I did something two days ago I never thought I’d do. I prayed for Osama bin Laden.

It happened while I was out on a run. I was thinking about how US forces have been unable to capture Bin Laden. And I wondered if it isn’t a testimony to Bin Laden’s hiding skills or the talent of our soldiers but that God, for some reason, doesn’t want him to be found yet.

Bin Laden has been the instigator for terrible things. And a part of me would just like to see him dead. But then I thought about Saul (who later became Paul). He murdered people for a living. After standing in approval of Stephen’s death, “Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3). As the apostles and believers continued in their work, Saul’s rampage also continued. “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1).

A realization grabbed my heart. Saul was the 1st century church’s Osama bin Laden. But Saul was rescued from his life of hatred and murder. And I don’t see why Bin Laden couldn’t be either.

It is often the extreme cases that teach us what we really believe about something. In principle, a man can be against adultery. But when a beautiful woman tries to seduce him, what does he REALLY believe? How will he choose?

We can say that God is capable of touching anyone – that He can save anyone from their sin. But do we believe it? Even for Osama bin Laden? Did Jesus die for Osama bin Laden? Does forgiveness have any bounds? Does it transcend nationalism? It does. It would be to God’s glory to rescue Osama from the sin he’s been living in. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have to answer for his sins to an international court. But that courtroom is but a child’s playground compared to the eternal judgment of God. May Jesus somehow speak to Bin Laden the same way He did to Paul!

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting…I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.” (Acts 26:14,16).

Today, I prayed for Osama bin Laden.

At about 5am this morning in Haiti it rained. My friend, Holly Frew, is on the ground there and tweeted this:

Last night when it was raining I could hear children crying & people chanting “I may be afraid but I have Jesus”. Heart-wrenching.

Here’s the reality. At least 700,000 people in Haiti are without homes. Rene Preval, Haiti’s president, called for 200,000 8-person tents to be made available by the international community. That hasn’t happened so far. Holly has reported that she’s been witnessing protests on the ground of the Haitian people crying out for tents. This photo she took is among the most poignant I’ve seen. Notice the sign. Notice also the great coincidence/irony of the guy’s shirt – Uncle Sam saying, “I Want You.”

We’ve asked the question: what can I do to help the people of Haiti? Many of us gave donations right away. There’s another movement that has captured my heart.

Atlanta pastor, Shaun King, has been coordinating Haiti assistance through Twitter since the earthquake happened. Two of my friends (Jeremy Cowart and Holly Frew) have worked directly with Shaun in going to Haiti and assisting on the ground. In short, he is the real deal.

He’s started a movement called A Home In Haiti. In short, you buy a tent and have it shipped to his church’s Atlanta offices. They have arranged to have the tents shipped to and distributed in Haiti.

Why Is This So Important?
Besides the fact that many families are sleeping under makeshift tents of bed sheets and sticks, the rainy season is coming. Haiti has two rainy seasons and the first one begins right around this time of year.

I did some research this morning. Seattle just had its rainiest three months. That data, from the National Weather Service, is listed (averages from 1971-present). This first rainy season for Haiti (March, April, May) is also listed. There’s more rain in Haiti! Almost twice as much by May!

Imagine you and your family (pretend you have a family if you don’t) living under downpours you can’t take shelter from. Would you want someone a couple thousand miles away to have bought you a tent? If regular people like you and me don’t do something, there will be too many tragic stories. This chart I made shows the rain is on the way.

WHAT TO DO
First, if you’re a blogger, I don’t want you to retweet this blog post. I want you to write your own post. I’ll explain.

This morning, Shaun posted stats about the campaign.

We have had 25,589 hits @ http://aHomeInHaiti.org & over 4,000 tweets, but only 28 tents have been purchased & $220 raised.

That means about 1 in 1000 people who visited the site bought a tent.

In my opinion, the problem is that the appeal isn’t personal enough. You can dare someone to buy a tent, but it needs to be very personal for most people (including me).

Here’s my appeal:

I bought a tent this morning. It cost me $225.

I don’t say this to brag. I want you to know I took action. I’m asking you to buy one also. If you’re like me, there’s a voice somewhere in your heart that just said, “I don’t know. That’s a lot of money.” You have this heavy kind of skeptical feeling. I had it, too. But I bought a tent because I know that Shaun has secured transportation TO Haiti and distribution ON THE GROUND in Haiti. They just need lots of regular people like you and me to buy tents!

Since this morning, more people are participating. All of this is very legit! The current stats:

If you decide to buy a tent and you’re a blogger, I ask you to write a post similar to this one and appeal to YOUR blog readers to buy a tent. I don’t want this retweeted because they know YOU and not me. It means more if you buy a tent, tell them, and ask them to do the same. If you DON’T have a blog, feel free to retweet this and tell people you support the cause.

Don’t go into debt to buy a tent. Money, for me, isn’t something I can spend at will. Times are kind of tight. But trust the Lord will provide for your needs as you provide a roof over the heads of people who have only the sky as their current ceiling – a roof that will soon drop rain in significant downpours. Talk to God and tell Him you trust Him to replace the money you’re spending on this.

I haven’t written on this blog for some time and just wanted to say that, regardless of whether or not you can afford a tent, I love all of you reading this!

Give a Haitian family back some hope. The total goal is 200,000 tents. But really, it’s one tent. From you and from me. We couldn’t stop the earthquake, but we can stop more heartache. Get into this action, bros and sisters!

Click here to buy a tent.

