Dieting...

"Your diet determines your destiny."

This week at Prison Fellowship is Worldview Week. It consists of all the interns, field and national, spending the week engaged in training: listening to different speakers on worldview topics, participating in different events, meeting with different people. The week began with speakers explaining what a worldview is (Chuck, who popularized the idea of worldview through his book How Now Shall We Live? defines worldview as the following: simply the way we think the world works, and how we fit into it; worldview shapes our thoughts, attitudes, and actions), why it is important, how we know truth, and then a variety of "worldview in"s... Worldview in media and arts. Worldview in politics and government. Worldview in academia and education. Worldview in business. And so on.

The week has been some part fascinating, some part boring, as week long training sessions tend to be, and all part free training (which can never be discounted...). While I cannot say that it covers things I havent heard before, I can say that I have been confronted with ideas that have proven to challenge me, inspire me, and excite me, right down to my core. Already having three days behind, its going to be hard to condense it all into one post. But Ive been keeping a list of highlights, and I am going to try to pull them all together in a logical and coherant way. I think the best way to do so is to use a quote by the Chuck man himself.

"I submit that you cannot be a Christian in today's world if you do not know what's going on around you."

This week has been about living life with integrity. Integrity is defined as wholeness. Integer: one. Integrate: come together. It all boils down to completeness, coherance, all parts working together as a single unit. Our lives must reflect this idea. If we are to take on the name of Christ, we have to let him change every part of our lives, not just the parts we are comfortable with. We cannot be Sunday morning Christians. We cannot be school-only Christians, or Bible-study-only Christians, or around-certain-friends-only Christians. We cannot be any other kind of "only" Christians. We cannot choose to work in the ministry simply because we are scared of the world. We cannot pull ourselves out of secular book clubs to segregate ourselves. While these can be done with pure intentions, a Christ against culture approach is not only illogical, its downright unbiblical. Chuck's quote reminds us that we cannot be Christians who live with our heads in the sand. We are called to engage this world, bring the gospel to them, and live our lives in a fallen place based on Christ's absolute truth and with wholeness.

So, with that as the overarching theme, here is what I have learned:

• In leadership avoid the sin of overlooking people.
• The famous quote by the great theologian Abraham Kuyper is this reason that our worldview is so important: "Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' " Christ cries "Mine!" over every single part of our existence. How can we only let him penetrate and rule over a portion of our lives? We must live with integrity, every part of our lives in wholeness.
• Our true calling is: first, to know God; second, to love God; third, to love others. All other callings on our life (vocation, location, etc.) are secondary to this ultimate, trifold purpose.
• We have to think from a Christian perspective and to a Christian perspective. One without the other denies ultimate truth.
• Perspectival thinking has come to dominate academia as language is slipping all around us. As a result, we have to continually ask people, "What do you mean when you say..." or the conversation is useless, and even harmful.
• We must learn that we cannot obtain happiness by seeking it. Instead, we find happiness in righteousness.

The things that I have learned that have fanned the flame of passion within me for prison ministry are the following:

• For every crime that is committed, 100 people are negatively effected. That means that for every prisoner that is released back on the street a changed man, and does not commit another crime, 100 people are positively effected.
• PF Benin is having some serious impact. Overcrowding, disease, death... Its taking over the prisons in the small African country of Benin. Prison Fellowship is trying to combat the problem by providing free legal aid to those awaiting trial (who often wait for a trial long enough in bad enough conditions in the prison that death overtakes them before they are even sentenced), providing jobs to keep the prisoners occupied and learn skills to make a living once released ("We are giving their minds freedom," states one PF Benin staff), classes to educate, and a Christian school that provides an above average education for children of prisoners. One of the head staff of PF Benin said, "All of this is my work, this is my assignment, this is my calling, this is my ministry, this is my life. And I cant do without it." Here, truly, is a man who knows the peace of following God's will for his life.
• Nick Robbins is one of the field interns who joined us this week. He was imprisoned at age 16 for 7 1/2 years. In the Iowa IFI unit, he found Jesus. Nick is now interning with PF in Missouri, sharing his testimony of a changed life, and praising the God of change. He is a real life story of the power Jesus' forgiveness provides. Its interesting hanging out with him, and realizing all the effects prison still has on someone after being behind bars for a good portion of their life. He was driving us to dinner and he jokingly stated that he hopes we get there okay, because, now in his mid 20s, he has only been driving for a total of one year of his life...
• Dan Wickam, a recent graduate of IFI Missouri said in his testimony, "I thought if there was a God, he hated me. And I was determined to hate him... In the spirit of Paradise Lost, I thought it would be better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." But then he came to IFI where Jesus found him. Talking about the program, he said, "The bar is set much higher. It is set to convert men into leaders, into catalysts of change in their community."

