The other night I was at a social gathering, hanging out, talking with people, enjoying the shenanigans and frivolity of the evening. Needless to say, it was a pretty alright night.

That was until I had a negative conversation with someone. Not because they were being negative but more so I’d have to say the conversation was more of a downer-type because it left a bad taste in my mouth. Just the whole vibe of things was…well you know when you’re talking to someone and get the feeling that you’ve just done something horrible to them, even though you’ve never done anything to warrant such a reaction? Then it frustrates you even more when you’re not sure if they’re doing it on purpose or if they even have any idea what they’re doing because then you don’t even know if you should talk to them about it. I always wrestle with wondering if I should even bring up to them what they’re doing, or if it’s even worth it because they’re just going to look at me and say “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that I was being such a pain in the…side.”

The feeling of confusion, bitterness, anxiety, & frustration became the catalyst for my sudden desire to depart from the gathering. So I found my ride and we headed home and I began to air my grievances.

Side note: you know you have a good friend when you ask them if you can just vent and they cordially reply “I would love nothing more!” and they mean it.

So needless to say when I got home that evening I was finding it hard to sleep. My mind was racing through my frustrations not just with the situation that had recently arose but with life in general with school, work, people, friends….I cried out to God and asked why is it so hard? Why are people so confusing? Why don’t some people just get it? Why can’t I just have a break? When are things going to go my way?

Over the next few days I began to receive some answers to my cries…

It first began with a question, a rebuttal to my lament so to say: Why do you hold onto things and worry about them? Why do you continue to cling to these things even after you lay them down at my feet and confess that you trust in me to provide? Why don’t you trust me?

I began wondering why I continue to live as though things are the same when I ask God to change something in my life.

Why was I holding onto these pains and frustrations? Why did I tell God that I trusted Him and then spend my time worrying and being mad and frustrated and bitter?

I had hardened my heart against the very words from Matthew 6:25-34, words that had been such a source of both comfort and strength to me before. Words from the mouth of Christ reassuring us that we are loved and cared for and He will provide for us. Words that told us not to worry about the worldly troubles and to focus our hearts and mind on the kingdom of heaven- to not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I was no longer living in the freedom found only in Christ but in the chains of my own selfishness and worry. I had asked for change, for Christ to make things new, to renew my heart and mind yet I continued to live as though nothing had changed. Or as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:17;

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!”

There was a part of my heart and mind that was clinging onto the old and not embracing the new. I confessed to God my mistrust and asked for Him to search my anxious ways and to continue to make known to me the path of truth. I went on to relinquish this worry and when it creeps up and tries to consume me once again I stop, slow down, pray and even in those moments of great trial, there is a thought, a gentle, whispering voice of reassurance that dances in the back of my mind, it sounds like this “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

There’s a beautiful piece of musical poetry in which the storyteller sings to one he loves and pleads with him to not carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. It is a warning that is true and should be listened to for when we carry the weight of our worries we not only feel the world upon our shoulders but upon our hearts as well. We cripple ourselves and become blinded by our own mistrust. But that is a weight we no longer have to bear because of the love of Christ and it is Christ himself who put it best in Matthew 11:28-30;

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I’ve decided that I want you, the reader, to know the train of thought that occurred when the idea for this blog came upon me like a mighty, rushing wind. That and I couldn’t think of any other cheeky way to flow into the point of everything. So I ask of you to please pause, pray, and take 5-7 minutes to read through the words that God has put upon my heart.

(Oh and I think it’s a good thing to do the preceding with most things of a spiritual nature you read because many times, especially in the Lighthouse Collective realm, these blogs are meant to be a method of encouragement and of worship, for us as a collective, so again, pause, pray, and read. Oh & enjoy!)

Now to the thick of things! I was driving the other day, listening to some beautiful songs of praise to God pouring forth from a humble man whose musical gifts are amazing, and even that description does not fully do justice to the mighty work God does through Phil Wickham.

