outword

Are you okay with the fact that every day you "do your thing" you might be missing what you were deep-down really made for? I'm not. I can't sit still, or stand around any more. I've got to do something.

What is life about? As Christians, our lives often mean no more than anyone else's. We want to have a little free time, a little peace of mind, and a little freedom. We want to get ahead of the curve, save a little more than we spend. We have allowed the everyday life and the need to provide for our family. I have been going to a job every day and doing well at it, but all the while, wondering if this is what my life is supposed to be for. A work horse, then I die? What kind of existence is that?

What is our fundamental purpose for being here? You may say, I don't care anymore why I am here, I just want to get the kids to bed and get some ice cream to sit down and watch Letterman. I just want to hang out on friday night with someone for dinner. What we don't realize, as I did for a long time, is that we think that once we get ahead in life and find that small slice of peace, things will be good enough that we might think about doing something. The truth is that you will never find that peace until you fulfill God's purpose for you.

Not to anger you, but finding God's will for your life is simple. It isn't easy, but it is simple. Oddly enough, he has given you talents, gifts, abilities, and the passion for something. Finding that something is the point and should be your first order of business. Bill Hybels (pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, IL) calls it Holy Discontent, or Divine Discontent. It is that Popeye moment, the thing that makes you scream, the thing that makes your blood boil and you just cannot stay silent. God's will is findable, if you're looking for it. That IF is the problem. When you want to know what you're about, you will search for it, until then it is impossible to find.

…we make a choice and be the voice for those who won’t speak up for themselves.”

This is a line from the Superchick song “Hero (Red Pill Remix)” and it is the essence and purpose of why Jesus came. To call yourself a follower of Christ is hit the battlefield armed with hope and speak up. You are the voice, maybe you don’t know how to stand for the fallen or speak for the broken around you, but God fills up with his spirit for this purpose. Get the word out, this is the purpose of Outword and what we do. We want to help anyone who is willing find their place among the threads of this beautiful tapestry that God is weaving.

Find your divine discontent, and once you do, jump into the fray, don’t be content with complacent living. Have a heart, find your passion, and don’t be afraid to unleash your passion on the world, we need it. The wind is a bit more empty without your song being sung at the top of your lungs.

Don’t let another day go by before you at least take a peek and try to discover what it is God made you for. The deepest and most power question that every human has deep in our souls is “what am I here for?” Answer the question, or let God answer it, and don’t let it go. Be who you were meant to be in him, and if you have trouble with that, let us know.

Jesus saves. He came, died, and rose from the grave. We know this. Sometimes we lose sight of the magnitude of that. Sometimes we forget the taste of all our yesterdays in our mouth. Take a trip down memory lane and take away God's love, his grace, his holiness and provision in your life, and you will not find a pretty picture. Despite our best efforts this idea becomes old news very quickly. If you haven't in a while, I invite you to do what I find myself doing tonight. Take a few moments, and think about what God has really done for you, read the story again or paint the picture in your mind. Write down a list of all the things that come to mind, what you've learned, and how good God has been to you.

While Christ's work and what he did for me cuts me deep, to the heart, I must further ponder the only thing less wonderful, less amazing, less earth-shattering. God wants me to get involved in what he is doing in the world. Cmon, get real God, you want me to "help you?" Seriously? It's true. Now, you may be like me, thinking that if God is so freaking huge, why would he ever need my help? The truth is that God doesn't NEED my help, he can and will do it himself if he wants to. The point is that he wants us to join in with him, because of what it will do to us. He wants us to be who he made us to be. The other reason is that it will bring more of his children to him. It will show his kindness to the world. God wants us to bathe more in his holiness, experience his joy, and give him his glory. This is where we are meant to be, in the center of the mark.

The cool part is that God doesn't want everyone to go to Africa and play patty-cake with lions when you're off-duty from curing malaria. Some people should, but God has a match for you. God has a fire he wants to light in you, he has something so awesome for you to do you won't believe it. God calls you to use the talents and abilities he's given you. That means, knitters, God has got an idea in mind for you. Roofers, plumbers, laywers, doctors, tech people (shoutout to yallz), web developers, freaky smart chemist people, and you, whoever you are, God has you in his sights. He has written into your DNA, your heart, your head the exact things he wants you to do. For me, God wants me to use every technological fiber of my being to create things that help support people doing his works, mostly in the computer and web realm. See this site isn't just a half-baked roll chilling on the counter, this is my calling, writing these words to you. I'm just a regular guy, and you shouldn't feel any less called. I am just some guy doing what I think God made me for. I just want you to know how awesome it is to do the same. If I can help you do that somehowI will. It is that important.

My next question, and probably yours too, is "yeah, ok, I know God is calling. But HOW do I get going?" To tell you the truth, I don't know. I don't know it all for sure, no one does. In a way it will be your own journey. Outword is here to list all the information we can find to help you get a start in whatever God has called you to do. Beyond that, your pastor, other people you can trust, and of course, the Holy Grail, Google. DO a little literal searching. Find out about what it is you are good at, and spend some time thinking about what you want to do in this world, what is the mark you want to leave.

