Hey Guys.
Part 1:
A lot of you know have you heard me talk about a guy named Donald Miller. Don is my favorite author and probably my favorite speaker as well. He wrote a book called Blue Like Jazz and it changed a lot of things for me. It’s a pretty special thing when one of your heroes becomes one of your friends and that’s how it’s gone for me with Don.
Anyway, Don is doing a cool thing right now. He is riding a bicycle across America. Now, you might be asking, “Why is Don riding a bicycle across America?”. Good question. He is partnering with an organization called Blood:Water Mission to help build wells in Africa, so that people there can have clean drinking water. It is something that most of us reading (and writing) this blog don’t think twice about. Clean water is just part of life. Hot when you want it hot, cold when you want it cold. Whatever whenever we want… But this isn’t realty for millions of people around the world. From Blood:Water Mission:
Did you know that millions of Africans lack access to clean water?
Did you know that people living with HIV/AIDS are dependent on clean water to survive?
Did you know that $1 provides one year of clean water for an African?
So Blood:Water Mission is trying to build 1000 wells in Africa. They’re 1/3 of the way there and they’re asking people to donate one dollar. And here’s a really cool thing, a bit of a bonus: When you click through the link below (Don’s website) and donate as little as a dollar, you get an advance download of the first chapter of Don’s new book “A Million Miles In a Thousand Days”. i read it last night and it’s great. The book is Don trying to make some sense of his story, and i think the point is that we get to try to make some sense of ours.
So GO HERE and click on the “Donate Today” icon (bottom right). Give atleast a buck, make the world a better place and then enjoy some reading. My guess is you will laugh a lot and you will do some thinking and you will enjoy it very much.
Part 2:
It crossed my mind not to post this because “What does this have to do with TWLOHA?” but here’s the conclusion i came to: This blog is about people, pain, change, good writing, and trying to make sense of our story.
Perhaps the (web) page you’re reading this on is also something like a stage. The stage exists to say that hope and help are real, to say that community is essential… The stage exists to encourage, inspire, inform, challenge, invite. We will take the stage a lot of the time. Occassionally, we will lend the stage to our friends and to things that we believe deserve your attention. Our hope is that with anything we do, with whatever’s on stage; you feel invited. You feel included. You find something. You feel something.
Jon kept going out in the crowd during Switchfoot’s set on the Up in Arms tour. (This is interesting because Jon is the singer.) He would start a song on stage and finish it in the back of the room, or up in the balcony. It was my favorite part every night. i think a lot of people felt that way. i remember one show where Jon was out in the crowd and he said we tend to get it wrong with the stage – the stage gets too much attention.
“This is where it happens”, he said, pointing to the crowd.
i hope that makes some sense. i hope this can be like that. All of us in all of this together. i have the easy job. i get to post these things. i get to try to make the sparks. But the truth is that this blog, this site, this organization… it only matters if we can find ways to make change. In my life, in your life, in the world.
Is it possible to build bridges to help? Is it possible to paint pictures of hope?
i think a lot about what we put on this stage. i wrestle with it. i don’t talk much about it but i think about it pretty much every day. That there should be more but it’s gotta be great and it’s not about me but i write most of it so there’s a ton of tension in that… It’s just gotta be great. It’s gotta move people. It’s gotta be hope.
Wow, i didn’t mean to write all that but hopefully it makes some sense. Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring.
Good night.
: )
jamie
Currently Listening:
to the song “Sleep Well” on the album “Illuminate” by the band Lydia.