Anywho, I was thinking about the next opportunity I have to speak publicly like in a church-esque setting, and like most times when this topic matter arises within the confines of my skull, I begin to think of what exactly I would say. So I got to the part where my message would end and I would call up the worship leader and I would encourage others to worship freely, you know the whole feel “free to sit, kneel, raise your hands” spiel.

I began to think of the times in a musical worship setting where I haven’t worshiped freely, where I’ve held back because I took my focus off of God and allowed it to be ensnared by the thoughts of those around me. My thoughts become sidetracked with things like, “I wonder what others would think if I just danced or fell on my face. Would they think I’m being showy, drawing attention to myself; would I be a distraction or an encouragement to others?” I even get attacked with the thought of “You are doing this for attention; you aren’t doing this because you want to praise and glorify God; you are doing this for YOU!”

Let me tell you what I’ve learned; those thoughts stink and they are not true. I know that my desire in those moments and with my whole life is to sing out praise and glorify God with all that I am. When those moments of attack come I think of the following passage:

1 John 3:18-20
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything

My desire is to not to just love God with words or tongue but with actions and truth, with all that I am. Yet I know that I will be attacked, that I will fall into sin, that I will run away, that EVEN MY HEART WILL CONDEMN ME!!!! At the same time I can find rest, a comfort, and peace because God is greater then my heart. So even when my own heart is condemning me, when Satan is throwing attacks of pride, doubt, fear, or whatever my way, I can rest assured in God because He knows my desire to worship and glorify Him!

I guess the point could be put like this: you know when you take a test or when you used to take a test and the teacher tells you to answer every question even if you don’t know the answer to mark something down, to go with your gut instinct because most of the time your gut instinct, your initial instinct, was right.

So the next time you’re at Lighthouse or your home church or your car or wherever you engage God in worship and you feel that gut instinct to throw your hands up, to dance around, to fall face down, to lift your voice higher, to glorify God with all that you are and all that He has made you to be- do it. Go with that gut instinct because even when you’re uncertain, most often your gut instinct was right in the first place.

Lately I’ve been feeling like David- King David of the Bible that is, not just some random guy named David. Anyway, I say that not because I’ve felt very kingly or wise, but more so because I relate to the cries of his heart that are so beautifully conveyed throughout the pages of Psalms.

I’d like to tell you about one specific psalm that stuck out but I feel a deep heart connection with so many of them. As I would read David’s cries to God to save him, pleading for mercy and grace, pleading for compassion and forgiveness, pleading for rescue, my heart would turn violently inside of my chest because these were the cries of my heart as well. To be saved from my selfishness, to be saved from the sins that chain me down and keep me from pursuing Christ. To be forgiven for running back to those chains that I find so shamelessly comfortable. SAVE ME!!! I need You to rescue me from myself, from my enemies, from the Enemy!

And the entire time my heart is crying out, I feel this sense of calmness beside the crashing waves of fear and doubts and anxiety, this feeling of truth, this feeling that all will be okay. And so does David.

I love how so many of the laments, the cries of David’s heart, end with the proclamation that God is God, that He is Holy, that He is King of Kings, that He does forgive, that His grace knows no depths, that He does lift us up and set our feet upon a solid rock, and that He will never leave us nor forsake us no matter what attacks the world throws our way. He tells us that as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we have nothing to fear- not death, not Satan, not the world, not brokenness, not our own selfishness, not the chains of our sin and guilt and shame. He is our comfort and He is with us forever and always!

Spending time in the prayer room has been nothing short of amazing and heartbreaking. Even as I write those words they seem to not do enough justice to the things that God has done through so many who have had the opportunity to worship God in the prayer room.

I was pretty much gone for two weeks except a short break in which I was home for 36 hours. During that time I was blessed with having two hours in the prayer room right before I left again to go on a missions trip to West Virginia.

While I was in the room, I was reading through the worship and wailing walls praising God for what He has done and continues to do and crying out for so many who are broken and struggling.

