Rob Bell is releasing a new book titled “Love Wins” with the tag line “A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived”. I have not had the opportunity to read the book, so I cannot comment on it. This post is about the attention it’s getting and the accusations people are throwing at Rob Bell.

I think this is a classic case of Christians being ready to jump the gun and accuse someone of blasphemy without even knowing what the person is talking about. If you aren’t aware of what all is being said, then I wouldn’t think you should be worried. But if you are curious, HERE is probably the most prominent blog post being circulated on the matter. And I think THIS is definitely something worth reading.

If you don’t have the time to visit those websites, I’ll give you my quick summary of the situation (though, I do recommend that you take a look for yourself). Rob Bell’s new book “Love Wins” is going to be about heaven and hell. Presumedly covering the questions “are they real” and “who goes where?”. Some are saying that Bell is a universalist, which essentially means that he would believe everybody goes to heaven. They are mostly citing the publisher’s description of the book that says “Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife—arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.” As well as the video below from Rob Bell himself.

Nothing I have read or heard suggests to me that Bell has written anything related to universalism. Nothing suggests to me that he believes everybody goes to heaven. To me, nothing suggests that the book contains anything that is against God’s Word. In fact, maybe just the opposite. In the video he’s asking the questions that a lot of people want to know the answers to. It seems to me that he is probably making a case for God not being some bully with a burning desire to send people to hell. It’s my guess that he will explore the ideas that God doesn’t send people to hell, but rather he’s trying to save them from hell. I don’t get the sense that Bell is going to say anything crazy with this new book. He simply said some things and asked some questions to get you thinking, that’s what he is best at.

If the book comes out and I’m wrong, and he does believe everything that people are claiming. If he truly is a universalist, then I wont agree with him. At least not away. He would need some very firm Biblical reasoning behind his beliefs for me follow suit. I don’t claim to have everything figured out, but I don’t believe everyone goes to heaven.

This whole thing just seems like a needless mess to me. There is no reason that controversy should surround a book that hasn’t even come out yet. People are assuming things based off of a video and a publisher’s description, neither of which say anything remotely definite. Harsh words are being said, and it all just seems pointless and stupid to me. Just like I don’t think anyone can tear something down that they haven’t even read, I don’t feel that I should be defending something I haven’t read.

I could be wrong about my assumptions about the other people being wrong. We’ll have to wait for the book to come out to see. I just cannot understand why people would stir this up the way they did. Even if they were right, I don’t believe it was handled correctly.

If, somehow, you haven’t already heard exactly what he said, click this link. It has both the video and a transcript of exactly what he said.

Now, let’s begin discussing it. First, I think we should at least talk a little bit about the man who Pat Robertson is, so that we can better understand where he’s coming from. I’m not so much going to explain his personal history, I’m hoping that you already know at least some about him. (If you don’t, just search the web. I’m personally a big fan of wikipedia.) I’m just going to highlight a few specific things that are relevant to the situation at hand. I would like to note that I’m not personally willing to bash the man, so that is not my aim. I’m just going to discuss his beliefs.

We need to establish that he believes that disasters, whether natural or man-made, are judgments sent from God. He believed that sinful Americans were to blame for the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He believed that Hurricane Katrina was sent as a judgment on the nation’s policy on abortion. These are just a couple popular examples, I could list more, but I think you get the idea. These are the kinds of things he believes.

This is not a belief that I share. Though, I can see how people believe God might still send natural disasters as a judgment. Yes, it happened many times in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. I, however, believe that God understands people. He knows the best way to reach us, and I don’t think natural disasters are the best. (I will explain this in a later blog post.) I do admit that it’s possible for God to send judgment in this form, but I personally doubt it.

Also, in general, Robertson is a judgmental person. I don’t necessarily say this in a demeaning way, I’m just stating it as fact. He’s the type of Christian that seems to think his faith allows for him to judge other people, Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s just the way he is. He makes no apologies for this part of himself, he seems to think it’s his duty to refute homosexuality, abortion, and even feminism.

