On Sunday afternoon we had a bunch of our Jr. High students over to the house for a pizza party. We had such a fun time together!
Today we were excited to see that our youth ministry made the Manhasset Press! Full-page spread. So proud of our students! Thanks to Steve and Judy Chin-Bock for getting our story out there to inspire people.
My oldest daughter Claudia is so awesome! Yesterday I had the privilege of listening to her speak at her high school Christian Club. She is a great young speaker, and shared her story so clearly, courageously pointing her peers to Jesus. God is doing good things at Roslyn High School, and we are so proud of her!
Yesterday I took Mike and Ren with me to shoot a video interview with my friend Reggie Stutzman in the Bronx for my message this coming Sunday at Shelter Rock Church. When we got on the train, Ren was tuning up the video camera, and look who was sitting next to us! It was CNN reporter Richard Quest! He was very nice when we said Hi to him, and last night he Tweeted me, saying he saw us on the train and was curious about what we were going to film. I told him we were going to interview a friend who is doing some awesome community transformation with his church in the Bronx.
Thanks to everyone who supported my first-ever half-marathon run. Yesterday I completed the race with an official time of 2:17:02. That was a bit slower than I was hoping for, but I pulled my hamstring at the 10-mile marker when I decided to stretch. Bad idea. The last 3 miles were tough, but I persevered and finished. Most importantly, I exceeded my goal of raising $1,310 for World Vision! Thanks to my friends and family, so far $1,430 has come in, and I have commitments for even more, which should bring the total to about $1,600! The team from our churchraised over $58,000! Wow! What a privilege to be a part of a community of faith that show their solidarity with others around the world.
“It’s easy to die for Christ. (My Insert: And, as my friend Duffy Robbins adds, You can only do that once, and it usually occurs right before the end of your life.) It’s hard to live for Him. Dying takes only an hour or two, but to live for Christ means to die daily. Only during the few years of this life are we given the privilege of serving each other and Christ … therefore we must not waste the opportunity.” – Sadhu Sundar Singh
“Jesus’ compassion is characterized by a downward pull. That is what disturbs us. We cannot even think of ourselves in terms other than those of an upward pull, an upward mobility in which we strive for better lives, higher salaries, and more prestigious positions. Thus, we are deeply disturbed by a God who embodies a downward movement. Instead of striving for a higher position, more power, and more influence, Jesus moves, as Karl Barth says, from ‘the heights to the depth, from victory to defeat, from riches to poverty, from triumph to suffering, from life to death.’ Jesus’ whole life and mission involve accepting powerlessness and revealing in this powerlessness the limitlessness of God’s love. Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there. God’s compassion is total, absolute, unconditional without reservation. It is the compassion of the one who keeps going to the most forgotten corners of the world, and who cannot rest as long as there are still human beings with tears in their eyes. It is the compassion of a God who does not merely act as a servant, but who expresses the divinity of God through servanthood” (pp. 24-25).
“… Nobody finds anything wrong or strange with attempting to help people who are visibly lacking the basic necessities of life, and it appears quite reasonable to try to alleviate suffering when this is possible. But to leave a successful position and enter freely, consciously, and intentionally into a position of servanthood seems unhealthy. It is a violation of the most basic human instincts. To try to lift others up to our own privileged position is honorable and perhaps even an expression of generosity, but to attempt to put ourselves in a position of disrepute and to become dependent and vulnerable seems to be a form of masochism that defies the best of our aspirations.
“Something of this attitude appears in the expression ‘helping the less fortunate,’ which frequently can be heard from the mouths of those who ask or offer aid. This expression has an elitist ring to it because it assumes that we have made it and have gotten it together while they simply have not been able to keep up with us and need to be helped. It is the attitude which says: ‘Fate is on our side and not on theirs. But since we are Christians we have to lift them up and give them a share of our good fortune. The undeniable fact is that the world is divided between the “fortunate,” and the “unfortunate” ones. So let us not feel guilty about it, but reach out as good people to those who happen to be on the other side of the fence.’ In this way of thinking compassion remains part of competition, and is a far cry from radical servanthood” (pp. 28-29). (emphasis mine)
Compassion by Henri Nouwen, Donald P. Mcneill and Douglas A. Morrison
Natalia and I had a really great time on a Daddy Daughter Date Night tonight at the NY Islanders game. Thanks to some friends we were able to enjoy the game from an executive suite. Such a fun night with my baby girl!
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