You’ve probably been inundated with Katrina memorials, specials, and documentaries this past week. The media (and many regular folks), especially those who spent time in New Orleans during and after Katrina, don’t want you to forget what happened. It’s not about how much Katrina cost ($81 billion). The economic factor is minimal compared to the 1,836 people who lost their lives. It’s about all the families who returned to New Orleans and all the towns along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to rebuild their lives. It’s about making sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Hurricanes happen. All of us along the Coast know that. But what we saw in New Orleans in the days after the wind subsided was unnecessary and inhumane. So we beg you to remember what happened. Remember so it doesn’t happen again.

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? (James 2:15-16)

I prayed. Amy said, “come with me, let’s go get something to eat,” and took off with him across the street to Bubba Gump’s. Tiffany yelled after her, “don’t go, he’s trouble!” and I rushed after Amy so she wouldn’t be alone. Clint followed a few steps behind. We stood in line at Bubba Gump’s and then just as we sat down, they kicked us out because of Bobby. They said he had come around a lot and bothered everybody all day long. So Clint got food though, courtesy of the folks at Bubba Gump, as Amy and I stood outside and Bobby went back to his corner.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (James 4:17)

Clint brought half his meal out to Bobby, who didn’t eat it. But on that corner we met Ali from Ghana, his friend in a wheelchair. We learned that Bobby was from Liberia. Later we met Testimony, his East African friend. They all sat on that corner and talked to us for a few minutes. Close to two hours after we got there, we hadn’t traveled more than three blocks from the car, and had done zero interviews.

I was looking forward to the interviews, because I have this whole personal philosophy of “anyone, anywhere, anytime.” I stole it from Southern Miss’s football slogan, but it works. Or, it did. But as I stood there in front of Bubba Gump, watching the people as they walked by- the guy who had the walker and seemed to have cerebral palsy, looking sheepishly like he wanted to cross the road; or the Bobby on his corner; or any one of the other random people walking by- I thought about that slogan. I thought about how that’s all it was- some pumped up slogan about evangelism or whatever.

And it’s like this. I can talk to rational, everyday, normal people… all day long. Seriously- anyone, anywhere, anytime. But then there are those who I can’t hear well, can’t understand, who aren’t rational, who go on and on about some random political issue native only to Liberia or Ghana or something, who rant and rave and get real good at it. And I freeze up. And I pray for them and wish them well, and tell them God Bless, and walk off. Sometimes I even feel good about it. (Not usually though; I’m a naturally melancholy and reflective kind of person.)

So Clint reminds me tonight of what Dr. Ortiz told us in Encountering the Biblical World. After he reconciles the gospel accounts of the disciples and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the healing of the blind men, Ortiz explains: “That’s not even the point. The point is that we get so busy doing God’s work that we forget to DO God’s work. We completely miss the folks standing right there asking for our help.”

A refugee crosses the ocean to stay in the land of the free and begs for food. One night he meets a disciple of Christ, and says he is hungry. The disciple prays for the refugee and sends him on his way. “Be well fed and stay safe,” he says, but does nothing for him.

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:37-40)

In contrast, it is our responsibility as Christ-followers to be positive change agents- bent solely on the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” We cannot do this alone, thus our desperate need for Christian community and cooperation. Thus, the Church.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [2 Corinthians 4:1-6, ESV]

May I wake up tomorrow with the desire and ability to be a good servant of Jesus Christ to the world. To you.

But I wanted you to know. I’m gonna go check the code and make sure there’s nothing malicious in it. If you run WordPress and get a subscriber with that name and email address, dump him, change your password, and stop letting “anybody register.” Like I did. Because mean people suck.

Alan Siegel talks about simplifying legal jargon, from credit card agreements to IRS forms. Considering a 1000+ page health care bill was just signed into law, it seems this is a talk worth listening to. It’s about four and a half minutes. Take the time to watch it. Finally, something we can all agree to: let’s make life a little less complicated. There’s no need for legal jargon in everyday life.

FaithHighway has insinuated that they will take legal action against my friends, therefore I am taking this account down. Apparently it’s good to know that you’ve signed away all legal rights to a “Christian” company before you realize they’re acting in an unethical manner.

Full disclosure: While none of the business practices by FaithHighway are overtly unethical, as someone with knowledge of web design, I would not recommend their service to any church or church plants. There are easier ways to do things considerably cheaper. Yesterday I posted about ProPhoto Blogs, a WordPress theme which I use for Words Are Not Enough. ProPhoto will pay me a small sum ($7) for every person I get to sign up using my promo code. However, while I believe WordPress itself is perfect for organizations and individuals alike, I do not recommend the ProPhoto theme for a church website. ProPhoto is best for individuals or couples interested in promoting their personal thoughts and photography. There are many WordPress themes which are better suited for content-driven sites, and I encourage you to use them instead.

I’ve spoken to Greg Johnson via Twitter, and he is aware of these grievances. He denied some of the allegations on Twitter, and I invite him to address the allegations in this post personally.

[E. Stanley Jones, Source Currently Unknown]

[Norman Borlaug, "father of the Green Revolution," during his 1970 Nobel Laureate lecture]

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

[Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 12:48b]

[Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank (1968-1981) in his address to the World Bank, September 1973]

The following is an excerpt from God Has a Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

I once went to a garden party in England in the early sixties. I don’t know why, but we were expected to pay for our own tea. I offered to do so for an acquaintance I met there. Now he could have said, “No, thank you,” and I would have understood. But you could have knocked me down with a feather when he replied, “No, I won’t be subsidized!” Well, I never. As if we were not all subsidized, not only by all those whose graciousness and gifts have allowed us to become who we are but also by the grace and gifts that God has given us.

Because ours is a culture of success, the worst thing that could ever happen to a person in contemporary society is for him to fail- to need to be subsidized. We believe we must impress people with our success because this ensures that we can be taken seriously. Of course there is an appropriate setting when it is legitimate, indeed absolutely necessary, that we do impress certain categories of people in order to make our way through life. You would be silly not to want to impress your intended if you want her to accept your proposal of marriage. It would be quite disastrous for you as a student not to want to impress your examiners. And you have to succeed in your exams, your career. But it has affected our whole atmosphere so we find that stomach ulcers become a status symbol. (32-33)

Anything less than God cannot satisfy our hunger for the divine. Not even success. That is why everything else, if we give it our ultimate loyalty- money, fame, drugs, sex, whatever- turns into ashes in our mouths. (34)

We have tended to treat the weak, the poor, the unemployed, the failures with disdain because success and power have become the gods at whose altars we have burned incense and bowed the knee. (38)

[Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream]