We took this photo back in San Diego.  we had a great time out there.  it seems like a long time ago now. 2 1/2 months ago.  4 or so to go.  im actually on the back half of the total deployment, and that is a great feeling.  we all look forward to the new year here.  it seems like at the new year we will be on the down hill slope.  just one month to go.  shawn counted the other day and we have 8 paychecks to go, that is a great way to count.  its funny how we try to trick our minds. i remember in bootcamp anyone could ask me the number of hours, minutes, chows, wake ups, firewatches, family days, showers there were left to go, from like the 6th week.  its funny to think it is all almost over now, ive been a Marine for 5 1/2 years, and ive only got the rest of this deployment to go.  

 

much like college i look back now and think how ive squandered so many opportunities since ive been in.  i want to use the time i have left best.  im trying to be an encourager and guide to the young guys here.

 

one of the reasons i joined the Corps was to meet people outside of my social group.  i grew up with parents who went to bars.  when we lived in florida we would all go out to the bar on a river where there would be music, and people playing pool, and fights, and chili cook-offs.  in college i got so far away from those people...people who went and floated a river with nothing but an ice chest full of bud light.  i came into a whole new social class when i came into Christianity.  it has been very difficult not to assimilate, but rather to find room for those who could not assimilate.  i see these guys here and i want them to become middle classers so that they can fit into churches.  i tell every kid here to go to college, as if that will set him onto the path that will eventually let him fit in.

 

i know there are different types of churches.  you have hippy churches honky-tonk churches, grunge churches, but it is usially some middle class white guy who is not from that culture trying to cross over into it.  i guess that is what missions is.

 

im encouraged by a fact of history.  when all the white Christians were kicked out of China during Mao’s cultural revolution the west thought Christianity would die in that nation.  40 years later when we started sneaking back in the Church had grown to something like 60 million.  it is good for me to be reminded that God’s Kingdom is not dependent on me, that Jesus was not white, He was poor, He probably smelled bad, and the religious people in power did not like Him so much.

 

that being said... most people are not Jesus and they are not going to survive as believers without community...so how do i make it easier on these guys to come to Christ, and how can my church back home make it easier on the poor, drunk, disorderly, homosexual, black, hispanic, liberal, or just plain blue-collar to feel accepted as they are?  because i have a feeling driving through the east side of McKinney and then going to church on Sunday that we are not quite there.