Coffee Shop Journal

I recently heard about a great initiative to teach urban youth the business and entrepreneurial skills they will need to get a good income-producing job. Partnering with the Urban Youth Impact, these kids are running a coffee company. It is called Impact Coffee. They have chosen a sister village in Ethiopia, are importing fair trade, organic Ethiopian coffee, and are establishing a coffee business and online coffee sales. I’m hoping to get together with Leo Abdella, Christ Fellowship’s missions director, to learn more about this intriguing program. In the meantime, here’s the website. Keep checking back to see what these young and feisty entrepreneurs come up with!

He’s back…the lawyer turned prophet turned lawyer again. I’m talking about Eli Stone, my favorite television show from last season and this. Last night, happy to be snug at home again, David and I turned on our DVR to catch up on the shows we missed, and Eli Stone was first on the list.

Then God stepped in, once again, speaking out of the unlikely moments of life. That’s usually when he chooses to break through, isn’t it? He spoke last night through the first episode of Eli Stone. If you don’t know the plot line to Eli Stone, go to iTunes. They have an “Eli Stone starter kit” that will bring you up to speed. The short story is that Eli, a lawyer, spent last season having his life interrupted by a brain aneurysm and visions from God, directing him to help this person or that. Here is the post I wrote about the show last season.

As this season opens, we find a lost and dejected Eli, normal after his brain aneurysm surgery. No visions. No interruptions Normal life. He is discussing this with his court-ordered psychiatrist, begging her to give him certification to get his law license back now that all is normal. Turns out that psychiatrist doesn’t exist — as we know it — at all. She is God’s “fiduciary.” She also sees to the heart of Eli’s unhappiness.

“These sessions haven’t just been about your competency to practice,” she says. “That slip of paper isn’t going to fill the void you’re feeling in your life, Eli. Practicing law won’t do it, either. You’re missing something – it’s true – but it’s nothing a law license can give you.”
Only one way to find out, says Eli as he walks away. He stops. “Or, I guess you could just tell me.”
“I think you’re missing having a sense of the Divine in your everyday life. I think you are less happy now than when your life was occasionally upended by the fantastic. I think that grace fulfilled you in a way that you didn’t even know you needed. And the only thing crazy about you is the fact that you don’t seem to realize that.”

Through the rest of the plot line, Eli of course discovers that she is right. He was created to work on God’s behalf…nothing else will satisfy now. He’s given the opportunity — as only happens in tv land — to trade places with his brother (who now has an aneurysm), suffer once more with the aneurysm and the potential death it represents, but also recover the ability to hear from God once more. Eli chooses quickly to live a risky life for God.

“You had the aneurysm removed. You were quite clear that you wanted your life to return to what you considered normal. But you’re meant for so much more, Eli. You’re one of those people for whom normal is a failure of potential.” The psychiatrist wraps up her time with Eli by pointing out that when Eli walked away from his gift, he affected so many lives: the people he could no longer help, his boss who missed the thrill of doing right in the world, his secretary who longed to see Eli live up to his potential. Eli leaves with a risk-filled, meaningful life once more. He has chosen to step into the role he was created for.

Wow. Not bad for an hour TV show, is it? Not bad for a sermon in church or a life of study, either.

We are all Eli.

We can jump into this risk-filled life and get our hands and feet messy with the good stuff God sends our way. Or — because God lets us make this choice — we can live a safe life, a normal life. He still loves us. Beware, though. Once you’ve tasted the risk-filled, adventure-laden, nerve-chilling life God really wants, everything else seems to lack that sense of the Divine in our everyday lives.

I’ll do it, God. I may complain and duck and cower in the corner, but I’ll do it.

I read this quote today and wanted to share it with you.

“The great societies of the West have been moving away from an underlying belief in the value of a single human soul. We tend to view history in terms of groups of people: classes, political parties, races, sociological groupings. We apply labels to each other, and explain behavior and ascribe worth on the basis of those labels. After prolonged exposure to Dr. Paul Brand, I realized that I had been seeing large human problems in a mathematical model: percentages of Gross National Product, average annual income, mortality rate, doctors-per-thousand of population. Love, however, is not mathematical; we can never precisely calculate the greatest possible good to be applied equally to the world’s poor and needy. We can only seek out one person, and then another, and then another, as objects for God’s love.”
– Phillip Yancey in Soul Survivor

One person, then another, then another.

