Thank you

For the past seven years I have been keeping this little blog. Over the years there  have been a number of highlights from reaching my first 100 subscribers, being tweeted by Nadia Bolz-Weber, curating the first "Be The Change" ebook, launching Imprints, getting email feedback, being reminded weekly of my poor grammar and experiencing internet trolls.

The best thing about this blog that I have experienced is when someone says, "I was reading on your blog..." Many times I don't know what they are talking about because I forget what is posted each time, but I am always humbled when I hear that. 

Thank you for reading this entry and for encouraging me these past seven years. It is my prayer that I will continue to be provoked by God to always be the Change. 

How Jesus might solve the economic gap in the US

The gap between the rich and the poor is complicated. I don't understand all the arguments around why this is a good or bad thing, I do not understand why it is bad for employers to pay a living wage to people, I do not know why it is acceptable for the top percents to have a disproportionate amount of wealth. What I do know is that there is an economic floor that I believe needs to be in place for the health and wholeness of an individual and, by extension, a nation. 

Perhaps what I do not understand is the idea that more wealth is better. Like I said, there is an economic floor that needs to be in place so that there is food on the table, healthcare and some pleasures of life can be enjoyed, but more wealth does not mean greater wholeness. Daniel Kahneman1 and Angus Deaton have a study out that shows that a person who makes $250,000 a year is not much happier than the one who makes $75,000 a year. This suggests a limit to the amount of happiness economic stability can provide.

Mystic and theologian Andrew Harvey said, "For Jesus, it is clear, poverty is not the problem; it is the solution. Until human beings learn to live in naked contact and direct simplicity and equality with each other, sharing all resources, there can be no solution to the misery of the human condition and no establishment of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ radical and paradoxical sense of who could and who could not enter the Kingdom is even more clearly illustrated by his famous praise of children."

While I will continue to advocate for the economic floor for everyone to stand on, I will continue to struggle with the teachings of Jesus. I will continue to try to embrace poverty as the solution. 

The goal is not to bear fruit

For many of us Christians, we talk about the true disciple is one that bears fruit. The Church talks about different ministries being fruitful and many churches count different things as a way to talk about how much fruit something bears. In the past I have written about the need to grow fruit and not veggies, how drought leads to high quality fruit and even the needed shift from being fruitful focused to being faithful focused. 

Today I want to share a story from my friend, Reid, when he went to his grandmothers house.

Reid's grandmother has at least one apple tree in her backyard. This tree is beginning to have a lot of fruit. So much so in fact that the branches are being held up by posts for support. Reid and his grandmother were shook from their seat when one of the fruit laden branches snapped and fell to the ground. Reid shared that it is a shame that the branch snapped off because it had a lot of fruit on it, but the fruit was too immature to pick and eat. That branch and all the buds on it were going to rot and end up as firewood. 

In many circles and conversations I have participated in, there is an emphasis on bearing fruit. As such churches are measured by how much fruit they produce - members, dollars, building size, average worship attendance, etc. With all this talk about bearing fruit we might forget that the goal of the Christian life is not to bear fruit.

The goal is be connected to the True Vine.

When we talk about the Christian life we are tempted to talk about the fruit, when we really should be talking about the connection we have with the Vine. Don't tell me how many people you have in worship, tell me how you see people connecting with God in worship. Rather than how many dollars you give, share how much grace you have received. I am not interested in hearing how many times you have read the Bible as I am hearing about how many times you have allowed the Bible to read you. So you have a ton of 'likes' or 'followers' but when was the last time you were humbled by your own smallness?

We are not called to bear fruit, we are called to connect to the vine. If we focus on fruitfulness without contentedness then we may be like a branch that is full of apples only to break off and (ironically) not be fruitful.