NaCl

yesterday's speaker, Jim Henderson (perhaps best known for buying the soul of an atheist on ebay), started the conversation, but it was another panelist who brought up what Jesus had to say about those who follow Him "being salt and light".  He told the story of his grandfather who would put just a few grains of salt on watermelon and other fruit and it would give that fruit the most amazing taste. The panelist then asked us, "When you've ended a conversation, does your conversation partner walk away with that amazing taste of salt on their tongue?" (Salt, of course, being a metaphor for the presence of Christ)

Tying that to what Jesus says about being persecuted for His sake I think Christ-followers need to ask A) are we being persecuted at all and B) are we being persecuted for Jesus' sake (for bringing that dash of salt) or for something else (i.e. pushing a particular cultural or even theological agenda)? 

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In other news: if you're in the area on Nov. 12, United Life would love to have you over for a special event that we're putting on: Lovesick! Check out the event page on facebook (search: lovesick) or just come on by at 7. The event is free, and all ages are welcome. 

*by the way: so I wasn't sure whether to put this on my microblog over at tumblr since this is kind of a shorter thought, but I've been trying to get my tumblr to be more of my personal blog and my blogspot to be more of my place for longer, thought out posts regarding theology, ministry, etc. But what if I have shorter, quick thoughts to post (which tumblr is better for) that are a little less personal, and a little more theological? 

I have no resolution to this dilemma. I'm sure it will all play out nicely though in the end. 

some thoughts after hearing Mr. Blue Like Jazz speak this morning

the man himself, Donald Miller

Overall, I've really been enjoying these Tuesday morning talks that the men of our ministry have been going to over the past three weeks. Yes, it's tough to get up before 6 am, but it has been so worth it. Greg Laurie, Rick Enloe, and now Donald Miller brought some solid word to the men of Seattle who are following Christ. I'm hoping I can find these talks online sometime so that we can share it with the sisters of United Life as well.

Here are some thoughts from Donald Miller's talk today. By the way, if you've never read his bestselling book, Blue Like Jazz, I recommend giving it a spin.

- Where you are at now, who you are now is enough to make an impact for the Kingdom of God. You don't need to go fit some mold before God can use you. Be who you are, be where you are, be obedient to Him, and great things are going to happen. 

- Our times of pain equip us to have sympathy with the pain of others. 

- Male passivity can be devastating: Father's who don't take the initiative in investing and actively supporting their daughters' lives are basically sending the message: "You are not worth it." Same can be said of husbands who don't take initiative in their wives' lives.

From Miller's own life: his father walked out on his family and Miller grew up thinking his dad had died. But when he found out his dad was alive he went to go visit him. Turns out his father walked out on his mom because he felt his mother was being controlling and emasculating. Miller's point - whether that's true or not, basically his dad's message was that Donald and the rest of the kids were not worth dealing with a controlling woman. Perhaps that's better than abusing his children and wife, but that passivity led to some incredible damage of another kind in Miller's life. 

- Miller used the story of Joseph in Genesis as his talk's framework, and one of his key points was Negative Turns in our stories should not be enough to keep us from "kicking butt for God" in whatever situation we're in. Joseph experienced the worst kind of discouraging negative turns: thrown into a well immediately after his God-given dream, sold into slavery, after rising up to be Potiphar's chief servant being sent to prison for no fault of his own, then after saving Pharaoh's cup bearer spending two more years forgotten in prison...if anyone had cause to give up, it was Joseph. But all of that pain, all of those negative turns did not keep God from fulfilling his promise. 

- Miller left us with a great question: What are your daydreams, what thrills you, and how can you use that to, as Joseph does, follow God's heart and "save many lives"?

Kind of cool note: we were sitting one row behind Donald Miller and had a chance to get to know him a bit before he spoke. He signed Max's book, and he asked Oliver about his iPad. 

Here's the promo video for the event that we've been attending: 

Man Up Video from Shawntel Hatch on Vimeo.

They asked our question!

So the pic here is significant not only because it shows us back at the OC (overlake church) for our 2nd week of "man up: share your faith" (630 AM!), but also because the screen in the background has the question we texted in!
Our question: how do we start the conversation at work, is it changing our screensaver, leaving our Bibles on our desks? Rick Enloe's answer: Christians should be marked by a genuine, sane curiosity for other people's lives.

*update*

if you look closely at the bottom right hand side of the shot, you'll see the back of one very famous Seattle real estate celebrity's head!