To give you a few ideas, here are a few things God has put on my heart....I want anyone hurting to know how much God hurts for them and with them. This includes everyone, yup, God is pretty big, so is his love. I hate that gay people get the feeling that God doesn't love them, which is completely not true, I hate that addicts and young people feel judged by God. I hate that the best thing you'll find along the interstate is adult book shops. I hate that children die from hunger, and that all my peeps are killing themselves. I just want to run up to hurting people, and try to show them with my arms how huge God's heart is for them with my hands as wide as they will go. I wish I could show them how much God has done for them. I want hurting people who hide it all the time, and don't ever let anyone know, that they are welcome in God's presence, even if they don't wear a suit, even if they don't know the words.

Whatever you do, chase after God, and don't let go of the passion in your heart. Don't give up on finding that sacred dream God has for you. Think about that. If God slept, he would go to sleep every night and dream in vivid color and HD that crazy, wild, amazing, dangerous, mysterious dream he has for you, and wake up excited about the things you will become, the people you will touch. God dreams about you I am convinced. He certainly dreams even about a loser like me. Don't let go of that, find out what God has in mind. Ask him to open your eyes to see the things he does. Ask him to show you what breaks his heart, what hurts him. He'll show you. He promised in his word that if you lack wisdom, he will give it, if you ask. Ask him, find your passion, I dare you. If God needs to give you a good swift kick in the pants ask him to give it you.

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” -Proverbs 24:11.

Seriously, how many of us really have taken that scripture literally? How many of us take any scripture literally? This is not a guilt trip I have prepared for you, but merely a wondering in my own life. I have known about this verse for a very long time. I remember reading it before all this complacency, back when I had passion in life. Before I don’t know what even happened. So, here I am simply saying that I think we really need to do this. Let us as the physical, living presence of Jesus Christ himself on earth be moved to more than a tear of sympathy. Do we care about the people around us who are dying? What about the people who have died? Those who chose to end the life they couldn’t see the light at the end of. Could they have been rescued? Yes. God can save anyone. He can do it. He will do it.

Have a passion, find one if need be, and if we can help you find your passion, contact us. Please. Lives depend on it, no kidding. People need what you have to offer. Don’t be complacent and apathetic like me.

It is not okay with me that my generation is committing suicide, cutting, depressed, addicted, hurting, going to hell, beat-down.

It is not okay with me that I haven’t even cared until tonight.

It is not okay with me that I haven’t cared for so long.

It is not okay with me, for once.

While we try to have normal lives, many are loosing theirs. While we sit, they disappear for good. It is not okay with me.

My problems are nothing. My excuses are nothing. It is not okay anymore.

Is it okay with you?

It shouldn’t be.

“As if something was broken in the world and we were to hold our palms against the wound.”

-Donald Miller (TWLOHA.com)

Shootings, suicide, cutting, pain, anger, death, depression, and more pain. All of this and more is going on right now. Someone today will end their life, many people in fact. Will it be someone you know? Maybe, maybe not. What if? People are hurting, and none of us want to dig into another person’s life enough to find out about the hurt that is there. This is what Jesus was about, going to the source and taking the pain, he took it all. WIthout his sacrifice, pain would ravage our world with no hope, no end, no exit. He is the end of pain and suffering, he paid it all, and that is what it means. The grip of death, sin, and pain have been shattered. The hurting don’t know this, they feel alone. Undepress someone today, give someone hope. Be a hero.

If you haven’t, you should download a song called Hero from Superchick, it is on iTunes, and 100 other places. It is what we were made for, to be the heroes in this broken world. Jesus was the hero and we are all already called to be a hero to those around us. If someday you’ve hit the bottom, and feel like you want to end it, wouldn’t you want someone to rescue you? Everyone never thinks it would never happen to them, yet it does.

You a hero, whether or not you know it. You have already helped someone most likely and you didn’t know it. People are good at hiding pain, some you would never know that they were hurting until dig a bit deeper. Stop to listen, be a friend, be the one people know they can turn to. Being there is more a hope to the hurting than anything else. You are the one.

We were not meant to live this life unnoticed, and neither were the hurting, this is why we are called the light. There, at the end of the day, all of us will stand together at the top of the hill, flag flying, heads held high, ready for the coming of the one who gives us hope, having done all we could to bring hope and life to this desolate place. Be a hero.

TWLOHA began with an amazing story of redemption. Instead of ignoring the pain, 5 friends became the church and surrounded a girl very close to killing herself. They took her under their wing and saved her life, quite literally. The story is much better told in its original form at the TWLOHA.com website.

