Jon Acuff's Blog, page 168

What just happened?

"Stuff Christians Like isn't even an original idea."

"You can't have a real community online."

"Strangers will never get together and actually change the world from just a satire site."

"Who are you to think you can change the world?"

"In the immortal words of social scientist, Miss Ferg A Licious, 'Blogs are so 2000 and late.'"

We've all heard doubt like that, it's common. So did we meet our goal of $10,000?

What just happened?

Stuff Christians Like readers raised $32,250  in 24 hours.

Stuff Christians Like readers saved 3,225 lives in Central Uganda.

Stuff Christians Like readers went on a fast, crazy, God-sized adventure.

We hit our initial goal of $10,000 in 2.5 hours. For the first four hours we had at least one donation every minute.

So what now? Now we distribute the nets. You'll get GPS coordinates as the project unfolds so that you can actually know exactly where your nets went. We also might take a trip of readers over there to hand them out.

God is good. God is wild about us and I think on mornings like this he sings. Not at the work we do for him but at the worship we offer.

Thank you for making a blog more than a blog. Thank you for reminding the world that strangers can be friends. Thank you for saving lives in a country most of us will never even visit.

And most importantly, thanks for being part of something that shines the glory back on God in big, unexplainable ways.

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What did you do today?

Today, when you go home, today when you talk with your kids or neighbors or friends and relatives and they ask you what you did, you'll be able to tell them something surprising,

"Today, I saved a life."

For the next 18 hours or so we've all got the chance to legitimately save someone's life. We have the opportunity to save someone's life, for $10 with a mosquito net in Central Uganda. For less than the price of a Lionel Ritchie greatest hits CD you can save someone's life. (I felt like the "for the cost of a cup of coffee" angle was a little tired.) It's that easy. It's that simple.

For $10 you can save a life today.

You can add "lifesaver" to your business card. You can add "saving lives" to your resume. You can also probably listen to most of those Lionel Ritchie songs on Youtube for free anyway.

Click here to donate.

Click here to learn more about what we're doing.

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What if?

Last year, I told some of you about a conversation that wrecked me.

While looking at a book about weather with my 6 year old daughter, L.E., we came across a photo of a starving child. L.E. asked me, "What's that?"

I told her, "That's a little boy who doesn't have enough food to eat." She thought for a few seconds and then responded, "That's not real though. That's pretend, right?"

You see kids don't come onto the planet understanding that other kids just like them starve to death. They can't compute that as children, but they learn it happens as teenagers and they learn to ignore it as adults. But L.E. was still too young to accept that. And in her simple question of "That's pretend, right?" I heard a challenge.

You're not OK with that dad, are you? You're doing something, right dad? Do other people know about this dad? Do other people know the L.E. in Thailand is being sold into the slavery? The L.E. in Oklahoma is scared. The L.E. in Africa is dying of preventable diseases?

You're doing something, right dad?

The truth is, I wasn't. I was using the Stuff Christians Like platform for my own ego and my own affirmation. But I couldn't ignore my daughter's questions. So you and I partnered together and raised money to build two kindergartens in Vietnam last November.

And today, we're going to dent the universe again and give all the glory to God in the process.

For the next 24 hours, we're going to save 1,000 lives in the Nakaseke District, of Uganda with SafeWorld. How? With a malaria net. That costs $10. It's that simple. 1 net, costs $10, and will save at least 1 life. More than a million people die each year from malaria and the majority of them are under the age of 5. They are someone else's L.E.

100% of the money goes to buying the nets and distributing them. And you'll be sent the GPS coordinates of where your exact net goes and be able to Google Earth the location of the person who's life you saved.

Can a blog really save 1,000 lives in 24 hours?

Can it really be that simple?

I think it can and my hope is that we'll crush the $10,000 goal that 1,000 lives represents. If we do, we'll keep going and raising money and saving lives, until Saturday, October 16, at 9AM eastern. When you go to the giving page, Pick "SCL10K" from the drop down.

When you donate, you're saving a life so let's comment, "Today I saved ## lives." I'll go first. Today I saved 20 lives.

Click here to donate .

Want to help spread the word?

Tweet this or put it up on facebook please. (The hashtag on Twitter is #SCL10K

"Can a blog save 1,000 lives today? Find out with #SCL10K http://bit.ly/cZSXiq"

And check back throughout the day. This graphic will show the running total.

