do you know that you're irreplaceable?

i've come to the conclusion that this is the message i want to carry to the ends of the earth.

yesterday i met with a friend who's helping me write something for Genesis, the church where I now work part-time. one of the things we came up with was "God's Church and mission are incomplete without you." as i typed it and watched the words form on my computer screen, something stirred so deep in me.

so often, we tell people they have something to offer because of what they can do. but in truth, everyone has something to offer because of who they are. just like you have a physical fingerprint, you have a spiritual fingerprint. and with every action or word you leave that fingerprint behind. when you join a faith community, you change it. you bring your energy, your dynamic, your faith... and the community is more complete because you're there.

we focus a lot on "the team".. you hear A LOT, both in and outside the Church.. the team the team the team... "there is no 'i' in team". on the contrary, there are LOTS of 'i's in a team, and the team wouldn't exist without them.

God's Church needs you. you bring something unique. you bring something special, and powerful. you bring something irreplaceable.
you bring you.

how do they do that?

I just got an email from my mom. This is how it ended:
"I am so proud of you. I love you
MOM"

it made me teary-eyed.
How do moms do that? Seriously.
Are women imbued with special powers when they become moms??
:-)

i love my mom.

numbers don't lie

I listened to a message from Rob Bell yesterday that genuinely shocked me. The message series is titled "Calling All Peacemakers", and in it, he shared some disturbing numbers:

The United States makes up 12% of the world's population, but uses 85% of it's water.

40% of the world lacks basic sanitation facilitation.

1 billion people in the world lack safe drinking water. American's consume 26 billion liters of BOTTLED water annually.

Every 16 seconds, someone in the world dies of hunger. Yet 2 out of 3 Americans are considered overweight.

80% of the world lives in sub-standard housing. Average new homes size: Ireland 930 square feet., U.K. 815 square feet, U.S. - 2349 square feet.

8% of people in the world own a car. 1/3 of American families own 3 cars.

Daily oil consumption (in millions of barrels a day): Japan 5.5, China 5.6, US 20.

The US accounts for 25% of global oil consumption.

The US holds 42.8% of weapons worldwide.

In 2002, the US spent more on defense than the next 18 biggest spenders combined.

US defense budget - $348 billion.
Cost to provide basic educate for everyone - globally - $6 billion.
Cost to give water and sanitation to everyone - globally - $9 billion.
Cost to provide basic health and nutrition for everyone - globally - $13 billion.

(Maybe if we spent more time and money taking care of the world, we wouldn't have to spend as much time and money defending ourselves from it.)