galatians 5:6...

"the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

thought on the world...my world...

tonight i watched "hotel rwanda"...let me take a step back first, and start at the beginning...a month ago i switched jobs and started working at the hiv/aids initiative here at saddleback...it is an incredible opportunity for me, and i love the work i am doing...everyday i get the chance to go to work for something that really matters...i'm where i need to be...part of my job is to help saddleback members/attenders get connected with opportunities to serve the hiv/aids community...almost all of my time and energy is focused on local efforts...for us, local = us, mexico, and carribean...so far, i'm focused very locally...but there are some incredible plans for nyc, mexico, and la...its gonna be soooo fun!...lovin' it..

so this weekend i had meetings with high schools students to talk about rwanda...i'm going to be leading a trip to rwanda with 20 high school students in march...so tonight...after all the meetings, talking, and answering questions, i came home and guess what was on tv...hotel rwanda...i watched it again...its the 5th time i have watched it...i was struck again with how real it is...it tells the story of the rwandan genocide with respect and honesty...its a powerful movie about very real people, pain, and hope...if you haven't seen it yet, rent it this week...

so here's the part of this post that goes along with the title...as soon as the movie ended, i started scrolling through the channels and saw a title that peaked my interest...it was a show on tbs called "beautiful babies at 17" or something like that...i clicked on it- confused by the title- and came to see that it was a show about 17 y.o. girls that had grown up doing beauty pageants since they were little babies...it was sad...really...these girls had dedicated their entire lives to pageantry, physical beauty, and superficiality...for 17 years it was all they had known...

i thought to myself, this is the u.s...beauty pageants, superficial smiles, glitz and glamour...but empty...rwanda was so much more an attractive picture to me in that moment...even in the midst of poverty, pain, and political unrest, it looked so much better...i started to get really self-righteous about this, and then i realized i was part of the problem...i was sitting in my super comfortable living room on my big leather chair, watching my 55 inch big screen hdtv, eating some delicious home cooked food...none of that is bad at all...but i realized in that moment that i hadn't taken any time during the day to stop and thank god for those blessings and soooo many more that i had experienced today...i had taken all of the comforts and pleasures in my life for granted today...people in rwanda (and zimbabwe...and the sudan...and kenya...and romania...and nyc...and la...and parts of the oc) are struggling to survive...and today i did not...and i need to thank god for that today

i'm going to rwanda in march...with 20 high school students...and i can't wait...

till later...