Check out the new video: OneU

Thanks to these guys!

sitting in a coffee shop downtown Vancouver this morning i see the city outside my window, spinning with life.

moms with little children,
a homeless man strumming away for tips,
construction workers,
cyclists,
a middle-aged couple walking hand in hand,
businessmen clad in west coast casual,
and hundreds (no exaggeration) of tourists… fanny packs and all.

i’ve really never seen such a mix of people.. even in the dc metro area. i’m remembering this morning, God’s great love for the city (people) and feeling a small pang of that love as well.

i am just passing through, but God’s eye and His heart are upon this place every day, every hour, every moment. how His heart must break…

the other day, we drove through a section of the city called east hastings, and it’s difficult to relay what i saw. known for it’s poverty, despair, homelessness, drug addiction, and prostitution, east hastings is considered the poorest neighborhood in canada. i stared out the window, a queasy feeling sinking deep down inside. and then in a moment, we turned a corner and found ourselves in the business district, the streets lined with beautiful glass high-rise buildings as busy professionals bustled down the sidewalks.

disparity.

i can’t really begin to imagine how God’s heart throbs for broken people. we are broken people. the poor. the wealthy. the hopeless. the self-sufficient. the mentally ill. the witty. the abused. the spoiled. we are broken people. to the core. some of us know it. some of us don’t.

my coffee misto is cold now. i’ve been too caught up. you know, i think of people like amy carmichael or mother theresa who loved with gritted teeth, their love flowing from a known and adored Savior. they knew themselves to be broken, flawed, needy. and as they found healing, perfection, and delight in their Lord, they were able to go out into the world and love other broken people, just like themselves.

me, i’m generally afraid to do this. maybe I do not understand myself to be as broken as I truly am. the Bible tells me there is no fear in love. no fear to enter in. no fear to help, to touch, to listen, to give, even to suffer with others. Christ came to lay down his life and when my identity is found in Him not only do i find it my duty to love others, but it becomes a spirit-empowered delight to love and follow in the footsteps of my humble King.

As for my clumsy feet, I can only trust that grace will be their guide.

grateful.
for Jesus, grace, salvation.

surprised.
by genuine fruit, young leaders, new friends.

anticipating.
late nights in the dorms, many a pizza dinner, conversations & conversions.

“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

Well, finals are over and all is quiet on the campus front. Changes are on the horizon for the coming fall semester and we’re excited to see what the Lord has in store. This is a verse I’ve been meditating on recently and I believe it applies to the good He has stored up for the University of Maryland next year!

“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which You have stored up
for those who fear You and have worked for those who take refuge
in You, in the sight of mankind!”                             Psalm 31:19

Our hope rests in a faithful, mighty, merciful God!

Come on out this Thursday, April 30th from 6-10pm and enjoy free bowling, games and more.

Easter was a new experience for these dear friends… and it was a blast! Here are some photos from Good Friday at Solid Rock and Easter Sunday, celebrating with my family.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you” (Matthew 28:5-7).

“Christ is the glory of God. His blood-soaked cross is the blazing center of that glory. By it He bought for us every blessing–temporal and eternal. And we don’t deserve any. He bought them all. Because of Christ’s cross, God’s elect are destined to be sons of God. Because of His cross all guilt is removed, and sins are forgiven, and perfect righteousness is imputed to us, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

Therefore, every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ–the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life–the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted.” (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, 2003)

What are you enjoying today that is only made possible through Christ’s death and resurrection?

Jesus, may You ever be our exceeding joy.

TerpZone, last thursday night. great turn out. met lotsa new folks. it was kind of a lot of fun.

look at all the pretty colors they chose!

i was eating an apple and trying to smile.

boss getting his game on.

robby sawyer: protecting the house.

look at james go.

competition’s on.

so grateful for this girl (photo credits go to her as well).

“These are silken days, and religion fights not so stern a battle. I will not say it is because we are unfaithful to our master that the world is more kind to us, but I half suspect it is, and it is very possible that if we were more thoroughly Christians, the world would more heartily detest us. If we would cleave more closely to Christ, we might expect to receive more slander, more abuse, less tolerance, and less favor from men…

We are to be men, but not of men; helping, aiding, befriending, teaching, comforting, instructing, but not sinning, either to escape a frown or to win a smile. The more manifestly there shall be a great guilt between the Church and the world, the better shall it be for both. It is better for the world, for it shall be thereby warned. It is better for the church, for it shall be thereby preserved. Go then, like the Master, expecting to be abused, to wear an ill name, and to earn reproach. Go, like Him, outside the camp” (Spurgeon, The Power of the Cross of Christ).

In addition, if you haven’t heard Jim Donahue’s message from Sunday yet, it would be a well-spent hour of your life.

John Piper highlights the following story from NPR in his message entitled “The Appearance of the Unwasted Life, Pt. 1“. He adds, “I suspect Jesus may have been edited out of that story, but even if Diaz doesn’t know Christ he’s living off of Jesus fumes.” This story struck something inside. I want to live like this Mr. Diaz.

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’”

Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?’”

“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’”

Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”

“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.

The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

Morning Edition, March 28, 2008 · by Michael Garofalo.