[photo: longbrake]

There are only 8 days left in the 50,000 pairs in 50 days challenge. We are blown away at the generosity of everyone who has contributed to this campaign. Financially, that is almost $30,000 raised for shoes in just a little over a month. Amazing!

We are still far (38,000 pairs) from reaching the goal of 50,000 pairs of shoes so if you can give another $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 dollars — every penny helps in a big way! It would be a Christmas miracle to reach 50,000 shoes but I know it can happen!

Remember everyone who gives is automatically entered into a chance to win a trip for you and a guest to Mexico to hand deliver the shoes you purchased to people who have never owned shoes before. How amazing is that?! The more you donate, the better your chances!

This week, the highest donation will receive a football autographed by Albert Haynesworth from the Tennessee Titans!

Please donate today - http://www.50000shoes.com…and spread the love!  Remind your blog readers, your address book, your office, your youth group, your mom.  I really believe this can happen! But it’s gonna take all of us!

i’ve decided that from christmas eve through january 5th, this blog will be quiet. no auto-scheduled-out posting. no posting out my favorite posts of 2008,

nothing. nada.

after a trip to the midwest to visit family for christmas, i am going into a self-induced almost isolation in a land far, far away and will not be bringing my computer with me at all. no twitter. no email.

nothing. nada.

but i would like for you to leave me a comment today with how i can pray for you or for someone you know while i am away. i’ll print off a list on sunday afternoon before my retreat and take it with me.

so comment below, please repost this on your own blogs so others can chime in, and come back to see how you can pray for everyone.

and that’s what it’s all about.

the band ours has been a lifesaver for me. i first heard their music almost ten years ago when i lived in dallas and since it was the days before ipods and mp3s, i literally went through three copies of their first cd “distorted lullabies.” it was so cathartic for me that it actually got worn out.

lead singer jimmy gnecco’s voice is perfection; his lyrics, beautifully moody and leave room for one’s mind to wander where it needs to. musically, it’s artful, original and emotionally sweeping.

i’ve had the chance to see either ours (or jimmy solo) perform several times over the last few years and tonight they are coming through nashville. i’ll be interviewing jimmy after the show about his journey over the last decade as well as his involvement in several very worthy causes. i’ll post the interview up sometime soon.

in honor of tonight’s show (at 12th and porter if you want to come), here’s a perfect example of an honest and hopeful song.  you can actually listen to their newest album “Mercy…Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy” streamed on their website or preview this song here on amazon.

The Worst Thing’s Beautiful

On the day you were born
The sun filled my eyes
I fell within the wars that rise

What were you here for?
What will you find?
Could I save your life, like you saved mine?

Wait until the morning comes around
Wait for something beautiful
Wait to see if worry turns around
Wait, please wait

I tried to keep you from
Everything that was
So difficult for me

But it makes you strong
When you hurt so long
I’ll put it all in faith that you won’t leave

And I’ll wait until the morning comes around
Wait for something beautiful
Wait to see if worry turns around
Wait, I’ll wait

Looking up now you see that
Everyone seems so happy
The crooked somehow keep breathing
When you couldn’t be so happy

Maybe they just don’t know
Maybe we just don’t know
Maybe we just don’t know

So I’ll wake every morning
Wake with the sun
Were the worst things always
The first things to come?
Find a way to move on and a way to be strong
Because some things do change…

Some things come that make
The worst things beautiful

Wait until the morning comes around
Wait for something beautiful
Wait to see if worry turns around

what’s in your head this week?

There once was a time when Bing Crosby movies and the aroma of pine mixed with cinnamon would leave me warm and fuzzy inside. I’d wander the aisles of trendy stationary stores with the hopes of picking out the perfect Christmas cards. There were two kinds of cards I needed to purchase: the cards for almost everyone, and the cards for the people I thought I needed to impress. The everyday cards were a little more generic and signed simply with a holiday greeting and my name. For the people I had to impress, the cards were die cut, uniquely sized and mailed in a shimmery envelope. My signature was perfectly executed underneath a witty and memorable sign off. Because we all know that how you sign your Christmas card determines where you end up in this world.