Lots of random tidbits. Its been a long few days. But it really does all come down to the idea of integrity. If we are to live our lives as Christ has called us to, every part must be submitted to his lordship, his will. Otherwise, we are only kidding ourselves. Our diet truly does determine our destinies. What are we allowing to shape our futures?

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Lesson for Today: When asking Ted Kennedy about his hypocrisy in estate taxes, make sure an elevator is not around for an easy escape.

Momentary...

As I sat in church yesterday, I came to a realization. After a long week of failure after failure in living the life I was called to live, I was so refreshed to just praise Jesus. There was no trying to live up to expectations, no trying to be the best I could, no relying on whatever strength I could muster... It was true and honest praise for who He is when I am not. No, true and honest praise for who He is. Period.

And I realized that I had been striving all week long. I had been trying to be "good" in my own strength. I had been trying to make up for the previous sin by being better the next time around. I had been failing, then trying the same solution for the same problem the next time - and failing again. I realized that I needed to quit striving, quit working through my own ambitions, and simply lean on him.

It was one of those, "How did I miss this?" and "How am I so dense?" kind of moments. I was so excited to leave church and live in this new attitude, having a refocused mind.

Yet somehow, life hit, and it all left like a whisp of smoke in the wind. It was so strong yesterday, at least yesterday morning it was. Until I made it to the car and thought about all I was going to do that day, things I had to get done and places I had to be. And all of the sudden the person sitting next to me in church, whom I had just been called to love and reach out to, turned into no one more signficant than simply the slow driver I got stuck behind, the guy I impatiently passed on my way out of church as fast as possible. And today, not only is that mindset gone, its history.

Im reminded of how essential it is to seek victory moment-by-moment. If you take one look back, or let your eye off the ball for one second, you are overcome. Life isnt a stroll, its a battle. And when we forget that, the enemy knows hes won.

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Lesson for Today: Tiger is one great golfer. And Ive hit the understatement of the.... well, if ever there was an understatement, that is it.

Eternal Perspective...

It was McLean Bible Church's topic for this morning's service. One that we may have all heard before, but needs to be heard again and again, until it finally gets through. (Quick Side Note: According to The Washington Post, weekly attendance of MBC reached 13,000 by fall '07. You dont realize the enormity of that number until its applied to people belonging to one church. And see the size of the building to serve all of them. This morning, I realized it driving into their own two story parking garage and getting lost on my way into church...)

The service was centered around the following idea: Our ability to live lives of passion, filled with holy abandonment to the will of God, lies solely in our ability to interpret our circumstances with an eternal perspective. The pastor, Todd Phillips, then defined eternal perspective as interpreting sacrifices in light of the whole - glorifying God and spreading the gospel. In order to better communicate this truth, he used the real life examples of Steve Sawyer and David Ring. Their stories need to be shared.

Steve Sawyer had a significant impact on the Kingdom, all because of his perspective. "Id rather have AIDS and know Jesus, than not have AIDS and not know Christ." He chose to embrace his suffering and allow God to use it. And with that goal at heart, Steve reached students all across the nation, telling his story on college campuses. Simpy because, as he said, "my life took on a whole new perspective." Pretty compelling.

David Ring, likewise, has a powerful story. Check it out: David Ringer Testimony Wow. How can a man like that, with Cerebral Palsey, stand up there and honestly say, with joy in his heart, "If you dont like the way I am, hang in there, Im still in the oven...God's still cookin on me"? He can say that, instead of drawing pity and dwelling in resentment because he knows, deep in his heart, that God's strength is made perfect in weakness. His example brings me to shame, yet inspires me on toward Christ.

And one more quick note on the subject. I talked to Chuck Colson for a few minutes today. And to fit in with the theme of the day, we got onto the topic of God using suffering to make us more like Christ. Talking about his new book, The Faith, Chuck said, "I wrote something in there that many Christians do not like. I wrote that the closer we come to being like Christ, the more apt we are to suffer." He then went on to say that after having two out of three children battle cancer, he has found that God is good. Eternal perspective, indeed.

After all of this, I may go on to live my self-focused life. I may wake up tomorrow and be more worried about the feeling of loneliness that comes with being away from home than I am about how God is trying to draw me to Himself. I may get wrapped up in missing those I love, instead of getting wrapped up in the closeness of God's presence. I may fall into the mentality of simply getting through the day, and miss the joy God is trying to bring me in a bird's chirp, the sun's warmth, or the whisper of my name as He calls me. But I pray I will not. I pray His message to me today through these stories changes me, and tomorrow my perspective is completely eternal...

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Lesson for Today: Apparently its possible to drive from Hawaii to Virginia, if the Hawaii license plate I saw today on a Ford Escape is any indication.