I began to look for some of the things that I had wrote, whether they be praises, cries, or even responses to other peoples writing. I began to find myself staring at writing and wondering if it was I who had wrote it or not. Some of the handwriting looked the same but regardless there were still so many things that people had wrote that rang true in my life.

I became overwhelmed with this sense of being the body of Christ, being one, being likeminded, having the same heart. Realizing that so many of my brothers and sisters wrestle with the same doubts and worries as I do. And at the same time the same God who has revealed Himself to me, the same God who has given me hope, and shown me that His grace knows no bounds, is doing the same for so many others.

Although our struggles may look different or involve different circumstances, and although our prayers may be answered in different ways, our hope, faith, and love all still flow out from the same place, the same God, who never fails, who never forsakes, who never changes, and has always loved us, yesterday, today, and forever!

So the other night I was driving home and my thoughts wandered to this one precarious, “morbid” idea: what would my funeral be like if I died?

I’ve had these thoughts before and they’re NOT rooted in any sort of “suicidal; longing to get out of here; I wonder if anyone would miss me and what would people say about me” type of attitude. Actually, weirdly enough, its more like a “what would I say to them; what would I want those whom I love to know; what words of comfort or ‘wisdom’ would I share” type of attitude.

See, when I was in high school I came up with this novel idea to film a video with my parting words, so to say. I still love this idea so much that I actually second guessed myself about sharing this with the mainstream public because I don’t want anyone else to steal my thunder. But that’s just me being honest.

Anyway, the other night as I was thinking about my most brilliant idea and I began to dialogue what it is I might say. I got to this one point where I naturally throughout the cliche of having no regrets. Then I stopped and wondered about the truth of that statement: could I Joe Crabb in some wierd, pseudo last will of testament honestly say that I have lived life with no regrets?

See the problem with that idea is that the word regret seems to carry this heavy weight to it. Nobody wants their eptiaph to read: “He was a man of many regrets and even fewer memories.”

After contemplating this idea little longer I came to the conclusion that I do not have any regrets but I do have things that I wish I would have done, some things that I will never have the opportunity to do again. I cannot say that I have this heavy weight of regret that eats away at my heart, just a few missed opportunities.

But that’s the thing: I feel as though a few missed opportunities could eventually become a bunch of missed opportunities and that in itself is the manifestation of regret.

The heart of this blog is that I wish that people could be and would be more comfortable with who they are and that they would “let their hair down” and have some good, clean, goofy fun. I was at the Rochester Fireworks this year and the best part of the night was when a group of friends and myself were dancing with all of our foolish might in front of the stage enthralled in the music and the absolute enjoyment of that moment. I loved it! I had the biggest grin on my face the whole time because no one cared about anything but dancing around and laughing til our sides hurt.

Too many times we’re too afraid or too uncomfortable or too self conscious to actually enjoy life, to actually engage or even create those moments of pure, lighthearted fun. So let your hair down and have a little fun, don’t let even the little opportunities to enjoy life slip past because they’ll add up and to put it in the words of the Hollywood…

“Every man dies not every man truly lives”

“I don’t want to survive, I want to live!”

and my favorite
“Don’t take life too seriously, you won’t make it out alive.”

I have this desire to get a degree. Due to a past which involved laziness and other irresponsible traits and lack of being decisive with a “career path”, I am now 23 years of age and still have a good four semesters left until the desired degree is achieved. I am pursuing a degree in Youth and Family Ministry with a minor in Behavioral Sciences. No, I’m not trying to sound all snobbish by stating my minor, I just like the way it sounds. I only declared a minor because I had taken so many extra unnecessary classes at other fine academic establishments, such as Oakland Community College and Macomb Community College, that it just worked out that way.

Anyway, my desire to be done with school (for now- I highly look forward to seminary! {note: read the preceding sentence with much sarcasm}) led me to take what is known as a “Maymester” class. This class took place for 3 consecutive weeks, Monday through Friday, 9am – 12pm. As much as I did not appreciate having to wake up every day to sit in class, I think I would much rather have college be ran like this, that way one could take two classes every three weeks and end up taking 10 classes in 15 weeks! That’s easily 60 credits a year! No longer would college be a 4-10 year reign of tyranny!