Though I can understand being against things of this sort, I personally think it’s not our job to pass judgment, definitely not to argue that natural disasters and terrorist attacks are sent from God to judge these things.

I also need to touch on his comment itself. This whole Haitian pact with the devil has never been proved to ever had truly existed. It’s really a complicated mess, but there is no evidence to support that the event ever happened. Of course, there isn’t any way to prove that it never occurred, either. But things seem to point towards it just being a rumor that was eventually just accepted as fact. I encourage you to research it and come to your own conclusion.

Here’s my conclusion. Though I totally disagree with Robertson, on just about everything, especially with his action on that day, I can almost understand where he’s coming from. If you subscribe to the theology that God still sends natural disasters as punishment as intensely as Robertson, then it’s only natural for you to come to this conclusion. In addition, if you’re as judgmental as he is, I expect you to think what he did.

But here’s the thing, it was totally uncalled for. The timing was terrible. He was being completely insensitive. I don’t care if you believe what he believes, heck, I don’t even care if what he said is true. When you’re in such a public position, you cannot say things like that.

However, what I saw the hours and days following his comments was almost exactly what I would have wanted. I saw people all over discussing it, and I liked the discussions that I was seeing take place. Christians were standing up saying that Robertson doesn’t represent them, or even the beliefs of most Christians. I even saw some non-Christians mention that they realized that this is not the type of response that they feel coming from a majority of Christians. This was good.

I have expressed how much I disagree with Robertson, but let me discuss one more thing. After he made it famous statement about the pact with the devil, he went on to say that he was hoping for good to come out of it. He said that we need to be praying. He talked about helping the Haitian people, which is exactly what we need to be doing. As Christians I believe that we need to be the first ones to spring up and show our love for them, and we also need to be the last ones still there doing just that. The fact that his heart does seem to want good for them helps in my forgiveness process of what he did. Let’s continue to follow through with what we know we’re supposed to be doing – helping the suffering people and, in doing so, showing God’s real love.

P.S. – My favorite author, Don Miller, posted a blog about Robertson’s comments and I think it captured the perfect essence of what I believe. I encourage you to read it.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a New Year’s Resolution. I personally need more than a new calendar year to motivate me to do/keep doing anything. It’s great that it works for some people, it’s just not for me. I’ve reached a new point in my life, and I think it’s about time.

First, I have a schedule for this blog now. One that I’m quite excited about. Here on this blog I shall be making one post a week. Every Monday. This way I’ll have time to proofread, re-think, and edit my posts before I publish them. Also, the content and style may be changing a little. Perhaps it wont even be noticeable, I don’t know if I should even mention it. But the kinds of topics I cover might possibly be a little different than before. Make notice, thought, the goals are the same. It’s just a little bit of a different approach. Along with editing and stuff, the voice might sound a little bit different. Only time will tell. I hope that you’ll stick with me to find out.

Something else that’s going to happen in my world of blogging is that I will be posting daily devotions on another blog. This will start this coming Monday. You have no idea how freaking pumped this make me. It’s kind of a big deal.

I’m also instituting a schedule into my personal life. I’m going to be making myself go to bed earlier, so I can get up earlier. Self control and discipline have always been an issue that I’ve struggled with. I think I’m finally getting to a point where I can get better at them. The main reason I need to change my sleeping habits is so that I can fit more excercise into my day. I’m going to be eating better and working out so I can become healthier.

Below is a video that mentions some other things that are going on in my life.

Now, I’m going to give myself some slack, especially early on in the process. Also, I’m not going to let the schedule limit me. If something comes up in the news or something, and I want to blog about it, I might not wait until Monday. If there is something major happening, I might not wait until Thursday to post a video.

I hope you’re at least a little excited about these changes. They mean some big things for me.

Grace| Peace | Love

-Josh

2009 was a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and even just to me personally.

In some ways, it was a great year. It also had it’s share of upsets. But in general, 2009 was a year of change for me. A year of transition. There were many endings, but also a large portion of beginnings.

