So this guy comes up to me and says, “What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”
I open up my mouth and the words come out like this…

The vision?
The vision is Jesus:
obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is of an army of young people.
You see bones?
I see an army.

And they are free from materialism—
They laugh at nine-to-five little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the West was won.

They are mobile like the wind.
They belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting, dirty and dying.

What is the vision?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimal integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, from every conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps—their Satan games.

This is an army that would lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day, its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great “well done” of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.

They don’t need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”
And this is the sound of the underground, the whisper of history in the making, foundations shaking, revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers, conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground.

And the army is disciple(in)ed—
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulfuric tears and great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting.
Watching.
24-7-365.

Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules,
Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide,
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs,
Laughing at labels,
Fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late-night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive on the inside.
On the outside?
They hardly care!
They wear clothes like costumes: to communicate and celebrate, but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their lives, swap seats with the man on death row, guilty as hell: a throne of an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as though it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses Jesus.
He breathes out.
They breathe in.
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping malls.
Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdoes!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes!
They walk tall and trees applaud.
Skyscrapers bow.
Mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.

Their prayers summon the Hound of Heaven and evoke the dream of Eden.

And, this vision will be.
It will come to pass.
It will come easily.
It will come soon.

How do I know?
Because, this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the spirit, the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And, my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking, great “AMEN!” from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ himself.

And He is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.

If you still reading

I hope this poem rocked your world like it has mine

disrupting & disturbing

Ben,

When i first read that i was like WHOA!

acknowledgement of divine favor or kindness. I mean ever since i was a kid and was asked to say what i was thankful for all i said was like family and food, and a house and the typical american brain washed church kid stuff.

But i don’t know if i’ve ever taken time to really think about the divine favor i’ve been shown.

From the food i will eat in a bit. To the house im in. To the gifts i’ll get in a month. The oxygen that i breath. The family i have.

So i challenge you not just to think cheesy today

but really think about and acknowledge the unmeasurable undeserved favor you have been shown.

disrupting and disturbing

Ben,

The hot central american sun beats down on them 
day after day

and they greet it with a smile

All around them the earth and sky collide

Their backyard of beauty amongst the horid reality of their society

They’ve been forgotten, neglected, broken, rejected,

But today they find hope in a farm

The Farming School of Hope

From deep within the mountains of Nicaragua the hearts of revolutionaries beat

these selfless men have taught me what it means to live

their dedication, valor, honor, and courage has humbled me

They are a Cadre of Broken People who are changing their world

They are The Men Who Live On The Edge Of the Visible World

These brave men have taught me so much about life

Although the time we spent together was brief

a drop of water in the bucket of life

their drop of water has created a ripple in my life

Although you may never read these words

I will write them anyways

to tell others YOUR story

the story of the Men Who Live On The Edge Of The Visible World

Ur lives a broken ballad of hurt and despair

but your faces shine like a thousand stars

you my friends have taught me how to love

how to care

how to serve

Every day i think of you and am challenged to be a better man

To make a difference

And I pray that someday our paths collide again

Telling YOUR story

Ben,

i don’t know about you

but for me summer is definitely my favorite part of the year

i love the sunshine i also love not being in school

this summer i’ve made a montra

“Disturb and Disrupt”

ur probably thinking what??

my goal this summer is to disturb and disrupt the monotonous lifestyle that i live.

It seems all to the same

nothing different.. same ppl.. same camp.. same God.. same service.. same church.. same songs.. same prayers.. same results..

I think its time for something new!

“A christians worst fear shouldn’t be failing, it should be that they would succeed at something thats not worth it”-Francis Chan

I wanna life a life that is distrubed and disrupted

i hope u will join me this summer on this crazy journey called Summer 2010

living the love

Ben,

one that changed all of our lives

one that would challenge us to be better people. to live lives worth living

Our journey led us to Nicaragua the second poorest country in the western hemisphere

We left with high hopes and huge dreams

We wanted to change the world

and we did

we changes the lives of so many in such a short time

we were Compelled by Compassion

We worked with an amazing family of missionaries, Ken and Kendra Doutt are two incredible people with ginormous hearts for people

they and their three beautiful kids live in Nicaragua they are spending their lives making a difference one child at a time

My kids at the camp

We spent time in a small mountain village called Rancho Grande it took us a day and a half on a bus to travel to this remote village. These people don’t see a lot of gringos (north americans).  We worked in a feeding center there with kids who were dying of malnourishment. We also did a summer camp for those kids during the day

It was an incredible experience. These kids who had so little were so happy. Small words in my broken spanish were life altering for these kids

I simply told them muy bien after looking at their picture that they had colored and their eyes lit up. These kids don’t get to see affection. they don’t get to see love

for some of the girls I was the first male figure in their life who hadn’t been there for the wrong reasons.

We also worked with some boys at the Farming School of Hope a local school teaching the boys the trade of farming so they can make a living

these boys were so selfless and they worked extremely hard. They were learning all about God and his word

on the last night we were there we gave the boys a new testament bible

the boy I gave mine too gave me a giant hug and said thank you

I couldn’t keep the tears from falling

I probably have 5 bibles and this boy doesn’t even have a single one

and I watched as he opened the book like a girl reading the newest twilight book

He studied the pages it was incredible to see the glow in his eyes

we also worked in the dumps of Managua these kids live in the trash and fight for plastic to turn in for only a few cents

these kids walk around on burning piles of trash without shoes

theyre water is a river of raw sewage

But we got to bring hope to these hopeless kids

we fed them and I got to teach on how God was gonna give them big muscles

It was an extremely humbeling experience

to bring life to these broken kids

These kids were getting theyre only meal that day it was a life changing experience

one that i will never forget

I challenge you to join with us and be compelled by compassion

Join the effort to help the hurting and broken people of nicuragua by partnering with Ken and Kendra doutt

You can give a one time donation here

You can find out more about the Doutt family and their ministries at CompelledbyCompassion.com

Join us in this effort to change the ragamuffin nation of Nicaragua one life at a time

these are only a few of many stories iam sure i will post many more

compelled by compassion

Ben,

i pulled it out hoocked it up and started to play.

After failing 3 straight songs i realized why i stoped playing it!

So then i played rockband

i did almost perfect on all of my songs!

which brings me to this conclusion

there’s things in our lives that we enjoy for a moment but in 5 yrs won’t matter at all

DDR don’t matter to me anymore

lets focus on what matters and what will last!

Whats ur fav rockband or Dance Dance Revolution??

rockin the rockband

Ben,

Today i was reading some E.M. Bounds and  a few quotes really stood out to me

Prayer is melody and inspiration from heaven

Prayer is a privilage, sacred, princely privilage. Prayer is a duty, an obligation most binding & most imperative

These are just a few of the quotes that permeated my cerebral cortex today as i read

I think that in the christian world prayer has become just another form of dead obligatory tradition

just another piece to the dull ceremony that we call religion

Instead of communication with our eternal father

Prayer is vital. Prayer is the lifeblood of christianity

Without prayer we can’t survive

just as in marrige a couple cann’t survive without communication

I think we need to rethink how we pray

often its just our list of junk

we do all the talking we tell God all our problems instead of shutting up and just listening to the heart of the father

so today spend some time simply listening to his voice

Living inspirted by HIS melody
Ben,

What are the mountains in your life that need to move??

Believing for the undiscovered
Ben,