In most cases single people are treated as crappy in church cirlces as LGBTs. Who cares what others think of you. Love yourself because God loves you THAT much. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

This is my friend, Native American leader Richard Twiss, speaking about the abuse against Natives by the white power structure of our country. The first one minute and twenty four seconds of this video Richard throws it down (because he’s speaking at a conservative Christian college’s chapel service, it seems like he eased up a little on them the last minute of his talk. I’ve heard him bring it for hours before!). Over the last few years Richard has opened my eyes to the atrocious treatment in which the white dominated government of the United States, since day one, has bestowed upon Native Americans.

Did you know that Native American reservations aren’t even owned by Natives? We all think they own their land. They don’t. A person appointed by the President is their liaison to the land they live on, and before anything happens on a Native reservation, this man has to give them approval!

This was their country. We took if from them and now are continuing to oppress them. 

On this day I am thankful, among many, many other things, for one thing in particular:

That Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby of no status or privilege, incarnating himself into a broken world and righteously loving all of humanity to Him, even though many didn’t, and don’t, want to believe. I am also thankful for Jesus brutally dying on the cross, that my sins are forgiven because I believe in an unchanging God who longs to flood this world and all humanity with redemption and reconciliation to God, and to each other.

With that said, on this thankful day of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for what Jesus did so I, as a white man a part of the dominant culture that has given me extraordinary privilege for doing nothing other than being birthed into a powerful socially constructed group of people, can sincerely apologize for:  

Metaphorically and physically raping and pillaging the Indians over centuries, the thing that created this holiday; and using the death of Christ for the cultural sins of slavery, colonization, the crusades, racism, sexism and anything else that holds others captive because they are not like the dominant culture of the day.

I’m sorry. And I’m thankful I believe in a God who is bigger than all of my people’s sins committed on behalf of God’s name.

Please watch the video of Richard. It’s powerful. Here is Richard’s website and here you can find him on YouTube.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

Yesterday was Black Friday and I got up at 3:20am so I could go shopping and get everyone I loved something really special. I want to briefly give you my Philosophy of Money and Spending:

I give more to the Lord than I can “afford” and then I spend the rest blessing those really special people in my life that have already given so much.

You can’t take a dime with you into eternity, and what good is there in trying to hoard as much money to yourself as you can because “you want to live comfortably in retirement” or “just in case”. Retirement means your work is done – and a faithful Christian walk never ends until our last breathe is breathed. It’s an orientation; a lifestyle; a paradigm of understanding that is totally countercultural to what mainstream (as there are two types of mainstream – secular and religious) tells us. And when lived to the fullest, you’re not able to retire from it because it’s too ingrained, too normal to you, too much a way of life.

Our Kingdom Priorities are messed up because they are so inward focused. Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”; and then to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Where your heart and priorities are, that is also where your money goes. So mine goes to God first, and then to my loved ones next with very little left over – not because I spend so much but rather because what little I do make is given or spent on my top priorities. Is it any coincidence that right after Jesus tells everyone the two greatest commandments, He illustrates it with this.

Rich to me might not mean rich to you, but you better believe I’m fully rich in how I live my life. Scary? Extremely. But the strange part is that I’ve never been more content in my entire life.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

On this day I am thankful, among many, many other things, for one thing in particular:

That Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby of no status or privilege, incarnating himself into a broken world and peacefully loving all of humanity to Him, even though many didn’t, and don’t, want to believe.

I am also thankful for Jesus brutally dying on the cross, that my sins are forgiven because I believe in an unchanging God who longs to flood this world and all humanity with redemption and reconciliation to Himself, and to each other.

With that said, on this thankful day of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for what Jesus did so I, as a white man a part of the dominant culture that has given me extraordinary privilege for doing nothing other than being birthed into a powerful socially constructed group of people, can sincerely apologize for:  

Raping and pillaging the Indians, the thing that created this holiday; and using the death of Christ for the cultural sins of slavery, colonization, the crusades, racism, sexism and anything else that holds others captive because they are not like the dominant culture of the day.

I’m sorry. And I’m thankful I believe in a God who is bigger than all of my people’s sins committed on behalf of Him.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

The day before Thanksgiving I was graced with a phone call from a great friend of mine: Wendy Beech-Ward. Wendy works for Spring Harvest, she knows absolutely everyone and she’s British! Cool side story—her husband was the band manager for Boy George and the Culture Club. Just adds to her coolness doesn’t it…

Anyway, as we were talking about the future and some exciting possibilities between The Marin Foundation and the UK based Spring Harvest and Soul Survivor, she said something I never thought about before:

“Why do American’s celebrate the day that we [British] found the country?”

She said that jokingly, but either way it was an hilarious satirical comment coming from a Brit to an American guy who needs to be culturally pushed. I’ve never, ever thought about Thanksgiving from a British perspective before.

We hijacked their holiday! What’s up with that?

Regardless, I’m thankful none the less.

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/