The Maymester class I took was Introduction to Ethics. The class entailed us discussing the different moral philosophies that each one of us uses to determine our morality, our sense of wrong or right. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and to be honest, found it quite insightful. One day in class we were discussing other models of moral philosophy that don’t fall into any of the other major categories of moral philosophy. We began to discuss a man by the name of Peter Singer and what has been come to be known as “The Singer Principle”. This is what it states;

“If you can prevent something bad from happening at the cost of something less bad, you ought to do it”

He illustrates it quite simply and for some almost logical:

“If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of a child would presumably be a very bad thing.”

Now this illustration should make perfect sense to all of us who are logical, moral human beings. But take the principle and begin to apply it elsewhere. Here’s another illustration;

“If the cost of providing a child in an impoverished, famine stricken country is $50 a year and I spend $500 on (insert vice/luxury here {examples: electronics, clothes, coffee} then what I am saying is I care more about whatever I spend my money on then I do about feeding a starving child.”

This is morally wrong, to claim with your actions that your wants are more important then the feeding of a child or any other social injustice you choose to ignore.

Now as you continue to think through different situations, I am sure that you can find a fault with Singer’s principle. And of course one must also be discerning in the manner of giving, providing, and loving others and being responsible with what one has been given and with one’s own provision.

You don’t have to agree with the principle but the conviction it stirs up is perhaps necessary and quite deserving of thought.

What do I care about? What am I compassionate about? Am I intentional in the way I love others, the way I care for others? Do I strive to make a difference or do I think about these things only when brought up and then quickly return to being lost in complacency and self-desire?

What do you do?

a word from a more poetic man then I

“When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do…

And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something”

I enjoy a good cry every now and again. Wait a minute, does admitting that make me less of a man or more of a man? I will admit there have been times in which I have gotten teary-eyed and have tried to hold it back in order to maintain a sense of manliness, but lets be honest- when you are moved by something beautiful, something compassionate, something that exemplifies love…how can you not cry or tear up just a little?

Well, if you are ever in the mood for a good cry (meaning a cry which occurs at the site of the previous mentioned things and not the type of cry that occurs when you have been hurt) then I suggest hunting down an episode of two of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and a box of tissues. I was watching an episode this past Sunday in which the Extreme Makeover team made over a church in New Orleans that had been completely ruined by Hurricane Katrina. As I watched the show I got a little choked up and my eyes began to accumulate with a salty discharge; I am always moved when others sacrifice their time, their wants, their possessions, in order to pour out love upon an individual who is both deserving and in need of such compassion and love. Whenever I watch the show I always have this sense, this stirring in my heart that reminds me to continually and consistently show others such humble, selfless, and compassionate love. The key words there are continually and consistently because a lot of times I forgot about that. I get lost in the business of life and that overwhelming sense of complacency sneaks upon me like a ninja creeper in the night.

I find it funny in an ironic sense how we can easily be blinded by our business and hectic schedules and become unaware of the needs of those around us. It breaks my heart when I know that the needs of those around me can be as simple as just stopping and having a caring conversation with them, calling them just to talk or getting together with them to catch up and heck, maybe even to just “chill” and have a good time. The reason why this is ironic to me is because on Friday I was once again reminded of how easily I can tune myself off to others and be distracted by the static of my own noise. At the One Day prayer event, I attended the time slot for Student Ministries of Woodside, a ministry I just happen to be a little bit involved with. Anyway, we broke up into smaller groups to pray over and about certain matters and the last time of prayer was set aside to pray about our families (this time slot encouraged students and their families to attend together). At this time I was in a group with two others and what happened next is what reminded me of my complacency and lack of awareness in the matter of loving others. As we began to pray, each one of us opened up offering our prayers up to God and sharing our hearts with one another. We shared of the hurt our families were going through, the struggles and the stress, and the weight that tolled on each of us. We shared our hearts for our family and our desire to show them the love of Christ and for us to lay our worries at the feet of God knowing that He will provide for us, comfort us, never leave us. We prayed for strength and guidance to allow our lives to bring glory to God, and we prayed for healing in the lives of our family.

