5.8

State it plainly. A few years ago, a number of us gathered in San Diego to talk about what it means to live as Christ followers in the world. I have a friend who at the time was a few steps ahead of us. I invited him to talk to us about the things he was doing. He did a great job with what was asked of him, but by the time he was done, I wished I hadn't asked him. In principle, what he was passing on was great, but how he himself was living it was in a word, Spectacular. He and a few friends moved into the inner city, started to read the Bible with some regulars at a local bar, ended up serving a drug addict with HIV. I feared the volume on the unintended message - this is spectacular - was higher than the intended message: We can all center our lives of faith in the world.

Last Friday we did go turn in paperwork to be licensed by the County to be foster parents. In writing about it, I feared I had done the same thing my friend did years back. I am paranoid - yup paranoia is an accurate description - of depicting this whole thing as being for the exceptional, the spectacular. I am convinced it is not. 

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13