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Facebook, The Mob, and The Holy Land

In just a few days I will board a plane for the experience of a lifetime.  Last fall I was invited to join a Pastoral Pilgrimage to Israel.  An incredibly generous foundation provides an opportunity each year for 20 pastor-types to take a trip to the Holy Land to see the setting of the greatest events in history as well as experience a time of rest and renewal.  Our leader told us the plan for each day is "to do something, to do anything, and to do nothing."  Each morning we will meet for breakfast and then head out to tour a Biblical site.  Around lunch we will return to the hotel and we are free to do whatever we want for the rest of the afternoon...see more stuff, relax by the pool, meet local people, nap.  In the evening we meet for dinner and communion and call it a day.  The first week we will lodge at a beautiful hotel a few paces from the Sea of Galilee.  The second week we'll stay in a Catholic retreat center in the heart of the Old City of Jersualem.  I still can't believe I'm getting to do this.

As part of the experience, they strongly encouraged us to "unplug" as much as possible.  At first the thought of this freaked me out.  As time went on I began to crave it.  So I've made the decision to leave my laptop at home.  Mostly I am feeling the need to step away from e-mail and Facebook.  My plan right now is to ignore both the entire time I am there.  I admit I am still taking my Blackberry...might send out a Twitter each day just to say hello and let you know what I'm doing.  But I plan to leave it at the hotel as we venture out each day.  If so moved, I might find an internet cafe to blog out some thoughts and perceptions a time or two.  But compared to my normal internet addiction, I will be stepping away.  I'm going to try to breathe for a while in an unconnected world.

I do think a couple people on the trip who volunteered to be "trip photographers" might be uploading some photos to a trip blog while we are there.  If you are interested: www.2009pilgrimage.blogspot.com.

So what does the Mob have to do with all of this?  Last night I was busy searching Amazon.com and loading some electronic books onto my Kindle for the trip.  Lately I have been so interested in reading about Chicago's twisted history so I found a great book to take along called: "Chicago Assassin: The Life and Legend of 'Machine Gun' Jack McBurn and the Chicago Beer War of the Roaring Twenties."  I happened to be e-mailing a friend of mine at the time (see...internet addiction) and happened to mention my book selection.  She wrote, "Of course you are choosing to read a book about gun slinging blood and gore as you visit the birthplace of Jesus Christ.  Of course you are."  OK, it didn't seem so strange until she said that.  But oh well, guess that's just who I am. 

So I am taking the mob, leaving Facebook behind, and heading off to the Holy Land on Sunday.  Grace and peace to all of you.

A Chance to Die

Had a great discussion in my small group last night about what it means to follow Jesus.  When we are honest, I think sometimes we'll find that our response to the Gospel is so much more about our desire for a better life than a commitment to give our lives in service to God for the sake of others.  Don't get me wrong, I think our lives do and should benefit from following Jesus; but is that really the heart of what it means to be his disciple?

Recently I heard Craig Groeschel, Pastor of Lifechurch, describe 3 lines of commitment. 

• Line 1: I believe in the Gospel enough to benefit from it.
• Line 2: I believe in the Gospel enough to contribute comfortably to it.
• Line 3: I believe in the Gospel enough to give my life to it.

I wonder, which line have you crossed?  Which have I?  And is anything less than the 3rd line really following Jesus?

Jesus called the crowds to him and said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." (Mark 8:34-35)

I've been reading a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan and in it he writes: "When I was in high school, I seriously considered joining the Marines; this was when they first came out with commercials for "the few, the proud, the Marines."  What turned me off was that in those advertisements, everyone was always running.  Always.  And I hate running.  But you know what? I didn't bother to ask if they would modify the rules for me so I could run less, and maybe also do fewer push-ups.  That would've been pointless and stupid, and I knew it.  Everyone knows that if you sign up for the Marines, you have to do whatever they tell you.  They own you.  Somehow this realization does not cross over to our thinking about the Christian life.  Jesus didn't say that if you wanted to follow Him you could do it in a lukewarm manner.  He said, "Take up your cross and follow me."

In the words of one of my heroes of the faith, Amy Carmichael, Jesus comes to us and offers us "a chance to die."  A chance to die to our selfishness and limited perspective.  A chance to walk away from pursuing lesser things and a life of worrying about the unimportant.  A chance to no longer be dominated by our insecurities and hesitations.  A chance to take our eyes off ourselves and turn our attention to people and a world that needs our contribution.  A chance to carry crosses, cry tears, and sometimes work to the point of exhaustion.  A chance to let go of our life...and in the process find it.

And my guess is when we do find it, we will discover it is the life we have always wanted.