It seems that, at this point in a person’s life, people tend to change. Not just me, but everyone around me. I’ve noticed it happening for quite some time. I remember having a conversation with a friend about this fact in June of 2008. She reminded me that it wasn’t just my friends, I had been changing too. She said that a lot of people change for the worse, and she thought I was changing for the better. But still, that’s the first time it really hit me. I’m changing.

I’ve lost a lot of friends this year. As far as I know, there have not been any nasty breakups. I don’t think I’ve gotten into any major conflicts with someone and lost their friendship that way. I don’t know of any feelings getting hurt. People have just slowly drifted apart. We’ve been changing. I don’t know how it works.

As if to combat with that, I’ve also gained a lot of new friends. I’m so ridiculously thankful for the people in my life, you couldn’t possibly understand. I’ve met some new people through some different circumstances. But whatever the origin, I now have a bunch of new people in my life. It’s wonderful. They don’t replace the people that I have lost, but they do represent something new. They represent themselves. In addition to meeting new people, I’ve also rekindled some friendships with people that I haven’t seen in a long time. In some instances, multiple years. I’m so freaking grateful.

Another major part of 2009 was the beginning of ForeignRobot. It really is a huge part of who I am today. I’ve been able to connect with hundreds of people through the magic of the internet. Whether with my YouTube channel, my Twitter updates, right here on this blog, or whatever else, I’ve met people from all over the country, as well as a few people from Canada and even Australia. I love it so much. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Over the course of this past year, I’ve had the chance to have many adventures with some fantastic people. I wont tell you all the stories right now, because I would go on forever and this blog would end up being 4,000 words long.

Some events shape who we become. I’ve had my share of those times.

I’m a big fan of this time of year. I’ve never been one to think that dates matter. I could care less that tomorrow brings a new calendar year. But I’m never against things that make people think. I’m all for something that unifies us with this excited mindset. It seems that we view the coming of the new year as a change. As humans, change often frightens us. And sometimes the new year does. But more often than that, I think we see it as something new. The coming of something new always means that there’s hope. Where there’s hope, there’s excitement. I love excitement. It leads to more adventures.

For me, I expect 2010 to be the greatest year of my life. So many exciting things are planned, those make me want to jump. In addition to those, there are many unknowns. Those make me nervous, anxious, and even more excited. It gives me hope.

There will be even more change coming this next year. I will graduate from highschool in the spring, and start a new adventure (which I will soon tell you about) in the fall. I’m looking into starting a job as soon as next week. That will be different. Some friends and I are planning a road trip to LA in July, that will be life changing. But like I said earlier, it’s the unknowns that thrill me. The adventures that randomly present themselves. I can’t wait.

It’s my plan to continue ForeignRobot for quite some time. I’m making some immediate plans to become more consistent with my posting, both here and on YouTube. I’m also talking with some people about starting to record that music I’ve been talking about for forever. I’m excited, and I hope you are as well. I love this journey. I always wonder where it will take us next.

My brother is getting married on Saturday. He’s only three years older than me, which makes me feel incredibly old. It shocks me that we’ve gotten to this point. I vividly remember being a kid. You know the part in some movies where it’s a really mellow moment, and there’s no dialogue, maybe just some music playing as stuff happens, and you’re left to think about it. That’s how I feel about life right now.

I strongly believe in moving on. It’s never a good thing to be stuck. I think it’s really important to move forward with life. But it’s also equally important to look back and remember what brought you here. This time of year represents both for me.

I like to look at where I’ve been. I’ve learned many lessons, some the hard way. I’ve changed a lot. I’ve been hurt, but I know I’ve also been the one who offended at times. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve also made some really good decisions. Some things are still a little unclear, but I trust they will be resolved sometime in the future. Some things have come to an end, I’m finally okay with that.

