Since we are back living in the area where most of our family & friends are, it just didn't seem that we needed to keep the blog up to date because most people got their updates live from us.
We are planning to get back in a bit of a relaxed rhythm of posting again, a mix of photos & thoughts, but I guess it's fitting that the post that could help us get our voice back would be on the topic of Justice.
We attended the Justice conference in Portland earlier this year, along with a few good friends and 4,000 other people who, as conference founder Ken Wytsma said, "believe it is more blessed to give than to recieve."
There were many highlights and God really used the conference to kick us into action, but here are a few highlights:
When we throw our hands up and say "God why don't you do something?" He says, "I did. I made you." -Shane Claiborne
Francis Chan shared so much good stuff, but the thing that really got us was a fresh look at Matthew 25:34-46 when Jesus comes in all his glory and says that "whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me." Francis challenged us to start taking this verse literally again & not just pass by it too quickly. Then he warned us that sometimes nice Christian people might actually try to talk us out of the very thing Jesus asked us to do!
It was sobering to think that I might be swayed from doing what Jesus commands, but even more frightening is the thought that I might be one of the "well-meaning" Christians who would try to talk someone (or even my own kids) out of caring for the least of these because they should stay safe, build a career, or avoid wasting their resources on people who won't appreciate them. Yikes!Frederick Buechner said "We have to take our deepest passions and apply them to the world's deepest pain." That is what we intend to do. As for how we intend to do that, well that's coming soon. For now, stay weird!
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