Joe’s right. Words are not enough.

Once, long ago, words bore the power to inspire change. Now, inspiration is a category of greeting cards and change is a campaign mantra.

We have a need to feel empathy and we fulfill that need in 2 hour increments with movies like The Blind Side or Blood Diamond. We throw away our popcorn and go back to our homes with no intent of living any differently.

In Blood Diamond, Solomon Vandy asks the reporter (regarding her article), ”So when people in your country read it, they will come help, yes?” She says, “Probably not.”

Words are not enough and yet I believe in stories. Sometimes, I think our response to stories is what makes them true. A true story is so even without our proper reaction except that no argument will persuade us to believe a thing we’ve determined to ignore.

The world is wrecked but is that the whole story? I don’t think so.

In the past, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the devastation that I averted my eyes. In doing so, I missed the point. Hope grew distant but I am tired of being hopeless.

My hope is in Christ. My prayer is the same one that He taught His first disciples, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”

But words are not enough. To pray that and not be moved in some tangible way to benefit Jesus’ least of these is to pray in vain. It offends the heart of God.

Realizing this has motivated me to sign-on for a crazy adventure. This summer I, along with 17 others, will bike 3,100 miles from San Diego to Myrtle Beach to raise money to build water wells, latrines, and clinics in Marsabit, Kenya.

I’m a lazy 250 pound guy who gets lost in Wal-Mart and has been unemployed for a year now. Why am I doing this? Because words are not enough.

For more information and to give go to http://www.ridewelltour.org.

This week I really tried to take some decent photos. I started with tiny fake flowers- they’re really about two inches tall. I think that shot turned out pretty cool, and I love the colors. Saturday I took a photo of my Chucks, Sunday brought Pepper and Salt, and Monday I drove to Pensacola for a meeting with church planters. As I walked around the campus of Pensacola Christian College, I saw a great palm tree with moss on it. On Tuesday I grabbed a shot of my parents’ soon-to-be sentient coffee maker. Wednesday I took a photo of a sand-globe. Thursday, my mom and I made baked penne with tiny meatballs. So there you go. If you want to see the daily feed with larger images, check out my Posterous account.

I know it’s no different than anyone else who converts to Christ-followerness. Supernaturally, through the blood sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, we have become co-heirs and have responsibilities that go way beyond “take care of the earth” stuff. I mean, that’s a no brainer. Every one knows that if we don’t take care of the earth, we will suffer the consequences – we are suffering the consequences of wrong doing throughout the ages and what we do now will affect those who go behind us. Here in Vienna, the state has done a pretty impressive job of that. It’s nice to breath clean air and for many people to have jobs.

But, I’m starting to understand better about how God wants something more. More than good behavior here on earth. He wants heaven on earth. He wants to be reconciled to his creation. That’s why Jesus came: to make it possible for God to call his children home once and for all.

All Christians have something called a ministry. I used to think this meant official church good deeds, but I’m starting to get that it’s how Christ-followers act like Christ every day. We show and remind people what our God is like and how He wants the world to love Him as much as he loves us. Man, if we only understood…

I read the story of Jonah for the thousandth time Sunday night. I was praying for a two friends who have created a rift between each other, for A. because his mother died, for N. in Haiti, for a church going to South Africa, and for the people who came to my house on Friday… so I was only half reading. But then the end of the story caught me. You know, the end of the story that everyone forgets because it’s after the ticker-tape parades in the city that God spared.

Jonah’s sitting there expecting the city to be destroyed, even after they repented from their oppressive and corrupt ways, because Jonah didn’t like them and he wanted God to take them off the map. They were morally repugnant to him. Plus, he was really annoyed because there wasn’t much vegetation where he went to watch the show of Nineveh’s demise. God made a tree for Jonah’s comfort, but God sent a worm to take away the tree the next day so Jonah wasn’t comfortable. (I sometimes wonder why God did that – to give a tree for comfort and then a worm to destroy that comfort. There’s a tree motif throughout the scriptures that’s a little complex for me sometimes.)

But, then God asks his reluctant prophet, “‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘It is right. I’m angry enough to die.’”

“So the Lord said, ‘You cared about the plant, which you did no labor over and did not grow… Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and the left, as well as the animals?’” – End Book

God really cared about the people of Nineveh and he was annoyed by this guy who knew the scriptures, knew God and yet didn’t understand God’s heart. He wanted to spare them, but He also knows what evil can do to his world and was willing to do what it takes to bring balance in the world – even if that means ending lives. Sometimes, I want God to send a lightening bolt after the last sentence to teach Jonah a lesson about insensitivity, but then I realize that I’m a little like Jonah for thinking that.

God wants to show his mercy to the earth. The Bible says that, “creation waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.” And it also says that we will be revealed by our love.

So, my job here on this earth is: to aid in the discipleship of people into sons and daughters of God who are known and tested by acting like Him. The best way to do this is to openly live out my own transformation and to explain the teaching of Christ that promoted the the changes and pray that this Spirit would indwell in our hearts and change us from the inside out. I think I’ll do that best by doing what I already do, but with a more defined underlying purpose, and take things to the next level when I get the opportunity. Like, I really what to start a new Bible study with some of the people I’ve met lately who are agnostic or whatever, but are interested in Jesus – and I think it’s because they get that creation is longing for Something.

—————

Am I becoming more:
loving
joyful
peaceful
Patient
kind
faithful
gentle
self-controlled?

Because of God’s work, I think I am. But after watching Francis Chan’s video about the persecuted church I am more than ever convinced that this is all that my life truly comes down to. My singing may be enjoyable, but only valuable if if points to joy in Christ. My writing may be enlightening, but only if it points to faithfulness and peace with Christ. I want my life to be a reflection of Christ, the redeemer of the world, so that others will come to him and be spared from the falling apart of this world and come to God now and for eternity.

“Thus there is such a thing as human absorption. It appears in all the forms of conversion wherever the superior power of one person is consciously or unconsciously misused to influence profoundly and draw into his spell an individual or a whole community. Here one soul operates directly upon another soul. The weak have been overcome by the strong, the resistance of the weak has been broken down under the influence of another person. He has been overpowered, but not won over by the thing itself. This becomes evident as soon as the demand is made that he throw himself into the cause itself, independently of the person to whom he is bound, or possibly in opposition to this person. Here is where the humanly converted person breaks down and thus makes it evident that his conversion was effected, not by the Holy Spirit, but by a man, and therefore has no stability.”

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pp. 32-33]

I started out last Friday with SNOWMAGEDDON! and chased it down with the best burger in the state of Mississippi. After that, things got a little slow, so I took photos of a belt buckle and pins on my camera bag. Tuesday night was special because we ate POPEYES! Wednesday morning I awoke to my neighbors’ war on pine trees (if there’s any war I can get behind, it’s this kind), and today I got my scanner. I’m planning to scan a bunch of old photos for backups. After Katrina and the whole, “LOSE EVERYTHING WHEN IT FLOODS” event, I decided I’d do this. Now I can. Anyway, if you want to see the daily feed with larger images, check out my Posterous account.

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.

Now, unlike Blogger or WordPress.com, I had to pay for things. It cost money to get wordsarenotenough.com, and it cost money to host my blog on it. (I started with GoDaddy.com, but now I use BlueHost.com as my domain host.) I pay about $80 a year to run this site, and I use it for more than just photography. Words Are Not Enough is about life- travel, photography, friends, mission- lots of things. Anyway, I’m writing this to tell you that you can get a ProPhoto blog too. Your blog doesn’t have to be about photography to use it, but if you do have a photoblog, ProPhoto is the best I’ve seen.

So here’s the deal. Check out this video about ProPhoto Blogs. If you like it, get it. It’s got wicked awesome customization tools that are simple to use- you can make a professional blog without paying an arm and a leg.

And if you sign up, use this promo code: JOEKEN654. It’ll save you a little cash, and it’ll give me a little, too.

Is anybody is still reading?