Wallis

[wfucourt]

So I never wrote about how the event went with Jim Wallis... tomorrow it will be exactly one month ago.  In a word, it was amazing.  I couldn't even write about it at first because I was so overwhelmed by the night... but I'm realizing that even a month later, it's not easy to put into words.  First of all, if we're trying to quantify, we had over 600 people come.  I said all along that I would be thrilled with 400... so yeah, I was happy about that.  :-)  But even more than that, there were people there that night (myself included) whose lives were truly touched and changed.  There was a tangible energy, and I think we all quickly realized it wasn't just a "speech" or an "event" anymore.  God was there, and He was moving. 
I got the thrill of a lifetime earlier that night when Steve Crawford, Doug Roland, and I got to take Jim to dinner.  We had such a great time sharing stories and insights on life, culture, politics, religion, Christian spirituality, etc etc etc.  He is just so PASSIONATE about his commitment to God, and then because of that, social justice.  I think I can read people pretty well, and y'all, he is the Real Deal.  While we were at dinner, he told me about a conference his organization Call to Renewal was hosting with Bread for the World and told me that I just had to come up for it.  Well, was I really going to say no?  Of course not.  :-)
So last week, Amy and I packed our bags and headed to DC for the One Table, Many Voices conference.  We went to workshops, heard speakers, worshipped, and met new friends... and all the while I was scribblings notes and quotes, and picking up literature. 
Again, I'm having a hard time processing everything... maybe because I know that God has put all of this on my heart for a reason... and I'm scared to actually question what that reason might be and act on it.  So hopefully I'll have more on that at some point.  In the meantime, here are some of the Big Things that I took away from my time in DC...

• "We are not called to judge who comes to the table, we are called to suspend our judgment" - Father Joe Muth
• "We are not here about charity, we are here about justice                                         We are not here about random acts of kindness, we are here about respect               We are not here to be a voice for someone else, we are here to be intentional in listening to the voices of others." - Father Joe Muth
• "The problems of the world are not too big to take on, they are too big to miss." - Father Joe Muth
• "Jesus's mission statement was, 'preach good news to the poor.'  If our Gospel does not bring good news to the poor, it is quite simply not the Gospel of Jesus Christ."- Jim Wallis
  
• "Proverbs 29 says, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' We have a terrific vision, but without the people, the vision disappears." - John Carr
• "Hope means believing in spite of the evidence... and then watching the evidence change" - Jim Wallis
• "Fairness in the secular world is very different from the Biblical perspective of fair" - Yonce Shelton
• "Justice provides a place at the table; charity provides the crumbs from the table" - Bill Moyers, as quoted by a woman in one of my workshops
• "Living in a country where we have a voice is a gift.  We must be good stewards of that gift and participate."
• "We have finite disappointment, but infinite hope" - MLK, Jr, as quoted by Mary Nelson.
• "Are you motivated by guilt or are you motivated by Jesus?" - Aaron Graham