Live Sent: Moved To Action

Contemplation
For those new to the blog, I’ve been reading Jason Dukes’ new book, Live Sent. As I’ve been reading, I’ve been posting some of my reflections. One of those reflections was partially in response to a FB event to picket the Rick Perry prayer rally happening on August 6th. With this particular post being so controversial in nature, it drew some comments from the person organizing the picket. As I typed out my response to the first comments, I kept feeling like words weren’t enough.

Conviction
I was really convicted to actually DO something to demonstrate the difference between authentic Christians and those who merely try to push conservative agendas and behaviors on other people. I can’t remember where I posted it before, but I came to realize that if laypeople and local pastors were really in the trenches loving people, then the voices of people like Bryan Fischer, calling gays Nazis, would carry no weight because they would see the difference between Christians and those who are only socially and morally conservative. As it is though, they don’t see us loving people overall. They see us separated from them, separated and silent. So, the voice of those with bigger platforms seem to speak for all of us, driving the wedge between Christians and the lost even further.

Conviction Leads to Action
So, on August 6th, I feel pressed to get people together and get some bottled water and pass it out to those protesting the event (because it’s probably easiest, and meets a real need with the heat being in the triple digits), or something else to signify the difference between the body of Christ and the ignorant, intolerant, and oppressive.

Obviously, I run into several obstacles:
1) It’s this weekend, so time is a factor.
2) I’m unemployed, so finances are limited.

Then as I’m eating at Pei Wei today (yes, I get the irony about limited finances), my fortune cookie says “The simplest answer is to act”. Hey, God can speak through fortune cookies too! So, I’m currently working out ways to get around those obstacles.

Act With Me
In order to pull this off, here’s where I need help:
1) People to do this with me — I’ll also get run over if I try to converse and interact with 100+ people by myself.
2) People to help buy water. I’m trying to find out an exact number of people going to the event, but there are about 100 people as Yes/Maybe on the FB event page. I’d plan for more to be on the safe side. Ideally, 1000 bottles of water to last from 10am-5pm. If we have any left over, we can give that to the church for later use.
3) Lots of prayer. This is MUCH bigger than I am, and I’m already freaking out.
4) If you’re going to help in any capacity, please COMMIT by Wednesday. The easiest way to do this is to sign up on the Facebook Event page.

Also, despite my earlier understanding, the protest is in DALLAS, not Houston. Right in front of City Hall. So, this puts it right in our front yard.

August 6th.
9am-6pm.
Let’s do this.