David and I have had a great weekend wandering around Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee! We got off to a rough start when apparently I booked a hotel room in the middle of the only “Coffee Dead Zone” in the country! You’ve seen the Verizon ad on TV? Real zombies wander around this dead zone by the airport in Nashville. The closest Starbucks was 6 miles one direction or 5 the other. And the 6 miles Bux was inside the Grand Ole Opry itself… not conducive to running in for morning coffee! We switched hotels.

Now we are hanging out in Franklin and enjoying meeting up with great friends, old and new. At 8:30 this morning David and I went to Cross Point Community Church, where my blog friend Jenni Catron is the Executive Pastor. And oh yeah, Pete Wilson is the Pastor. And Anne Jackson is also on staff there although I’ve never met her. We had a great day of worship together, even if it was early! Pete was away this weekend, but it was a great stop even so.

After Cross Point we headed across town to The People’s Church, where we have so many friends it feels like home! Michael Neale was our worship pastor for many years at Christ Fellowship. It was amazing to worship with him again, though a little surreal to see him surrounded by peole I didn’t know! We sat with Steve and Julie Helm and their family, and were greeted at the door of the church by Nathan Oates and given a quick tour of the campus. I loved seeing what God is doing in this corner of his world. Isn’t it amazing…in this day and age you can wander nearly anywhere in the country and find friends, worship, community and mission opportunity. No excuses for not hanging out in the kingdom!

I am not afraid.

I never have been very afraid. I grew up with a daddy who cares for me, friends who love me, and innate — if often unfounded — optimism. So fear and I usually don’t hang out much. I’ve always thought that was a good thing, a gift.

Until I read something Leroy Barber wrote in New Neighbor today. He talked about being afraid of non-existent monsters in the dark…no reason to fear them. (Yes! See? I knew there were no monsters!)

But some monsters are real. He lives with them. They are the monsters of poverty, poor education, abuse, loneliness. Like all monsters, they flee in the face of the light. But they dwell in darkness. If there are real monsters in the darkness, happily laying our heads down on the pillow and drifting off to sweet dreams is not the right response. It is not rational.

Neither is fear.

The clarion call to our generation — my generation — is to hold up the flashlight and begin to chase those monsters away. The next generation is superb at this. They are embracing justice issues right and left. If there was one thing I learned from Catalyst it is that my generation must empower the next generation to risk big, monster-chasing dreams.

This is part of Watercooler Wednesday! Gotta love Wednesdays.

What are the touchstones in your life?

Running from Egypt to the Promised Land, the Israelites listened to a command God gave them. As they crossed the Jordan River they paused and erected a stone monument: a remembrance of all that God had done to save them from their Egyptian captors. Stones. Simple stones. Touch stones. Something solid and concrete that we can look at and remember.

There are a lot of “touch stones” in my life: places and things that remind me of where I have been on this crazy journey through the kingdom. We all have these stones in our lives. When you follow the impulse to return to your childhood home to “see if it has changed” you are looking at a touch stone. Friends found on Facebook can be touchstones: “Wow…I remember my life back then. I’ve changed so much. Life has changed so much.” Old clothing, stashed in the back of our overstuffed closets, become touch stones. “I wore that once. I was young, and thin, and life was all ahead of me.” We save mementos as touch stones, too. Bulletins from a brother’s funeral service (”I never thought God would pull us through. He did.”), flowers from a love, cards.

But to me, places are the touch stones of life.

Yesterday, driving to Atlanta, David and I passed a few stone memorials in our lives. We remembered other trips here, other people in the car with us. The most comforting of “stones” remind us that our life runs in an orderly flow, directed through the ins and outs by our God who loves us so much.

I know you might think this is a stretch of the touch stone, memorial stone concept, but I promise you this is how God spoke to me yesterday. He spoke through those old green umbrellas again. Sitting in a hilltop Starbucks three quarters of the way from Florida to our Atlanta destination my mind drifted back to my last visit to that spot. It was a stressful time in our lives, and I remember drooping with the weight of it all as we sat and had our last cup of coffee before Atlanta. That former cup of coffee was my comfort, the only sanity in a very long day. But yesterday, sitting in the same spot, I was rejoicing at the beauty of the day. I rejoiced over the way God worked in that old situation, how he carried it through almost to completion, how the burden was gone off my shoulders. I wanted to cry as I realized that God had used that overwhelming trial to shape me and prod me in new directions. Those green umbrellas were my 12 stones piled one upon the other, prompting a look back at the river that didn’t drown me.