With endings come beginnings. The new year represents so many to me. Many new adventures are yet to come. Life isn’t always certain, in fact it rarely is. I don’t know what all is going to happen. But I am excited. I have hope that it’s going to be amazing.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

Well, back when these were all the rage, I stumbled upon The Modesty Writers Guild. It’s a blog managed by Anberlin’s Stephen Christian. It’s actually really, really good. I just wish he’s update it more often. One of the first posts I read was titled “KEIRSEY“. He was talking about this test, or quiz, you can take to really define what kind of person you are. I’ve heard that some people are asked to take it when applying for certain jobs, or even in some classes. I was a bit weary about taking it because I really wasn’t looking to find out whether I was Kermit or Gonzo (I’m really Fozzy the bear as it turns out). But I’m really glad I decided to take a few minutes and take this test. I took it a while ago, and I still sometimes go back to my results just to remind myself of who I am.

Another issue I kind of had to overcome was my own thought processes. Why would I need a quiz to tell me what kind of person I am? How could they know me better than I know myself? What could I possibly learn from this?

The truth of the matter is that it helped reaffirm what I already knew. It also helped me define some certain areas. It made me feel good about some things I’ve been self-conscience about. It helps me express who exactly it is that I am.

I encourage you to do the same. Just go HERE to take the test. Click on the button near the top right corner that says “Keirsey Temperament Sorter-II”. When you go to the next page just quickly fill in the information, and as long as you don’t check the “I would like to receive the Personality Zone Newsletter” box you wont get any unnecessary emails. Next just choose your language (I chose English), and then you’re in the quiz. Make sure to fill it out honestly. You’re the only one who will know your answers. (When you’re finished, don’t buy anything. Just click “View Report” at the bottom.)

Let me know your result! I’d really like to know what you get. Do you agree with yours? I think mine is about 98% spot on. Let’s talk about it.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

My result was Idealist:

Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self — always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are sure that friendly cooperation is the best way for people to achieve their goals. Conflict and confrontation upset them because they seem to put up angry barriers between people. Idealists dream of creating harmonious, even caring personal relations, and they have a unique talent for helping people get along with each other and work together for the good of all. Such interpersonal harmony might be a romantic ideal, but then Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the “not visible” or the “not yet” that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things.

Highly ethical in their actions, Idealists hold themselves to a strict standard of personal integrity. They must be true to themselves and to others, and they can be quite hard on themselves when they are dishonest, or when they are false or insincere. More often, however, Idealists are the very soul of kindness. Particularly in their personal relationships, Idealists are without question filled with love and good will. They believe in giving of themselves to help others; they cherish a few warm, sensitive friendships; they strive for a special rapport with their children; and in marriage they wish to find a “soulmate,” someone with whom they can bond emotionally and spiritually, sharing their deepest feelings and their complex inner worlds.

Idealists are relatively rare, making up no more than 15 to 20 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers.

Idealists at Work
Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. They are naturally drawn to working with people and are gifted with helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potential both on, and off, the job.

Conscience looms large for you; in almost any situation, you feel compelled to measure yourself, other people, and the conditions of the environment against your personal morality. You have a tendency to perceive questions of meaning in even trivial matters and to worry about far-flung consequences of your actions. In your ideal job, you are free to pursue depth rather than breadth and quality rather than quantity. You feel rewarded when your projects and daily tasks allow you to immerse yourself in your process as deeply as you “need to” in order to satisfy your inner standards of quality. You are uncomfortable with the notion of authority per se and may avoid leading, as well as being led, either consciously or unconsciously. As you experience them, adhering to fixed roles and rules amounts to an abdication of your responsibility to exercise your conscience.

It’s the Christmas season. Or maybe it’s the holiday season. Whatever. We’ve all heard people declaring “war on Christmas”, or perhaps that we need to “put Jesus back in Christmas”. The short version of this long post is this: It doesn’t matter.

Throughout my life, I’ve heard many stories about the origin of Christmas. The past few years, I’ve spent some time looking into it. To be completely honest, I have no way of knowing the absolute truth in the matter. The only way I can really research it is online, and we all know that you can’t always trust everything you read on the internet. But I can say with some certainty that the holiday we celebrate didn’t originate with a Christian theme.

First, Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th. Obviously, I wasn’t there for Jesus’ birth, but most Christian scholars, historians, and traditions all point to Him not being born in the winter. People disagree on exactly when He was born. Some say the spring, others that I’ve read think it was in between June and August, still more people believe it was in September. I always just say around July for fun. But it’s no biggie – it’s not like we have to celebrate His birth on the exact day He was born.

The holiday itself was invented by pagans. This is virtually undisputed. To make  it short and simple, it was basically a celebration of winter solstice. There were many different parties going on for different reasons during this time. One major celebration was the feast of the Son of Isis. Another was the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, which was pretty much a party because the days would start to get longer. Whatever the particular holiday one would celebrate, there was usually a lot of eating, drinking, merry making, and often even gift giving. Plus A TON of stuff Christians generally frown upon.

All of our great Christmas traditions were also from non Christ filled origins. The beginnings of the Christmas tree aren’t completely known. It is known that people would bring Evergreen trees into their homes during the winter them that their crops would begin growing again soon. It could be from the Roman feast of Saturnalia, where they honored the god Saturn by making evergreen wreathes and placing candles in live trees. It’s also possible that we get it from Scandinavian mythology in which they believed the entire universe was contained in a really big ash tree called Yggdrasil. They celebrated the winter solstice by hanging apples, nuts and little animal-shaped cakes from evergreen trees. Whatever the origin, it has nothing to do with Jesus.

Christ was never associated with a winter holiday until the year 350 when Pope Julius I declared that Jesus’ birth would be celebrated on December 25. In all reality it was very similar to our “Harvest Parties” or whatever your particular church decides to call their alternative for Halloween. It was a way to get pagans to convert to Christianity. As humans, we like to eat, party, gather together with friends and family, give and receive gifts, and just have an overall good time. If people decided to become Christians they would have to give up this feast. So it would be so much easier for them if Christians let them keep their celebration, but give it a Christian twist.

Since then Christians have found ways to make Christmas traditions fit a Christian theme. And Christmas has really developed into a holiday.

Here’s the way I see it, Christmas is a Christian holiday. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Though He wasn’t born in December 25th, I find no problem celebrating His coming into this world on that date. If you’re a Christian, then awesome! But Christmas isn’t the only winter holiday.

As I’ve spent almost this entire post explaining, Christians didn’t invent the winter holiday. We don’t hold exclusive rights to having a party during December. Heck, we’re the ones who stole December 25th. There is nothing wrong with giving people an alternative “reason for the season”, that’s what Christians invented Christmas for, but we don’t have to force every human being to celebrate out holiday ,for our reasons, our way.

Don’t give up your rights. If the government gets mad at your for doing something involving “Christmas” I give you permission to fight back. We have the same right as everyone else, we can have our celebration. Personally, I am on Christmas break. I call it the Christmas season. I say “merry Christmas”. But I’m not offended when someone doesn’t celebrate Christmas – not everyone is a Christian. Some people even call their holiday Christmas, but don’t really observe it’s true meaning. Still, this doesn’t really upset me. I am comfortable enough with my beliefs that I don’t need nonbelievers to validate my holiday.

But, really, come on. Don’t get caught up in this struggle over the season. We can have out celebration, they can have theirs. We should invite them to celebrate with us, not fight over titles. I cringe every time someone starts some campaign demanding that we put Jesus back in Christmas. He’s still in it – that is, if you put Him there.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

P.S. Don’t get upset when someone uses the term Xmas. In Greek, the letter X (chi) is the first letter of Christ and has been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the mid-16th century. It’s not some new conspiracy to kick Christ out of Christmas.

In a lot of ways, it was life changing. Some I will share with you here on this blog soon, some I’m still working with, and one I’m writing right now. Here we go.

I’m an idealist. I’ve always known this, I’ve even taken personality tests and they always come up with the same result. It’s just who I am. It has both its advantages as well as its disadvantages. I’m not going to go through all those right now, perhaps at a later date. But I would like to address one issue this causes me.

As an idealist, I deal a lot with ideas. That has a lot to do with the title. I spend a lot of time thinking, and I have a bunch of ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance to see these ideas come into practice too often.