This year, Christmas doesn’t feel so warm and fuzzy. Label me The Grinch, or Mrs. Scrooge, or just plain apathetic, but I have no Christmas tree up. There are no stockings hung on the mantle over my electric fireplace (hey, it’s a rental, okay?) and no snowmen adorning my coffee table.

There’s no nativity scene with an oddly posed baby Jesus, no twinkly lights, and no Santa.

I do however, have Valium. And at times, it seems like the only thing getting me through this high pressure, high anxiety season.

Now, before the shame-on-you emails begin flooding in, accusing me of using a sedative as a seasonal crutch, medication looks different to everyone. To some it’s a little extra comfort in their egg nog. Others, shopping. Eating. Sleeping. Whathaveyou.

Mine just happens to be a little green pill.

Is my holiday coping method healthy? I have to think it’s better for my wallet, my cholesterol, and my hips than say, a trip to the mall or seven pounds of fudgy cookies.

But that’s just me.

For many people, Christmas is merry and bright. For others, sometimes our holiday cheer isn’t turned up to ten. And I’m realizing that’s okay. Different seasons bring different seasons, and there’s much to be learned, whatever side of the fence you fall on this year.

Here’s to making it through another holiday with all the hope, grace (and coping mechanisms if necessary) one can handle. I wish you the best. May we all begin to love our flaws, our imperfections, and our potential as we close out this year, and ring in the next.

earlier this week, i mentioned that last friday, i had a chance to chat some with gary haugen, the ceo/president of international justice mission.  my friend ben introduced me to my friend jeff who introduced me to my friend bethany who coordinated this entire phone call.

as a sidebar, i think it’s interesting we all have known each other for months online, but only recently met in person at catalyst back in october.

as most of you know, the trip i took to africa in february changed my world.  to experience poverty and hope and life and death and fear and courage in eight days didn’t just leave me reactive…it left me transformed.

and just when you think your eyes have been open as wide as they possibly can be, you’re shown something new.  that happened when i read gary’s book “just courage.”

from the jacket:

“There must be more to the Christian life than this–more than church each Sunday and waving to my neighbors and giving some clothes to Goodwill when I go through my closet each spring.”

These aren’t bad things, of course. But they’re safe and comfortable and easy. And there’s a reason they’re not satisfying your desire for something more significant and meaningful–we’re created by God for adventure.

International Justice Mission president Gary Haugen has found that engaging in the fight for justice is the most deeply satisfying way of life. This book shows how we too can be a part of God’s great expedition.

after reading his book, and our conversation on friday, i’ve been left with some nuggets and then haunted with a question i’ll ask at the end.  here’s a bullet point list of some things gary said:

*We know how to bring evangelism, food, water, and housing to the poor. These are beginning to become mainstream.  We can do these things, and do them comfortably.

*What do we do about the problem of violence and the brutal abuse of power in people who are tortured, murdered, raped, or manipulated in violent ways? We are not familiar with these things.  We don’t know what to do.  We don’t feel empowered.

*Why is violence so intimidating? It’s intentional.  Not the result of bad luck or viruses or bad weather.  It is the force of humans intending to hurt other humans.

*Violence is scary.  It fights back.

*If you feed someone, you’re not going to be attacked by hunger. But when you attack violence, usually it’s going to fight back.  There is a test of courage that is special when fighting violence.

*Violence is not as powerful as we think. It happens because we are letting people get away with it.

*The oppressors of the poor are not brave.  It’s a crime of opportunity.  As soon as they sense a threat, they begin to leave. Gary told a story of how he saw one of the worst areas he had ever seen in his life on a visit to Asia.  Years later, the brothels where hundreds of children were traded and sold into the sex tourism industry, had disappeared and his fifteen year old niece was helping lead a Vacation Bible School in the same spot.  The violence had been confronted and it left.

*Violent people depend on lies and deception. If the world saw the truth about violence, they wouldn’t let it continue.

*We need to learn the truth about what’s happening and expose it.  We need to become hard-nosed truth tellers.

violence needs to be confronted with truth.  when you confront violence, it fights back.  millions of people are slaves to violent acts — slave and sex trafficking, murder, rape — and in order to end it, we have to acknowledge it, face it, and quite possibly, take a very large risk.

a risk that may cost some of us our lives.

and thus the black-and-white, extreme side of me asks…

would i die for someone’s freedom?

would you?