another photograph from my four trip back from lewisburg, WVA. tomorrow i will go again. it's confirmed i will be going, so no anger issues there! hurray for spinach parmesan bagels and mill mountain coffee! so tonight i had the priviledge of having coffee with my friend erin who was in town visiting. this girl challenges my socks off. she asked me the typical question, "so, what are you reading now?" we always have awesome book talk. she shared with me some GREAT stuff she's been learning about social justice from some books she's been reading: irrestible revolution, freedom of simplicity and rich christians. i feel like God has begun to lead me into a process of what it means to live out all the things Jesus lived out in the new testament--mainly really loving people and taking care of the poor. my friend kim and i co-adopted a little girl from india last week. i can't wait to write her! Jesus ALWAYS was looking out for the poor--the physically poor, the spiritually poor, the emotionally poor. you name it. He was always looking to meet people's needs. i don't mind poor people and i think i have a sense of compassion for them, but honestly, how much compassion do i have since i pretty much do nothing about it except feel bad for them.
ouch. so i know that God leads people to care for the poor in their own individualized creative ways, but i want to know how He wants me to serve the poor, and who exactly would that be? i know that God has given me a gift to "see"--to discern in a spiritual sense, but also to see in a creative photographic sense. how that fits in to His plan to take care of the poor, i have no idea. needless to say, i left our time feeling very challenged and humbled. i realize that all this is a bit personal for a blog that, well.. who knows who is reading this! is on the internet, but a part of me writes this hoping that i really mean what i say and that this evening wasn't just an emotional response to a sensitive subject. i hope that as this is posted, it will be a reminder to myself to put into action what has moved me. one last thing: at work, jeff greenough and i were looking at jibjab.com at this movie that made fun of walmart. i dont want to knock walmart, but it kind of goes along with what i have been feeling today in regard to the poor people exploited. you can form your own opinion.