The 5th Lesson

5. Complexity. The world will always be more complex than we want it to be. Embrace complexity, don’t look for the black and white so quickly. Expect that there is more to the story than what is reported or what meets the eye. Stop looking for the singular bad guy and look to your own sinfulness to tell you who is at fault – it may not be you, but you’ll at least be looking at the same thing that God is looking at, in each of us. There are always two sides to any story and in my experience from travelling the world, the media truly doesn't give us what we need to hear - the full truth - they tend to give selective truth. I hope to never be a media basher because they give us so much to pray for but our view of reality should not be solely influenced by the media - that is our job and it is not easy to keep up with - but it is our stewardship with all the access to information that we have. We are called to live in the practical of Proverbs, the singing of the Psalms, justice of Job, and the collision and confusion of Ecclesiastes. Wisdom seeks balance of them all and doesn't raise one over the other. It embraces the tension of meaningful and meaningless, of veracity and vanity. It’s really a complex subject so I’ll just move on.

The 6th Lesson

6. Lightheartedness. Look for lightness. In such complexity, longsuffering, hard work, pain and stress there is a need to just let it go at times and escape. This being true, we are not called to look for Heaven on earth, but to bring Heave to earth. I struggle between trying to experience a life without sorrow and a life engaged with sorrow. It is true that in Heaven there will be no more tears, no more crying – pain will cease. Now is the time for pain – it will never happen again, so let’s embrace it before it is gone, it is our last chance to step into what God is doing 24/7. So even though I wrongly look for a complete release from pain and hard work and from being responsible to the growing needs of our broken world, it isn’t wrong to seek the place of solace, humor, laughter and laid back nothingness on a regular basis. But only to be viewed as fuel for the race ahead and not as the final destination- that is replacing Heaven and is an escapist mentality. Many work all year for their 2 to 3 to 4 weeks of vacation to go and do something special or they are waiting for retirement to not have to work anymore. Many make great sacrifices for this kind of lifestyle, but it is completely backwards. Laughter, rest, doing nothing, practicing a hobby is necessary to make it through life, but it is not the point of life. George just came back from Disney France with his grand children and from riding as many roller coasters as he possible could (one he rode 4 times straight) and this all at the age of 67. We need fun, laughter and relaxation but remember what its purpose is; it is not the purpose. A long-haul, long-term, entire life view of living for Jesus is what is required and therefore we need rest in order to make it. It needs to be regular, consistent and focused on rest. This can then give us the fuel for the second greatest commandment, to love others as we love ourselves. One cannot give what one has not first received. Sometimes we are required to arrange for the receiving. This all feeds into the greatest commandment as we steward our body and our time for Christ. Love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind, soul and strength. So take it easy once in awhile. This also requires us to discern the voice of God apart from the voice of our own sinful nature and from the devil’s voice and from the world system (which is completely antithetical to grace). Many times, God is saying rest and the rest of the crowd is saying work harder, longer and never feel like you’ve done enough and then suffer from the guilt until you start working again. This is an on-going battle and the balance is difficult. Work hard at resting right and hearing right.

The 7th lesson

7. Jesus. He is central, the focus, where all eyes should be centered and where all hearts can rest. I don’t know the depth of this but I am finding it more and more as I read the Scriptures and experience so many different cultures. Making Christ central is a must but to be honest, I’m not sure I understand that at the level that it is spoken of in Scripture. I know that I could come up with a lot of things to say and write but I am at a place where it is a principal that I believe and that I only feel like I’ve recently begun to grasp it on the level that I am being asked to grasp it at. Jesus has always been my Sunday School answer. An 8 year old who exclaims that they love Jesus is thinking much different (yet not so different) things than a 98 year old is thinking when he says the same thing. I guess that is where the pilgrimage never ends. Right now I know that Jesus is the center and in my life I feel like I am on the edge of the forest with the enormity of what that actually entails. Once the disciples grasped it, they turned their world upside down for Jesus and were all killed on account of his name. I don’t want to die, but if I could be killed for Jesus that would be incredible. For now I’ll just die daily as best as I know how and pick up my cross. Jesus wants to bless us with his intimacy and his presence I know, but as George has said, “The blessing without the cross only results in chaos.” We are called to many things in Christ, to many places for Christ and too much suffering on behalf of Christ but at the end of the day the 8 year old and the 98 year old are simply called to Christ. So after 7 points I have to ask the question again, “Where will our dreams lead us?” – I believe no more than ever they lead us to Christ who holds the supremacy over all Creation, sits at the right hand of God and carries our burdens and gathers our sorrows and asks us to only join Him in making His Daddy look good.

Vroom flippin vroom

These are the beautiful cars that I had the privilege of riding in when George and I visited Ben, his son and family in Idaho. Very fast and living in Idaho gives the distinct impression that the road never ends so you feel like driving fast all the time. Not me of course!

Prayer = Hard Work

I think it will always be more difficult to pray than it will be easy - but as it has been said, "nothing worth having is easy!"

Please join me as I prepare to leave London and fly to Singapore to minister on the Doulos for two weeks and then return to London for 24 hours to again leave for the Middle East. While there I will be ministering in a difficult country with much sorrow. These are my prayer requests.

1. To meet with Jesus everyday on my own - to feed from His Word

2. To be a servant, to be challenged with a servant's heart, to serve wholeheartedly

3. I want to have the chance to share the Gospel a lot this summer with unbelievers in the Middle East and to see some come to Jesus right there on the spot.

4. To see the needed funds come in for this summer and for next year's committment

5. Please pray for two men here in London that I have connected with, both from Cyprus and nominally Muslim. I've had the chance throughout the year to share my life and the Gospel with one and recently spent an entire evening with him. That night he gave me the opportunity to lay out the Gospel very clear to him. He doesn't believe that we are born with sin - to him a good life is good enough.

6. Please pray for a Vietnamese girl that I shared the Gospel with through Skype (www.skype.com) in Hanoi

7. There will be a lot of travel for both Geroge and I this summer. Travelling mercies!

8. Pray with me for Iraq and India (India is the country of the day right now on www.operationworld.com).

9. Pray with me for the group of teenagers in my parent's mission that I will be speaking to in August at their yearly Staff conference. I have sensed a leading to go through the book of Ephesians with them. Please pray with me as I prepare and seek to know what God would want to say to their mind, heart, conscience and will.

10. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the peace that is needed in all hearts globally.

There are always a lot more, so thank you for taking the time and let's believe that in prayer we move mountains, things change and God moves through our prayers. Bless all of you.

Nathan

This is Dion. He's my little brother.
We've been friends since '99. He's got one sister. He's got 2 brothers. His mom's name is Eloise. They live in Cabrini Green, Chicago. I was just there for Mother's Day.
Amazing story

We went to buy flowers for his mom to ssend to her work with the approximate value of about $25-$30. The lady was so inspired by Dion's desire to buy mother's day flowers that she gave us the arrangement for free and the delivery too. What a gift from God. I told him that and we thanked the lady and God and then went to G's greasy burgers and fries to celebrate. Please pray for my friend. I love him lots. His siblings are struggling through some heavy stuff right now. They say you either in trouble, leaving trouble or getting ready for some trouble. Multiply that by 10 and you got his family figured out. They've been fixin' to leave the projects for years but it ain't happened yet. Please lift him up to Jesus with me. They call him Toof, I call him my brother, Jesus calls him something that none of us knows. Peace