Charlotte, NC to Phoenix, AZ to Seattle, WA, to Juneau, AK.

On Saturday, starting at 9:40 AM Eastern Standard Time, I began making a giant “L” across the USA. There’s a joke to be made there, but I’m not gonna do it. I’m a window seat guy, so I was a happy camper when I figured out that I’d be sitting in window seats on every leg of the trip! Most of the fun stuff to look at came on the vertical leg of the my “L”. After taking off from Phoenix, the pilot came on over the intercom and informed us that we would be flying over the Grand Canyon. I opened the window, and sure enough we were almost right on top of what looked like a  giant lettuce imprint in the dirt. A really cool, old, and deep lettuce imprint, but lettuce nonetheless. As we approached Seattle, Mount Ranier’s snowy peak jutting up through clouds came into view. In my head, it’s what I imagine the mythical Mount Olympus to have looked like. It’s got that otherworldly look to it that Zeus and the boys would definitely have loved if they weren’t across the Atlantic (or mythological).

When I wasn’t contemplating the beauty of nature from 24,000 feet, I was reading and trying to mentally prepare myself for what the next two months held. How is God going to show up between now and when I’m sitting in a plane again? I wondered. Turns out, he already had. As part of the mission, I’m reading this excellent book called God Space by a guy named Doug Pollock. If you’re a Christian, I HIGHLY recommend reading it. He does a fantastic job of calling a spade a spade. The church, particularly in America, has a really hard time not being a social club with a “members only” attitude. When we do try to reach out, it often seems hollow and driven by an agenda. Not authentic, and not the embodiment of love – which is who God is, and what we ought to be! Here’s an excerpt from 1 John  that really sums that up.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

We, the Christian church, are the only clear picture of Jesus that many will get. If we really see the world as God’s beautiful creation broken by sin, dry of love  – let’s call it a “desert” of sorts – and in need of Jesus (referred to in the Bible as Living Water), then what are we doing? We need to let love be genuine. From what I’ve gathered, that means going out into the places where love is needed the most. The place most Christians wouldn’t dare to go. Instead, we like to do what I was doing on Saturday – cruising along at 24,000 feet, comfortable with our cookies and soda. We like to look out our window at the beautiful desert below, but in our heads, we all think: I would NEVER want to live there. It would be terrible! But here’s a question – what do we do when the God we serve calls us to go into the desert? And not just jump out of the plane and survive in it, but to bring the life that we have to it?

Well, how do you bring life to a desert? Opening a fire hose for 15 minutes won’t solve anything. But this is what we do oftentimes when we “evangelize”. Feeling the need to check off the Great Commission box on my Christian to-do-list, I’ve completely disregarded the need of the person I’m talking to. I’ve just opened up the fire hose and expected to the loveless words I’ve memorized in a monologue to “water the desert”. To all of friends that I’ve done that to, I am so sorry! Instead, bringing life involves loving people the way Jesus did, and the way Paul wrote about:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

If I can learn how to do that, the Good News – the reason I am a new person with a hope that lasts forever – will get natural opportunities to be shared. And you’ll actually want to hear it!

Alaska is Gorgeous.

I’ve only been here for a little over a day now, but I can’t stop staring at the rugged beauty of the 49th state. I’m staying in a dorm building of the University of Alaska Southeast, and the massive glass picture-windows do more than make up for the thin mattress pad I’ll be sleeping on… so much for getting away from school for the summer, right? Regardless, my view every morning is incredible, and  It’s easy to get lost looking into the dense hemlock and spruce tree forests, framed perfectly by colossal snow-capped mountains shrouded by fog in the near distance. We can get into all sorts of discussions about the origins of the universe and creation, but how can something this beautiful – this intricately detailed, living, breathing, masterpiece – not be created by God? Even if you give it millions – or billions –  of years, there has to be a grand design to it all. And you really have to be out in it to see it! The only blind art I’ve seen tends to be abstract, no matter how many times you do it, and nowhere near as beautiful as the world we live in. Especially in Alaska 🙂

It’s been raining ever since I’ve been in Juneau, but I like it! It gives a sort of mystery to the whole place – as if the low clouds and fog are concealing something beautiful that will only be revealed when the sun finally shines. I’ve also learned that bald eagles make really weird noises to be such stoic-looking birds. I’m sure I’ll hear the screech sometime, but all I’ve heard so far is what I can best describe as a really angry chirp. I’ll keep my ears open though! The group of guys and girls I’ll be living with for the next two months are just incredible. Everyone here has been kind, generous, and just really fun to be around! I can’t wait to share it with you! So hang in there – it’s going to be incredible!