Better Writer Day 20~ The Well

Happy Monday, sweet friends! We had a wonderful, if not crazy weekend. I'm baking cookies like some kind of machine- I've been selling them to raise money for my trip to Africa this summer. So far I've made about 12 dozen, with almost that many more to make this week in time for Easter. I am so thankful for His provision for my trip and that I can be raising funds by doing something I love so much!

Today's Better Writer Assignment is to focus on filling up the well... reading to refresh your brain and excite your perspective'. I am usually reading two or three books at a time, so this one isn't a huge challenge for me. Right now I'm reading 'You're Already Amazing' along with the Bloom/(in)courage Book Study, 'Beginner's Guide to Spiritual Warfare', and then 'Teach Them Diligently'. I know it sounds ambitious, but I like some variety. And I don't necessarily read each one each day... just as the mood strikes.

The second part of today's challenge is to blog about a favorite book. When asked this question, I can give an answer with zero hesitation. In fact, I'm certain that I've posted about it before. The book that has most changed me, one that I have and will continue to read with regularity is Shane Claiborne's 'The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical'. I was given this book by a friend when we were living in Tennessee. In it Shane dares to ask the question 'What if Jesus meant what He said?', and at the time, that question is what my heart was begging an answer to. It still does.

I had been burned by churches. I had seen leaders and ministries fail. I had see so-called Jesus followers overlook the least of these, stepping over the beautiful sun-worn faces of the homeless to get into their flashy church buildings. If Jesus meant what He said, and I've always believed that He did, then why was I so isolated from the very ones He was calling me to love? This book rocked me to my core. Shane challenged me to run, not walk, into the arms of Jesus, which probably looked a lot more like the sweet addicted man on the corner than it did the executive.

I really think that this book was the beginning of my journey into what our church now calls being a 'fully-devoted follower' of Jesus. I couldn't ignore the things He said. I couldn't any longer pick and choose which ways of the cross I wanted to carry and which I could conveniently compartmentalize away for those 'crazy hippies'. I want to be the 'crazy hippie'!! I come back time and time again to this book because I don't ever what to forget that my roots have to be firmly grounded in the ways and words of Jesus, a homeless traveller on His way Home.

"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me." Matthew 25:32