Leaving for CC in about 20 minutes. Final packing stages commence. 6ish hour drive to Sharptop Cove, a YoungLife camp a little bit north of Jasper, GA. Two weeks there. Week 1 is a smaller week, but I’m pretty sure FSU and Flagler will be there, so I’ll know people there. Week 2 is the monster week, and UF will be there. Woot. There may be wireless, so this might be a pointless goodbye post. But in case there isn’t, have a good two weeks, and feel free to pray for me and the other staff and the students, that God would completely consume this camp. 
Twitter: stauffermatt
- RT @ahc: “@justinmcroberts: A gospel that is not good news to the poor is not the Gospel. Neither is a gospel that is only good news to ... about 4 hours ago ReplyRetweetFavorite
- When I walked into O'Hare airport this morning, I was greeted with: "Hi hipster!" Ah, @UrbanaMissions music team love. 11:44:34 AM May 19, 2012 ReplyRetweetFavorite
- ...and, its 4:45. Yoy. I had very honestly, and probably intentionally, forgotten what this time in the morning feels like. 09:45:51 AM May 19, 2012 ReplyRetweetFavorite
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I venture to say that sometimes, perhaps because it was the last instruction Jesus gave us before returning to the Father, we give the Great Commission too prominent a place in our Christian thinking. Please do not misunderstand me. I firmly believe that the whole church is under obligation to obey its Lord’s commission to take the gospel to all nations. But I am also concerned that we should not regard this as the only instruction which Jesus left us. He also quoted Leviticus 19:18, ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself’, called it ‘the second and great commandment’ (second in importance only to the supreme command to love God with all our being), and elaborated it in the Sermon on the Mount. There he insisted that in God’s vocabulary our neighbour includes our enemy, and that to love means to ‘do good’, that is, to give ourselves actively and constructively to serve our neighbour’s welfare. Here then are two instructions of Jesus — a great commandment, ‘love your neighbour’ and a great commission, ‘go and make disciples’.
Wow. (John Stott)The mission of Jesus was a mission of compassion. The words *mission* and *compassion* should always be bracketed; indeed almost hyphenated, so closely do they belong to one another. Again and again we read in the gospels that Jesus ‘was moved with compassion’ — now by the leaderless or hungry crowds, now by the sick, now by a single leprosy sufferer, now by a widow who had lost her only child. What aroused his compassion was always human need, in whatever form he encountered it. And out of compassion for people in need he acted. He preached the gospel, he taught the people, he fed the hungry, he cleansed the leper, he healed the sick, he raised the dead. All this was part of his mission. He had not come to be served, he said, but to serve (Mk. 10:45). Of course the climax of his self-giving service was his atoning death, by which he secured our salvation. Nevertheless, his mission of compassion was not limited to this, because human need is not limited to this. He was sent to serve, and his service was adapted with compassionate sensitivity to human need.
John StottAs a communicator in the non-profit world, I am convinced that sensationalizing the suffering of those we help or invalidating the suffering of those who donate to our work breaks down the human connection between us. It robs us of the real value we have to give to one another.
Yes. Thank you, Marilyn.
Also good: “Needing courage to face our pain is not a ‘third world problem.’”
Also, “One of the easiest lies I could tell you is that because children affected by trafficking need help, you don’t. That’s a lie. We are all human: We hurt. We hope. We suffer. We Love. We need each other.”
Modeling Reconciliation at OSU - News - InterVarsity.org
Goosebumps from this story about reconciliation at OSU.
Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions even when an individual does not want to discriminate. […] Implicit bias tests may still show that you hold negative attitudes and stereotypes about [specific people groups] even though you do not believe you do and do not want to.
From The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
This is a really important part of the conversation about racism vs. racialization (and can free us to talk about racial bias outside of the context of hateful racism).
Quoted here: Friday Roundup: Racism by another name
Have fun buddy! G-rock misses you already.
Prayer in that general direction will commence fo sho.