The sad thing is, I knew both of these people. They were not strangers- one would fall under the category of being an “acquaintance” perhaps, and the other is a friend that I have a closer relationship with. Yet I did not know their hurt or their struggle. I know there are some times in which we wear masks and we wear them well. I know that our hearts could be breaking and our lives could be spinning out of control and yet we are too scared to reach out to someone for love and comfort even though that is what we so desperately need and desire. I remember when my dad was in the hospital we went out to eat for my brother’s birthday. We weren’t trying to mask our hurt or anything like that but while we were out, I looked around the restaurant and began to think, “No one here has any idea what’s going on in our lives right now.” I was hit in the face with that reality again on Friday, that there are people that you see and interact with everyday and they could be drowning in a world of hurt and sorrow yet we don’t ever realize it, even when they’re not trying to cover it up.

So when faced with this reality…what will I do, what can I do, what will you do?

In the words of a mad man…”CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!”

Meaning to always be aware and attentive to the needs of those around us; to be aware of those we know and don’t know and to those who wear masks and try to wear mask.

1 John 4:7-8; 11-12

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete

Hello, hello! How are you doing today? Wait…sorry! Don’t answer that. Well, you can but if you are in a public setting perhaps you don’t want to answer any questions I ask out loud. I would hate for this blog to be the reason why people begin thinking of you as a crazy person.

Then again, I can’t really say that talking to your self is the definition of crazy. I have been known to fervently argue with my computer screen when in the throes of homework or when technology is not allowing me to manipulate it in the way I desire. Then there are those moments in which you’re with someone or in a group and you get kind of lost in thought. Meanwhile, you’re oblivious to those around you when all of a sudden a light bulb comes on and you just happen to chime in with a random comment that doesn’t fit into the current conversation at the exact moment that everyone else stops talking. Or has anyone here ever enjoyed the embarrassing moment when you wave to someone you thought was waving at you to and then quickly the awkwardness of the moment catches up to you? Then you try and act like you were doing something else like swatting at a fly or flagging in a 747 but you’re stuck and clearly caught in the middle of awkward-ville. And now because of technology, awkward-ville has claimed new ways of roping people in. My new favorite embarrassing social interaction is when you hear someone say something and you give a response only to find out that the person who addressed you has a Bluetooth headset clamped to his ear and is now staring you down like “Who’s crazy pants talking to?!?”

I am a fan of those awkward moments and when it comes down to it, all awkward moments. I’m a fan of disc golf; I’m a fan of cruising around with the windows down and music blaring; I’m a fan of star gazing. This could be a long list but I’ll cap it off with two more things that are synonymous- I am a fan of music and a HUGE fan of The Beatles (I won’t expound on my love for The Beatles because this blog would then turn into a dissertation). The first blog I wrote for the Lighthouse Collective was about music. Since then I’ve wanted to write another one about another aspect of music, specifically what I call the “life song.”

You know how couples have their song? It’s the song that defines their relationship or is linked to a specific memory, the type of song that sings of promises of true love and growing old together, a song of definition. So a life song would be a song that poetically describes how you live life or how you desire to live life. A song that you take to heart and beats to the same rhythm of yours. Now when choosing a song whether a life song or a love song or one that touches upon both aspects, don’t ever feel as though you have to be limited to one song. I don’t ever want to just have to choose one song that defines the love I have for my wife; I want her to know the love I have for her through so many ways. The love I have for her will be so deep that it will be absurd even to think that one song could ever clearly define the depth of that love. Don’t ever be confined by one song when trying to convey the depth of your passion and love.

