Happenings in Chicago

Well, I told myself I was going to blog more. It's happening, but not as frequently as I wanted it to. We're working on that. (The plural there was intentional. I have a team of 15 full-time paid staff that work with me on this blog.)

My cousin, who works as a housing guy with BreakThrough Urban Ministries, has a great blog. He wrote a few posts a while ago on reciprocity that I loved, and have been on my mind lately as I go about my day. Specifically, I have kept them in mind while serving at Breaking Bread, our church's homeless ministry. We serve a sit-down meal to about 70 guests every Wednesday. It's a good time. As I have gotten to know some of the guests, it has been fascinating, and humbling, to realize what they have to offer me, the wise insights they have, etc. Here is an example...

We are going to start letting our guests in about an hour before the meal starts, offer some reading materials, games, devotions, etc. About 3 weeks ago we did this for the first time, very unorganized, to let the guests in out of the cold. We didn't have anything planned, so I just hung out in a room with about 10-40 people as they came in over the hour. I sat and talked mostly with Pete. We talked about nothing for a while, getting to know each other, breaking the ice. Then he started talking about the Bible, and how much it talks about helping the poor, those that are in need, etc. As he talked, it was interesting to hear the tone of voice he used. He stated everything rather matter-of-factly, as if it should be obvious to everyone else that the rich should share and help the poor. It was almost like Jesus himself was there talking, as if I was listening to his teachings in the Gospels. He talked about how ridiculous it was for anyone to have more than 25 million dollars, and how there should be a law against it. Now, obviously if there was a law against it, people wouldn't be as creative, since they wouldn't have as much to gain, blah blah blah. Capitalism works when you don't limit what people can have, since that's communism, blah blah blah. Sure that's true. But what Jesus taught, and what Pete continued to teach me is also true. It's just our job to figure out how it works...



I'm almost done with the 2nd book in Pullman's His Dark Materials series, The Subtle Knife. It's great. To be completely honest, I really don't see why Christians in America have jumped all over this guy. Then again, we'll see where the 3rd book goes.

Going to Fogo de Chao tomorrow night for dinner with a bunch of awesome people. Emily is taking me for my birthday. She's amazing, and not just for the steak dinner.

Peace