Yet one more reason I love this caffeinated life.

David and I are gearing up for our own Catalyst road trip. Tomorrow morning we head to Atlanata, and Wednesday night we will join with thousands of others for Catalyst 08. Stay tuned for as many blogs as we need to communicate a few of the ideas flowing aound Catalyst.

One of the things I enjoy about Catalyst (and Q, for that matter) is the chance to meet people who are using their passions to change their world. This video, from The Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company, was sent out by the Catalyst gang in preparation for the week to come.

Drink Coffee. Do Good! from Catalyst on Vimeo.

I have been waiting to write this post for a day when I am awake and full of energy.

I gave up waiting!

New Neighbor, by Leroy Barber, is hands down one of my favorite books of the year. Those of you who know how many I read, realize that is high praise indeed.  Leroy Barber spoke about the Beloved Community (to use Martin Luther King’s phrase) at Q this past April. Listening to him speak, it was obvious that Leroy had a heart to see people thrive within the idea of community. Reading his book is like walking through his neighborhood.

Leroy founded a program called Mission Year. Combine social action, personal discipleship and urban ministry and you have mission year. The book New Neighbor is written not only by Leroy, but also by Mission Year participants. And throughout the book you will also find the fabulous photographs of Brian T. Murphy. His photographs have an uncanny way of capturing the personality of his view of Atlanta. Worth the price of the book for that reason alone.

So to give you a taste of the book, I want to tell you the story of Fernando, a next door neighbor of one of the Mission Year participants. The guys found out it was Fernando’s birthday, and threw him an impromptu party. This is what William Owen writes about the impact of a simple party.

While we were setting up the rather spontaneous pomp that made up the decorations I doubt any of us thought it would have the impact it did on both our beloved neighbor Fernando and on us. After he thanked each one of us personally and gave us all hugs and then a group hug, Fernando left saying it was one of the best birthdays he’d ever had. Near the door after he let, we all stood dumbfounded. We had no idea that  a few balloons and streamers and cheap cupcakes could make an adult weep to the point of being speechless. I am constantly blown away by the opportunities that God lays in front of us to learn how to love and be loved.

That sums it up: learning to see the eternal significance of cupcakes and balloons in a neighborhood where such things are rare.

Go to Jeff Shinabarger’s site to order New Neighbor. Buy an extra: you’re gonna want it. And if it intrigues you, go to  Mission Year to explore how you can help.

Maybe I’m just looking for justification for my wandering ways, but I was happy to read these verses in Proverbs today.

Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances she cries aloud.

- Proverbs 8:1,2,3

When I read these verses this morning  it reminded me of a sermon I heard preached by Tim Keller. He said that wisdom is what we all need to bring to our communities in any way we can. And in these verses, he said, wisdom does not stay shut up at home. She is in the high places (power and prestige centers), she is at the gates (the justice system) and she is where the paths meet (the marketplace).

Thinking about where wisdom is needed in the community changes everything: where we choose to work, what restaurants we choose to eat in, where we shop. And let us not forget my favorite…wisdom surely has a prime spot at the coffee shop, too!

Grace.

Unspeakable, unstoppable, unquenchable grace.

I saw it today.

Grace looked like a bare cement floor, empty cupboards and curtainless windows.

I don’t know know how to describe it, but it’s burning in my heart, so I have to try. Today Grace took the form of the house of a single mom I know. She’s been through the ringer. She has laid her heart open to her community of companions in a humbling display of contrition. Her life was just too overwhelming to walk through alone.

One by one the companions came. Some sorted precious belongings - few of those. Some threw out the flotsam of trash the world convinces us to horde and protect. Some brought order back, cleaned. Some came and ripped out the filthy carpets and painted the walls clean. Her house is a metaphor for her life: it is swept out now, waiting for the rebuilding process that will follow grace as surely as that wonderful smell follows the rain.

Grace looked like those bare cement floors, waiting for carpet, waiting for new life.

The best part of the journey was the diversity of her companions. The humbling part was that the hardest steps of the journey were accomplished with companions who had walked the very same road. In ripping out carpets and cleaning out cupboards they found healing from bits of their own pathways.

Grace. Undeserved, unmerited favor of an overwheming God who pours blessing after blessing over us in showers of life.