I have two life songs. The first one you may think of an odd choice because, well, it kind of is. Not too many people have ever heard the song before even though it is done by a very popular musician. The song is by David Crowder Band and is entitled “The Lark Ascending or (Perhaps More Accurately, I’m Trying To Make You Sing)”. Now for anyone who has ever listened to The Beautiful Collision album in which this track is found, you know that the last two tracks of the CD consist of Crowder in a conversation with someone who is interviewing him. If you go to the last track on the album, the one listed above, and skip forward to about the 1:48 marker in the song and give it a listen, you will find the gem I am talking about. The conversation begins to fade out and the music begins to build and then Crowder passionately bursts forth with beautiful lyrics.

“..and I’m just trying to make you sing,
from inside where you believe!
Like its something that you need,
and it means everything!
And I’m trying to make you feel,
that this is for real!
That life is happening and it means everything
I’m just trying to make you sing…”

This song depicts what I so desire to do with my life. Something simple and yet so deep. I desire to live a life that directs people toward God. I desire to make people sing, to sing out songs of glory and praise to God. For people to come and know that what they are singing about is real and that it means everything. To cry out to God and know through it all, good and bad, moments of joy and moments of brokenness, that all we can do is cry out to God. He is good and He is holy and He loves that. And when I am in those moments, the ones in which I can glimpse God, I am undone. All I can do is join in with all of creation and sing out songs of praise to glorify a mighty and powerful and loving God, because what else can I do?

The second one is simple and needs no explanation.

“all you need is love…all you need is love…

all you need is love, love, love is all you need…”

I make videos. I love short sentences. Sorry, I just found that funny. That, and the fact that each sentence is one word longer then the next. Anyway, back to the first sentence- I make videos. And no, these are not your Michael Scott & Jan type videos (if you don’t get the reference then ask someone who is a fan of The Office). I make fun little short skits. Sometimes they are for high school or middle school promo material or sometimes they’re created for sheer frivolity. I once made a video in which myself and the other creator, Chris Gagnon, a fellow film connoisseur, heavily poked fun at those who commercialize Christianity (and no, the video has not yet been put up on YouTube).

Anyway, I had a few people come up to me and tell me that they thought the video was borderline sacrilegious. I laughed a little to myself as to not undermine what I truly thought of their opinion and then went on to explain to them the humor in the video, the humor that they had clearly missed. I am sorry if that last sentence comes off sounding a little harsh but I am sick and tired of water-downed, commercialized Christianity. I wish I could have taken that person to the Family Christian Bookstore or heck, even Meijer which sells this “temple” merchandise, and asked them if they thought the t-shirts, with the fun, cheeky theological statements were sacrilegious. This Christian cultural phenomenon blows my mind: what is it that makes one want to waste their money on such ridiculous things?

Does one really feel the Holy Spirit move a little more when sucking down Testa-Mints? Now yes, there are some cute little t-shirts for kids or girls and even some sweet ones overall that actually don’t make the wearer look like a complete fool. And to make myself clear, I am not trying to make this into some sort of fashion statement, that all Christians must abandon any clothes that reference Christianity in order to look cool and fit in with our culture. I am merely sharing my thoughts and I am not one to give out fashion advice seeing as my fashion consists of jeans, t-shirts, and sandals. I’m just saying that T-shirt theology gives off this false, cheesy portrayal of Christianity, even if the statement is true. To quote a wise man “If you can fit your theology on a T-shirt it’s probably not very accurate, very deep, or very good.” See for yourself, go to Google, type in Christian t-shirts and explore away. Again, you will find good ones along with some that are so ridiculously cheesy they will cause your eyes to roll back like the rock blocking Jesus’ tomb (that was my attempt at cheesy Christian humor, maybe I should put it on a t-shirt).

