To the counter...

Update: I am not trying to provoke anyone. I am not trying to defend my actions. I am simply encouraging people to be in true conversation that edifies each other and the Body of Christ. It is in that spirit that this is written. I encourage you to email me if something I am saying causes you any hurt or if I am misunderstanding. To God be the glory (and I will take the blame.)

I was inform the other day of a blog site that was started after last summer by a small group of people who decided to put down what happens at Calvin Crest and the leadership. I know that anytime people who creates subgroups that tweak the nose of the establishment usually are those who really want to be a part of the establishment but do not think they are good enough or think they are view as lesser thans. To those who think that, I want to say that I am sorry if I gave the impression that I think you are lesser thans. I do not. You just didn't have my attention. I know to some, it doesn't mean much what I think, but if they are spending time thinking up clever things to say against us, I was just thinking this time could be spent thinking up meaningful things to change us.

Tweaking the nose, if you will, doesn't change things. It only reenforces your lack of influence over the system, and keeps you at a distance from the heart. Good dialogue, well thought out discussion on how we can serve people better and broaden the Kingdom's influence will get one deeply involved in making important changes that are needed.

I say these things because there are times I am a nose tweaker. I can easily make fun of people in power. But it never accomplishes what I think I really want. Influence. It keeps me out of the clubhouse and away from the people with whom I want relationship. I thought the radical thing was to be against the system and boycott it or laugh at it. Then I started realizing that I was spending a lot of time thinking and talking about it and not being a part of it to make the changes that were needed. No one knew I existed. I was just another one of those on the outside who had no influence or credibility to make system better.

I watched people who have valuable influence in the lives of people. They usually have done things that have bring deep sacrifice to their lives and the lives of their family. Not the fifteen minuters. Those people get their name recognized today but are forgotten in mere moments later. They are the "Pet Rocks" in society. If you don't know what Pet Rocks are that should tell you something. Notoriety and influence are two different things. Notoriety is like vapor, gone in moments. Influence stains and becomes part of the fabric. A few summers back, Michael had influence because we had conversations and he brought solutions to the problems he saw and convinced me these things needed to change.

I am looking forward to seeing the movie, "Bobby" (about Robert Kennedy). He was such a role model for me. The first presidential candidate that I got behind. I was in eighth grade and my history teacher, Mr. Stone, told us to research and support a candidate, so I did and RFK was my man. My father took me to the Fresno Airport to watch him land and give a speech, just days before his assassination. He was different. He was for the farm laborer, when no one else was except Caesar Chavez who was a farm worker. He was against the war that his brother John F. Kennedy started our involvement in and LBJ escalated. He went against the seated leader of his party by becoming deeply involved in the system to change it. This was after the system help assassinate his brother and deeply embroil the nation in war and strife. The country changed with the death of Bobby, I changed.

I am not trying to be anyone's mentor and I really could care less about a website that is mocking me or what we do at a small camp in the middle of a forest, but they are wasting their time which could be spent doing something to improve life for someone else who could use their creative thoughts, kind words, and precious companionship at this critical hour.