One idea that I’ve had for a while now is that the church should be taking care of the community’s needs. It’s not a new idea. It’s not something that I’ve come up with myself. It’s thousands of years old. In fact, I stole it straight out of the Bible.

Jesus taught us to love. Part of loving would be to take action and help people. The New Testament church knew what Jesus was talking about. They had a lot going right. Distributing food, and just giving to those in need. I could go deep into the reasoning behind this, but that isn’t really the point for this post. Hopefully I’ll get back to that at some point. I simply want to say I believe that if you take the time to meet people’s needs with the love of Christ, then we are fulfilling our purpose and it is so much more likely that we can bring someone to meet Jesus.

In St. Louis, I had the opportunity to put this idea into action. That’s honestly what we were doing our entire stay. It was great.

When I am thinking about things, I always consider the variables. I could easily be wrong, but I think it’s a gift of mine. I’ve always wondered how people would respond to something like we were doing. Sometimes people are predictable, most often they aren’t.

What we found was that people were really open. Because the Dream Center was consistently proving that they cared, people came to trust them and to respect their work. When we met a physical need, they were much more willing to discuss their spiritual need. We showed that we cared, we really practiced what we believed, so we had something to stand on. We had credibility. We came with love in our hearts and food in our hands, they were willing to receive both.

I had the wonderful opportunity to lead a family in a prayer to accept Jesus into their lives. Right on their front porch so all their neighbors could see. Is there anything better? Because of the hard work of the people at the Dream Center, people are coming to Christ. There are real results. I witnessed it.

I will probably write more about this. But just think about it. If when Christians make the effort to love, to care and act to meet people’s needs, people come to know Jesus, shouldn’t we all be living like that?

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

I don’t usually like Thanksgiving. It’s always so stressful. Really any holiday or other event where the family gets together stresses me out, and I’d rather do without. Meaning, I don’t really like most holidays. So I don’t enjoy partaking in them. When people express what they’re thankful for I usually join in out of obligation, and if I’m lucky enough I sneak my way out of it.

Yes, I have changed a bit over the past year, but things in this area are still pretty similar. However, this time around I really am thankful. It honestly has nothing to do with the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve just been looking at my life, and I’ve realized that I’m really appreciative of a lot of things. So I want to quickly write a blog about that.

I don’t like saying or writing the word “blessed”. It feels so cheesy. A lot of the time when people say it I cringe and pass over that conversation. As a Christian, I feel bad writing that. But I’m just trying to be honest and transparent. Let me tell you, though, I really am blessed.

When I was a kid I would often think about things. A house to live in, heat in the winter, running water, clothes to wear, and stuff like that. Those are indeed good things to be thankful for, and it would be a shame to forget how fortunate we are. But there is so much more than that.

I am so appreciative of the people in my life.

I really mean that, I am so grateful for them. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I wouldn’t even be who I am without them. So many people have come into my life this past year. Some I’ve met in real life, some I met in real life a long time ago and just reconnected online, while others I’ve met on this wonderful thing called the internet. Whatever the case, these people mean so much to me.

As life goes on, people change. I’ve changed, my friends have changed. I’ve lost some friends, but I’ve also gained some great ones. My life has been forever changed. I love it.

These people encourage me. They challenge me. The confront me. They help me grow.

So many fantastic things are happening in my life, and a lot of it is because of them. They are my biggest blessing.

I love them.

Oh, yeah, when I say “they” or “them” I’m really referring to you.

I love you. It is the truth. Thank you for being awesome.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

First, I want to say that this is the kind of stuff that I get excited about. The church does a lot of goofy stuff. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But what we’re doing is meeting people where they’re at and giving them something they need. This I love. These kinds of things give us, as the church, the opportunity to be real. We get to show God’s love, plain and simple. No strings attached, and no gimmicks. We’re meeting a need in a community, and hopefully something spiritual will happen as well.

The second thing I want to talk about is how I got to go. Right now I don’t have job or any other consistent form of income. What I mean to say is, my wallet is flat. Trips like this cost money, luckily this one wasn’t too expensive. Still, even though the cost wasn’t high, I still couldn’t afford it. But I lucked out.

