Don’t Stop Paddling

Deye mon gen mon.

Beyond mountains there are mounatins.

Haitian proverb

Not long ago I wanted to runaway. There wasn’t a specific place or anything, just a longing for a new setting, a place seperate from the one inside my head.

I was living the mindset of a caged bird; I wanted to escape but I thought I didn’t have what it took to survive and “make it”, that wondefully demeaning notion that life takes certain credentials to live and if you don’t have them…well…you’re screwed. Mind brain would sell me on the idea that I wasn’t good enough, that I needed more, ah…what’s that word…credibility.

My best friend is in love with the word credibility, for those of you that don’t know credibility or credible is being worthy of the belief or confidence of your peers.

Which is weird for me because aren’t we supposed to be a society of individuals but everyone wants to be credible. If we want to succeed as influencers and change makers, individuals who strive to change the mindset of others, we have to gain credibility. So in turn we’re killing ourselves to become credible-counter cultural-change making-individuals; radicals who need to have the approval of society before they can be new radicals.

So here I am at this seemingly large crossroads in my life where I want to do something radical in the name of Jesus yet I’m trying to figure out how to fulfill this deed while gaining the respect and confidence of others to allow me to do this. I didn’t want to be a radical. I wanted to be a cool radical. Sure I wanted to help people but first I needed to figure out how to look legit while doing it. Let me break the ice for you, without substance legit is shit. There’s a reason why Tom Hanks is cooler than Colin Ferrell.

Recently I started reading Moutains beyond Mountains about the work and life of Dr. Paul Farmer. Only 50 pages in and this guy is one of the coolest guys I’ve ever read about.

This guy is a stud.

Paul Farmer didn’t start a legit social justice group with slick business cards and a design savvy website. He didn’t start out looking like an iconic anthropologist changing the world, he became one. This is a man who is changing an entire nation (Haiti) because he is doing and not worrying about how he looks while doing it.

I’m not saying design doesn’t matter. I’m just saying if design or looking cool isn’t your thing then screw it. Go do your thing and make an impact and when the time comes and if somebody wants to do a documentary on the work you’re doing then let them make you look cool.

If we all sit on our hands waiting to become legit then nothing is ever going to get done.

I’m all alone in the office today, my co-workers are working at Catalyst One Day at North Point Community Church. The last West Coast Catalyst deadline is today so I am smiling and dialing working the phones hoping we sell out by the April 22nd event. Ticket sales haven’t gone as quickly as we would like due to the economy and a lot of churches are buckling down on their budgets. I have had more than a few phone conversations with pastors who recently lost their jobs and now they’re living in prayer believing that everything will work out.

I admire their faith and their moxie. Most of these pastors have a wife and a couple of kids (pastors must suck at putting condoms on) and their degree is in Youth Ministry or Small Groups Administration, not exactly a recipe for stress-free peaceful unemployment. Not to mention that these men and women feel a strong calling on their lives to make a differance in the community so its hard for them to accept a position outside of the ministry (which is a fabled land).

I appreciate them for their dedication and hardwork to the ministry but I have a quiet proposal….more of a what if.

What if God was using this economical downfall to pull ministers and believers back into the outside world? Take a moment and think about it, there are literally thousands of churches that are going under, what better way to start a movement than dispensing believers all over the country as car salesman, real estate agents, drive thru attendants, bartenders, etc.

Just a suggestion, I need to get some things done at work, more on this later today.

Later