Jedediah Community Project Series.

I wrote the following for a great program created by Jedediah to sponsor some amazing causes.
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What is it? Is it a constant or does it change given circumstances, needs, chemistry? I ask because “it” is what I thirst for. Because I think “it” is what brings you and I together. It allows us to push past our black and white and dwell in the beauty and tension of the gray for a higher purpose. It gives me the courage to say, “I’m right, but that doesn’t mean you are wrong. And what matters is the community created between us.” It leads us to affect positive change in a hurt world.

The satiation of my thirst is the ability of us. It’s the power in shared cause. It’s the passion of righteous movement. The truth in love.

There, begins shelter for the homeless. There, the hands of the Haves reach to the HaveNots. There, clean water flows. There we find the catalyst to move justice from a phrase of the socially minded to a reality in the moment of its need. There is Hope. There is healing.

Help me find it. Help everyone around you find it. Seek it. Find what the world needs and give. But don’t do it alone. Bring us with you. Move. Act. Go.

Dennis Ross on Active Listening

“I tell people that work with me that one of the most important skills in negotiations is active listening. I believe in not always asking questions with the purpose of getting the other side to reveal things. There is immense, untapped benefit to getting a deep understanding of what drives them and you certainly build good will with such an approach. “Why is that issue important to you. I want to understand it the way you understand it. I don’t want to have a false impression. Explain to me why that matters so much to you. Where does it come from? Why does it create an imperative?” You can’t find the underlying sources of behavior and issues unless you ask questions in this way. In my personal life, this skill has made me more interested in others and in turn made others more comfortable with me. When people see that I am curious by being an active listener, they get a message of respect from me. And of course you have the benefit of actually learning something.” Click here to read the full article.

To the Bible scholars out there...

Looking for some insight, perspective, and conversation on:

a)The story of the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark 7:24-30. More Specifically, why did Jesus refer to this woman and her daughter as dogs?

b)What are the implications of Jesus comparing himself to the serpent lifted up in the desert (John 3:14) by Moses (Numbers 21:9), when it was a symbol that Hezekiah righteously destroyed later on as an object of false worship (2 Kings 18:4) ?