Jesus In Disguise

I have, like many of you, been watching the drama unfold in the Gulf Coast over the last few weeks. People’s incomes, ways of life, and dreams have so far become very close to being irrevocably changed. We watch with anticipation as people prepare sand bags, lay containment booms, and pray that the oil doesn’t make it to shore. Fragile ecosystems are in danger of being destroyed, much of the States seafood population is in danger, and one thing has stood out to me during this whole experience so far.

Jesus talks in Matthew 25:40 of doing things for the “least of these.” In other words, those who for whatever reason cannot do it themselves. Whether it’s to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine, etc, we as Christians are supposed to take care of everyone. An organization that is doing an amazing job at this is Thrive Africa.

With the recent passage by Congress of a sweeping health care reform package, the blogosphere (is that still a word?) has exploded with people voicing their opinions. The “left” is overjoyed and is assuring everyone that this will solve all the problems in America’s health care system. The “right” is declaring that there will be anarchy in the streets and the Barak Obama is clearly the anti-christ. My politics on this subject, like many other political topics, is very “middle of the road”, with probably a slight “right” lean.

‘m tired. I’m tired of all the people I see hurting on a daily basis. Multiple people I spoke with today alone; this was one of the worst days of their lives. Maybe not the absolute worst, but it ranks up there pretty highly. These weren’t just “ah, I had a bad day” worst day, but more like a “someone broke into my house and stole my stuff” worst day.

If you’re not familiar with the I Am Second movement, you should definitely check it out. I love the premise of what the movement is about, and they’ve presented it in an amazing light. Recently, they sat down with both Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy, both shining examples of humility, and talked about being second.

As we come upon the end of another year, and in this case, the end of a decade, I’ve decided to skip the usual year in review and instead look ahead to next year. I’m excited for the potential of the next year for the first time in a long time, and it gave me extra incentive to write about it.

On December 21, I got to participate in a touching, yet unfortunate event. National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. A group that I work with in Toledo, 1Matters, held the event downtown at a local Episcopal Church.

I’ve had friends that have supported To Write Love on Her Arms for a while, and I just recently began supporting them by buying some gear from them. I encourage you to support them as well. It’s an amazing organization with an amazing story. You can check out the story here. And you can buy [...]

Can someone explain to me how this happens in today’s society? We’re the richest country in the world, even in the poor economy, and our solution to the problem has been “containment”!? Seriously… You can find parts 2-4 of the video on this site, and more information about homelessness here: InvisiblePeople.tv

So, why this site? Why the name “Jesus in Disguise”? What does that even mean anyway? I got the idea for the title of this site from Mother Teresa. In an interview she gave, she was quoted as saying:

The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved, they are Jesus in disguise.