Tags: ahomeinhaiti, earthquake, Haiti, home, homes, king, shaun, tents

Counting calories is a bunch of crap. Some might say it’s for the birds. But birds can’t count. That I know of.

Not Just At Starbucks
I found that once I turned 25, my weight was something I had to manage. Up until that point, I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted in whatever quantity I desired and I’d always weigh about 175. It’s different now. I still eat whatever I want, but I have to work to keep my weight in the “normal” range. I’m a Taco Bell fiend and my Taco Bell obsession is costly – in time and sweat. Every week, I have to run miles and miles to ensure my stomach doesn’t take the shape of a Mexican Pizza. If you ever see me running through Nashville, it’s not because I like it. It’s because the Nachos Bell Grande has 1,300 calories in it. Grande calories = grande miles.

Nice Try, Buddy!
I decided to start tweeting about every trip I make to Taco Bell in an effort to shame myself into quitting. So far it hasn’t worked. In fact, other people, after reading my tweets, have been seduced into a 4th Meal and making a run for the border. They then post tweets blaming me for derailing their healthy eating habits.

I should protest Taco Bell. They have some of the worst commercials known to man. They use grade-D meat in their “food” (that’s made-up – don’t quote me on that). I think Fancy Feast cat food has higher quality meat (that’s also a lie). Point is, my poor eating decisions are starting to eat away at ME. I have this nagging feeling inside me that I need to stop. Although, that feeling could be the jalepeno sauce on the chicken quesadilla. I can’t be sure.

A number of times in the past month, I’ve said, “Ok, this is my last trip to Taco Bell. I’m starting my new workout program tomorrow.” How many diets never see “tomorrow?” The cycle must be broken. I’m breaking it. I’m done with Taco Bell.

I’m writing this tonight to my friends that I’ve unduly influenced with my Taco Bell habits. My ways are changing. I’ll be eating cauliflower, broccoli, and red peppers from now on. Follow my example!

But just real quick, I need to make a run to Taco Bell. My diet starts tomorrow.

On Saturday, I found out about a situation that unfolded a while back where a well-known 60-something pastor was put on blast by a guy in his 30s. The 30-something sarcastically dressed down this pastor (and several other pastors) with biting language bordering on viciousness. You may know the situation I speak of, but there’s no need to name names in the comments. It’s not important who the parties were.

What I’m concerned with is my OWN heart – and YOUR heart. Believe it or not, my heart has never really felt at home in church. Since I heard about Him, I’ve always connected with Jesus, but often not church. Many of us had or currently have issues with the church.

As I wrote the 30-something guy a letter (which I never sent), it occurred to me the letter could easily be addressed to me. I’m not often angry, but am disillusioned frequently. Instead of post the letter, I re-purposed it from the point-of-view of the 60-something pastor and how HE might respond to 20- and 30-somethings frustrated with church. These are the words and thoughts I attempted to teach myself tonight.

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I’m a 65-year old pastor. I’ve been serving Jesus Christ for 40 years – longer than most of you reading this have been alive. I’ve long been perplexed with how frustrated you are with me and my generation for “messing up the Church.” My sons and daughters, are you so sure you know how things ought to be run? Do you know why your soul is so thirsty? I will freely admit to you that I’ve been largely clueless about how to run my church. I’ve listened for God’s voice to the best of my ability with other people in this congregation. But imperfection has been my constant companion since the day I first arrived here. I haven’t done everything right. But I’ve done everything the best way I knew.

Like Joshua, I too will soon go the way of all the earth. My lungs will breathe no more and you will inherit the church which was, for a season, entrusted to me. My children, you will see that flock work is work indeed. The babies you today kiss on the forehead will tomorrow call you a hippie, send you angry emails, and leave your church in frustration. It will happen many times and break your heart at every occurrence.

In all your current anger, you imagine yourselves the clearinghouse of truth. It is not so. Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you’re right. When you imagine you’re “exposing” the hypocrisy of the church, you expose more about the bitterness in your own heart. When you imagine you’re creating a movement of other like-minded people, you’re really just rallying more and more to divisiveness and discord. Your life is not characterized by peace, but war.

Perhaps I have messed up, my children, and led this church poorly. Perhaps I really am the cause of these problems. And, if so, perhaps it is for this reason: that you might know the truth. Your hearts are not clean. My messed up life may have existed to make you this way – that you might see your heart and be so dismayed with its helplessness that you’re forced to talk with God Himself, to inquire why such a depth of negative emotion exists in you for mistaken infractions that were not intended for your harm.

If the measure of your emotion is so great that you can’t explain it, perhaps there are other flammables that are blazing hot in the hidden corners of your heart – problems for which I am not responsible but problems that increase your anger toward me. Pursue the reasons for your discontent because that will lead you to the reason church exists. The firefighter of your heart is Jesus Himself – not cooler leaders, not new worship music, not different preaching, not better programs. You will never assuage the anger in your heart with written or verbal abuse.

Sons and daughters, I assure you it is not an enjoyable life to suck on lemons every day. Your protesting heart is not against me. It is against anything that keeps you from God. I do not believe you could name a punishment for me to endure that would atone for your frustrations. The problem is bigger than me. But in whatever ways I’ve kept you from Him, I sincerely apologize. It has been unintentional. Remember, I am only a man. God will cover my mistakes. Do not allow your previous energy spent in anger toward me to prolong your absence from Him. Ask God to make clear the path forward and restore your heart that you may be bitter no longer. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Someday, perhaps you will be the 65-year old writing letters to young adults. Have something powerful to tell them about our God. I entrust you to Him.