pure&simple.

My trip to California was marvelous. Perfect. Wonderful. I got to see so many special friends.

beks and i on the beach in sd!

coolest bike gang in town.

amazing lattes from urth café in santa monica.

birkleigh and i, with thomas the downtown ambassador.

I made it home just in time to go to church Sunday morning. I’m glad I did. Our pastor is starting a new sermon on the beatitudes. He kept calling it the sermon on the plain, which I’m like, isn’t it the sermon on the mount? And then I remembered our freakishly smart contact in Israel who pointed out the place that many people think was where Jesus preached that sermon. I can’t quite remember, but it was something about a higher elevation but it was flat, so it could be seen as a mount or a plain. I digress.

He was talking about how the beatitudes are kingdom values. This is something that I would typically hear every day on the World Race. Kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. Beat over the head with that word. Sometimes I get confused on the meaning. It seems complicated. I loved what my pastor said on Sunday. He said, “What is the kingdom of God? It’s where He reigns. It’s where what God wants happens, and what God says goes.”

I love that simplicity. I can lose sight of that. I tend to think that ” bringing kingdom” means saving prostitutes and cradling orphans and healing blind lepers. And it does, if that’s what God wants. But I can bring kingdom through my personal journey of sanctification–my personal sacrifice and obedience. It’s kingdom every time I use my words to bless someone. It’s kingdom in a small favor I do for a stranger. It’s when I hear God’s voice and act, even if it’s not to move a mountain every single time. Kingdom is here. It’s in me. I’m still living it out; it just looks differently.