greater things

You've heard it before.

By following Jesus as Lord, you've got your ticket to Heaven.

Sayonara planet earth.

But that relationship is only vertical, you to the skies.

And with a purely vertical relationship, the story of Jesus is not a cross, it's just a stick, up and down. A stick that beats people over the head with condemnation.

What if there's more?

As I believe there is.

By following Jesus as Lord we are not only reconciled with God, we are reconciled with each other. A horizontal relationship. No blissing out and forgetting about earth. Jesus did not come here only to take the faithful one by one, He came to restore what was created. And that includes all of us. That all people, those who believe and those who don't, could have real love and real peace, here and now. A horizontal connection, reaching out over this planet.

Horizontal + Vertical = the cross. The sign of our faith.

I read this book and I am reading this one.

And they rocked my paradigm. I had a lot to learn!

I am not saying this as if I've perfected the craft. But as inspiration for all of my friends who say they follow Jesus.

How is our faith professed through our interactions with the world?

I want to live out that love and peace. Hold me to it.

PS: This is a little unrelated, but look at this picture from Jake's band's last show. I love it! And we almost get that sweaty here on the New York subway because it's been so darn hot. But I have no complaints. Except the fact that I keep wanting to call the trains "lines" like we do in Chicago and it just doesn't work.