Oh, and for those of you who are interested, my favorite “Christian” t-shirt simply says on the front “GET STONED! Like Paul!”. The “O” in “STONED” is cleverly portrayed as a rock; quite ingenious! Like I said earlier, sadly the video we created to poke fun at these commercializations of Christianity has not been posted on YouTube but for your own video enjoyment here is a link to a similar video a few of my students and I created poking fun at those who portray Christianity as “happy-go-lucky”. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

I tend to lean on the side of logic. I’ve come to the realization through the years that, just like everything else, people have a different view of what would be deemed as logical or illogical. As a follower of Christ, my logic “hinges” on, to put it in simple terms, what Jesus would do or how He would act, how He would treat this person or that person. It has always ticked me off to see people take their so-called, “Christ”-rooted logic and use it for evil and injustice to others. I consider a perfect example to be all those lovely people that bash the gay community with their “God hates F*gs” signs, an illogical injustice when measured up to the humble loving logic of Christ. This example is an extreme, of course; I notice all sorts of “tiny” injustices served to others and lived out by others, all of them being rooted in our own selfishness, our own pride. So if injustice is rooted in selfishness and pride, then what is justice founded upon? Ahh, such a simple answer is coming, so much so that one might call it cliche’. Well folks, there are reasons for cliches’ and that is because more times then not, they are correct. The foundation of justice is humble love and we need to look no further then the life of Christ and the grace of God to see the highest example. To humbly love others, to rid our hearts of selfishness. As I think through this more and more, I begin to realize how selfish we can be, there are the extreme examples of bashing gays, bashing those of different race, making jokes at the expense of other people. As Crowder puts it, “the harder I try, the more clearly can I, feel the depth of our fall, and the weight of it all.” The harder I try to be more like Christ, to die to myself, to rid my heart of selfishness, to live out the humble love of Christ, the more clearly can I begin to feel the depth of our fall. I can truly see how far I am and we are as both followers and non-followers, as both a church and a world. I get a glimpse of how far we are from being worthy to be called little Christs. I can feel the weight, the challenge, the calling of living my life as a passionate, humble, loving follower of Christ.

The whole premise for this came about as this afternoon I was reading through the book of James. As I came across the passage of James 4:17, the words struck a chord within my heart.

James 4:17 NIV
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Wow, it made me think of how many times I saw someone who may have needed help and I didn’t even ask them if I could give a hand. It made me think of the many times that I have been driving and seen someone stranded on the side of the road and didn’t stop just to ask if I could help. I think of the many times in which I’ve seen a middle school or high school student or, heck, anyone for that matter, that was just sitting alone, keeping to themself and how I need to consider the opportunity I have to share in life with them by sharing my story and caring about their story, caring about their life. Even as I pass someone I don’t know in the hall or at a store or in a parking lot and I could simply just smile give them a head nod, acknowledge their existence simply by showing them a little love gesture. And how many times I ignore those I don’t know but even more so when I ignore those that I do know. Even if I don’t know them well, God has had us share a bit of our life together and yet instead of acknowledging that person, instead of sharing the humble love of Christ to that person, I would rather look the other way and pretend I didn’t see them so I can continue on my way undisturbed. Selfishness.

Some of you reading this may feel as though this things are just “minor” details, little hiccups or mishaps that occur on a daily basis but you don’t care about them because you’ve callused your heart from the little mishaps and have found contentment, perhaps even pride, within the fact that “Hey, at least I don’t steal or kill anyone”. Yet to make a very corny metaphor, that’s exactly what we are doing. We are stealing away from others the hope that we have inside, the hope of Jesus Christ, we steal that from them when we don’t share it with them. We kill the chance they have at eternal life, eternal love, eternal peace. I haven’t even mentioned the big injustices that we do nothing about, things such as homelessness, hunger, hate, and so on, and how we ignore these “major” problems because we don’t have the time to humbly love and serve others. We’ve become to consumed with ourselves, with our own comforts, with our own lives. Selfishness.

There is power in the little things that we do for one another. There is this power because the little things have been left for dead. If there is any challenge, any message that I would like to relay, then it is the most simple and the most cliche’ and sometimes the most ignored: to love others the way that Christ first loved us. Love others in the little things because those opportunities are always around us. Don’t wait until a missions trip or a service project to come around to show love to others. Be faithful to Him in the small things.

Philippians 2:1-5 NIV
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 6:3 NLT
We try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way that we act and so that no one may find fault in our ministry, in His ministry.