She cuts herself, using the blade to write "FUCK UP" large across her left forearm. The nurse at the treatment center finds the wound several hours later. The center has no detox, names her too great a risk, and does not accept her. For the next five days, she is ours to love. We become her hospital and the possibility of healing fills our living room with life. It is unspoken and there are only a few of us, but we will be her church, the body of Christ coming alive to meet her needs, to write love on her arms.

They remind me of Proverbs 24:11-12:

I want to be like that. Giving someone hope and another chance at life, maybe the first one they''ve had. Talk about living the gospel.

I have been standing in front of a picture window looking at the world beyond. My whole life I''ve seen the pain, the injustice, the heartache of God for his children behind the glass. I have been randomly window shopping all the world''s confusion and tragedy on my daily loop to no where and back with the help of world relief aid commercials designed to hook you. I see it there, yet as if it untouchable, I somehow feel completely disconnected, though the thickness of the glass would not withstand a child''s finger-pressure on the surface. The innocence of a child can shatter the glass with a simple desire and $5 of allowance money. Why I feel encased, tied down and helpless under this gorgeous blue sky is a thought beyond my unraveling. I am free to act, yet I don''t, and don''t know why. God routes me past that window of torment and hunger each day in my mind, hoping that my dense forehead will one day somehow be penetrated by the grisly images of hurt and depair so vividly displayed in the window and force me to move inward. Dante Alighieri said "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality." There is a point where more than just your feet need to be wet. Personally, I think I have crossed the line, emerged from the sidewalk and am now nose-to-the-glass in sober wide-eyed terror of the crazy days that will follow this.

Living in the light is like electricity. Once you turn on the connection to God, and you start to care, start to understand that the light just pours into you constantly, you realize that you were made to hold it, to live off it, but that you can''t keep it all inside you. You realize that you are in fact a conduit, a lifeline for someone else. You can''t hold in the light, or it will make you sick, and burn you up inside. You''ve got to get your feet out of the closet and burn sneaker marks in the pavement on your way to destiny.

Idly by the many die. As I sit in comfort, making money, in a place of relative peace, many in the world are pleading with me to come and save their life, to be given the gift I overlook as mundane and normal. The gift of life forever. The gift of eternal salvation, grace, and forgiveness. AIDS doesn''t have quite the same sting if you know your emminent death in the end will result in an audience with the one person that will never leave you alone. Death and pain and torment loose its power when you know the truth and accept it. Some don''t understand how holding the hand of a dying man can be "ministry" and what God asks of us. It is deceptively simple and yet so hard to cross the status quo, to change the game and shatter the glass.

That thin laminate poly-coated transparent menace that beckons and forbids. I am ingrained with the ethic to leave glass as it is. I am afraid I won''t understand the repercussions of the shards flying at me if I muster up the fight inside I need to decurse myself of this forboding nemesis.

To take a step back only worsens the depth of the fire in my soul. To look at what all this involves, to analyse the ripple effect of my actions, premeditated scare me even more, knowing that the glass can''t be unbroken once it is destroyed, yet the funny thing is once I break it, I won''t care that it can''t be put back. The high life, the elusive sublime utopia, and rose-colored glasses can be yours when you reach out and see the world through darkened eyes and empty hearts.

What are we all waiting for? Another disaster, another holocaust? Hasn''t there been enough victims, enough heartache, enough death, pain, and evil? Haven''t you had enough? What the world needs NOW, is love sweet love. It''s the only thing that''s there''s just too little of. Get on the bus, I dare you to move. It''s time to shatter the glass. You could be the end of poverty, hunger, AIDS, water-borne disease, hate, depression, suicide, cutting, hopelessness, and evil. I say enough. The time is now. The day is here. Shatter the glass.

Many people who go to church don't understand how God works and what our place is in God's plan, me included.

It was a foreign concept to me that God was already doing stuff, and I just needed to ask him where I fit in. I suppose I knew God wasn't just sitting on his laurels, but I always thought everyone in God's will started their own thing, something new he told them to do. Not true. God is out there doing a lot in our world, but he wants us to join him, so that we can share in the redemption of his children. God doesn't NEED us to help, he can handle it, but he wants us to help because of what it will do to us and for us. Make us more like him.

If you've ever done the workbook with a small group or something called "Experiencing God" you know that these are the main points you learn:

1. God is always at work around you.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.

It is simple but not easy. Everyone I know struggles with #5. I hate having a crisis of belief and changing my ways. It is not fun, but the point is that fun doesn't matter as a primary goal in life. If we are adjusting our lives to God's way, and forever trying to be sure we are joining his work, then fun and satisfaction in life is a by-product of that willingness to put God at your paramount. If you haven't figured out where God wants you and you don't have the slightest clue, I suggest picking up the Experiencing God book, it is very helpful for helping you evaluate yourself and what God is doing in this world. At least for me, it involved God doing quite a bit of butt-kicking, which let's face it, in the end, is a good thing.