

I am what I consider to be perfectly average. All throughout my life in athletics, academics, popularity, creativity, and any other category I can think of I have been right smack in the middle. I am the mean, median and mode of people. I can figure out and do pretty much anything, but I can never seem to become excellent at any one thing.

The more I’ve thought about this recently, the more I see is as a blessing. It has

enabled me to work with such a broad range of skills and people. Now, as I am nearing the end of college, I am getting excited about what opportunities I will have. I know I will be in ministry, but in what capacity I have no clue.

What I am constantly reminded of though is that God calls us to his service, but we are His humble servants. God doesn’t need my amazing skills and talents, he needs someone who will do anything. Are you willing to throw aside what you do to do what you need to do?

[The image above is a composite I made of about 10 faces. You can make your own or find out more at FaceResearch.org]

So if you’re anywhere near Springfield and you’re hungry…trust me…God is showing up here in a way I haven’t seen. Find a way to get here next Saturday…or else.

Why "or else"? I don’t know…they always give an ultimatum.

If you are wondering why it looks like it was shot with a Hi8 camcorder from the early 90′s, it’s because it was. I had to import an analog feed from the camera’s s-video output into my handy dandy Hauppauge USB tuner (quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever bought). I ran into a lot of issues with the video and even more with the audio but it came out good all things considered. I got a lot of good feedback which was comforting since the video wasn’t as good as I hoped, but still better than I expected.

It has a real documentary feel which is nice so I hope you enjoy. You can also check out my other Eyes Wide Open video made after the first Westcott House event. Also check out http://eyes-wide-open.info and http://EwoInCambodia.blogspot.com.

You can download the “mo def” version here…not that the video quality is that much better. Download (87.8 MB)