…so I’ve been thinking.
I’ve been reading a lot of books, talking with a bunch of people, and even gone to a conference. And everywhere I go God just keeps messing with my head.

It’s all about heaven. Like many of you I was raised to believe that heaven was this place that dead people went to (at least dead Christians). True enough. When I die the Bible tells me that the next thing I see is Jesus—face to face. And most likely I’ll totally lose it. I won’t know what to do. I’ll act like a total idiot (nothing new) and he’ll have to calm me down and tell me it’s ok. I’m in heaven.

But I think there’s much more to it. When Jesus was on this earth, what he told everybody was to turn around and take a look: heaven was right in front of them. You didn’t have to wait for it. In fact, to make the point, he gathered a little band of followers and showed them how to act as if they were really in heaven—because they were. They were in the presence of the God who made everything and loved everything. What could be better than that? That’s heaven.

And, yes, he also told them that heaven was this kingdom that would last forever. But he always reminded them that it was right in front of them, because he was right in front of them.

And there’s where it really messes me up.

Because most of the time I don’t act like I’m in heaven (so where do I think I am?). I guess that means that most of the time I’m not sure if Jesus is really right in front of me. And all that’s really in front of me is whatever’s coming at me. Time for the bullet-proof vest. Time to hide.

But there’s this promise of Jesus that keeps running through my head, that he’d be with me forever. That he wasn’t going anywhere no matter what happened or what I did. And then he dares me to act as if that’s really true. To act like he taught he followers to act. To do what he did.

What if all this stuff is true?

In the last blog I wrote about this little band of Jesus-followers in San Francisco that did this thing called “Have 2 Give 1.” That’s where they followed Jesus teaching that if you have two coats to give one to someone who has none. They also did that with their CD’s bikes, shoes, appliances, whatever they had too much of. And they didn’t just give their throwaways either.

You see, this wasn’t just about “doing the right thing.” These people in San Francisco were really trying to act as if all this Jesus-stuff is really true. That life does go better (and is way more fun) if you do what Jesus did.

This “Have 2 Give 1” thing—we’re going to try this at Immersion in a few weeks. I’ll talk about how this will all work on Thanksgiving Eve and the next week following we’ll all give stuff away. More details to come.

Blessings on the Way!

Pastor Richard