My birthday is November 24th. As it turned out, the cost for this missions trip was pretty much exactly the same as the amount of money that my parents usually spend for my birthday. Things lined up perfectly.

So, I asked for a missions trip for my birthday.

I don’t write these words to brag – there’s nothing to brag about. I’m not in any way trying to make myself sound like a better person – I’m not. I just want to let you know what I’ve learned from this.

I think that most of the time we try to think of ways that we can make a big impact, at the expense of the little impacts. If you ever get me in a conversation on the subject, I will tell you with regret that I can’t give money because I don’t have any. I will tithe whatever money I do get, but I obviously can’t give what I don’t have. The act of giving up presents this year so I can be a part of something bigger then myself should have been an easy conclusion.

I would focus on what I wish I could do, which is what I can’t do. Instead I should have been focusing on what I can do. I can do these little things.

What would I have gotten for my birthday? Probably just some money so I can save up for some stuff I need. Or maybe some clothes. I don’t even know. But I can get all those things later. This is what I should be doing now.

Like I said, I’m not rich. So I like to seize every opportunity to get stuff. I don’t think it’s necessarily greed, it’s just fact. It’s kind of a sacrifice for me to give up birthday presents. But, not only do I think it’s healthy, I think there’s something Christian about it. This is such a small sacrifice. So terribly small. I shouldn’t even worry about it. People all over are sacrificing so much more. I don’t even want to compare my sacrifice to that of Jesus.

I just want to encourage you to put some real effort into your faith. Find what you can do, and then do it. I’ve heard of people asking friends and family to donate money to charity in their name for their birthday. I never thought I’d so something similar. What can you do? What will you do?

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

I wanted to stop by really quickly and talk with you guys about a couple things.

I don’t know if you you’ve read my page titled “Who Am I?“, but in that post I quickly mention my passion for community. I feel like I’ve written about it in one of my blog posts, but I can’t seem to find it. Let me stress it here.

I believe in community with every fiber in my body. As humans, we were made for it. We need each other. We are social beings. The idea of community is so important that I don’t think I could talk about it enough. Relationships are essential for our survival.

A major part of what I hope to accomplish with this ForeignRobot project is to help build a community.

I love Twitter. You could say that I’m obsessed with it. I also love music, you could say that I’m obsessed with that as well. There is a band called MyChildren MyBride which I like to a pretty good extent, so I follow their lead singer on Twitter. Today he said something that really struck me. So, of course, I retweeted him. Below is his tweet.

“i want my lyrics to help, to inspire, and to let everyone know that theyre not alone… no matter what theyre going through”

THAT is what I’m all about. Letting people know that they’re not alone. He summed up my mission in 140 characters or less.

In addition to that, I want for people to get involved. ForeignRobot has never been about me. It’s about reaching people, as well as having them participate. I’m not going to make the bold statement and say that I want it to become a movement, but I want to point out that something can only become a movement when people back it up and participate. It means more to people when it’s something that they believe in and they make an effort to help it grow.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’ve probably read my two posts about To Write Love On Her Arms, and you would know how much I love them. That organization grew into a movement and has impacted countless lives. Today is TWLOHA Day, and I have the word “LOVE” written on my arm.

So I’m reaching out to you. If this is something you’re into, then you are encouraged to jump on in to this thing. Whatever it is that you do, do it. I have a friend named Grace who is currently working on some designs. She’s a part of this. What is it that you do? You can become a part of this. I never meant to do everything by myself. I always hoped that it could grow to the point where other people will want to join and add their talents.

Even if you think that you don’t have a particular area that you are skilled in, you are still just as a part of this as I am. Let us know who you are. Leave comments. Say something that will make people think. Join us on YouTube. Spread the word. Anything.

If you have any ideas on how you can get involved, or if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email to ForeignRobot@gmail.com If you ever have something you’d like me to blog about and give you my thoughts, just leave a comment or shoot me an email. Let’s make this thing grow. It’s all in your hands.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh