[Image source: Theodora.com]

So… I’m going to Israel in May. (If the Lord wills, of course. I’m not making that mistake again.) Though I think I am still in need of a roommate.

I also have become part of a devious plan in the works. It could change this city. Maybe. But I can’t do it without a blessing, a prayer, and people who keep first things first (Matt 6:33). People who play to win (1 Cor 9:27).

Desperate, willing, broken, undistracted hearts. People who believe He has far more in store for us than everything we think we know. Everything we’re used to.

Distraction. Isolation. Discouragement. Confusion. They are weapons.

It’s a battle. It’s not a battle between my personal happiness and my personal sadness. No, that mantra sells products, but it’s not truth.

This is something bigger. This is the world. The world we’re in, the world we are commanded by God Almighty to… What? To love? Yep. That’s the command. That world, it has a history. It is full of nations and cultures. Movements. Wars. Injustice. Factions.
It’s a world that will end. A world that had a beginning.

And it’s not home.

I write a list of goals for my life. One is to pay off my college debt. One is to franchise a coffee shop. Those could happen many years in the future, or they could happen tomorrow. Who knows?

But there are two I strive for every day.
One. Bring heaven to earth.

I am fully convinced that I’m part of a society where justice is real, where all are equal, where all are infinitely valuable, where death does not steal the pleasure of life from the unborn, nor does pain steal life from those born into strife. It’s not exactly clouds and harps, but it is what it is. And we can’t see or hear it, no, not with these eager eyes and itching ears.

But we can be that society even now. Because we have been made those people, somewhere, outside of time, but also even now. And they need to see that it’s real. This is the best way to do it. John 13:36

My second goal: Bring earth to heaven.

Don’t you dare think I’m leaving this wretched (you think it’s beautiful? You haven’t seen anything yet) place without you. How hateful would I have to be to let you go on believing in an illusion? It’s why so many people liked Inception. Because so many of us wonder if it’s all a game, a dream.

If truth is real, we can’t find it unless it finds us. And I’m telling you that Truth has come. It’s why I celebrate Christmas. Will you let him find you? Or will you feed the monster.

Let’s wake up, guys. This is not about you. He has found you. Has has offered you everything. Take what you need, no less. Then take more, and give away what was never yours in the first place.

It’s what He asked.

Like coals, we are warm when together, but cold when apart. Billy Graham said that. He was right.