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FAQs about SCL10

FAQs about SCL10

Why did you partner with SafeWorld?

I'm friends with the founder Matt Chambers. He's taken several people from the Dave Ramsey team to Haiti over the last few months. I know his heart and know he is on the up and up with how his ministry functions.

What happens to the money I donate?

100% of it goes to buying the nets and distributing them. None of this money will be applied to things like staff salaries or administration costs.

Where is the Nakaseke District?

It's located in Central Uganda. There are 48 villages, 178,000 people, only 1 public hospital and 1 doctor for every 26,000 people (compared to 1+ per 500 people in the United States). 0% of the area is malaria free and local doctors believe children will contract malaria between 6-8 times a year.

How will we know when we've hit $10,000?

The graphic on this post will update throughout the day.

What happens if we hit $10,000 before the 24 hour project is over?

We'll keep raising money and saving lives until the end of the project.

How can you say a net saves a life?

The nets are chemically coated against mosquitoes. Technically speaking, a single net saves more than one life since it provides malaria protection to entire families, not just one person. I feel like sometimes charities are tempted to exaggerate so I rounded down and just said "1 net = 1 life."

What if I can't financially support you, how could I help?

I completely understand, this is a difficult time to financially give for a lot of people. The best way to help is to pray for the people of Central Uganda and spread the word about the project today. Please tweet or put on facebook this: "Can a blog save 1,000 lives today? Find out with #SCL10K

When does the SCL10 project end?

Saturday, October 16, 9AM Eastern.

What's the latest on the Vietnam Kindergartens we built?

Construction is still going on and should be finished in January. It's a complicated process because Vietnam is still a "closed country" and working there as a Christian organization is difficult.

And if you have any other questions, please drop me a comment. I want this project to be completely transparent.

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Chilean Miner Sermon Illustrations.

I have two predictions I need to make.

1. Tomorrow, we're going to launch a 24 hour "what if" project at 9AM Eastern that aims to dent the universe and save lives. It will be fun and fast and shine big glory on a big God.

2. This Sunday, your pastor will use a Chilean miner sermon illustration.

Next week when both of these have come to pass, you will email me and ask, "How do you do it?" I will respond, "It's just what I do. The club can't even handle me right now!" And we will laugh, oh we will laugh.

But predicting that pastors will dig the Chilean miner rescue story is too easy. Anyone can predict that. I'll actually tell you the four types of Chilean miner sermon you can expect:

1. Redemption

This one practically writes itself. The most obvious sermon illustration is the concept of redemption, of being pulled from the dark of a collapsed mine into the light of a brand new day. I would preach on Psalm 103:4, about a God "who redeems your life from the pit."

2. Secrets

One of the crazy parts of this story is that both wives and mistresses got involved in the rescue vigil. Wives showed up at the scene only to discover for the first time, that their husbands had been having affairs. Imagine concealing an affair, deleting texts and hiding phone calls for years, only to be exposed by a collapsed mine? There's not a guy on the planet that saw that one coming. I would preach on Luke 12, "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."

3. Danger

It's fun to think that now that the miners have been rescued they've reached safety, but in some ways they've just entered into a different kind of danger – fame. Book deals are in place. Movies are coming. There's a reality show in the works. (Please tell me it will be called "Mining with the Stars" and they'll put G-Level stars in mines and then rescue them week by week.) There have already been reports about the families fighting over the new wealth and attention. You could easily preach on the dangers of the world.

4. Community

Trying to raise some money for a new capital campaign at church? Running into some struggles getting people to buy into the teamwork needed to complete a big project? Two words, "Chilean Miners." You can't help but be inspired by how the government of Chile, the miners and everyone involved pulled together. It was unreal. And it might just be the nudge you need to finish your church project.

Those are the four sermons you might see this weekend.

I'll see you on Monday and you can tell me if I was wrong.

But remember, I called Michael Phelps. And after a recent shout out from Pastor Mark Driscoll, I'm feeling like, well, quite frankly, all I do is win.

Think we'll hear about Chilean miners at church?

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Three more words.

The other day, I realized something surprising about myself. Driving home from work, a single, captivating thought blossomed in my mind like an unexpected flower.

I would go to a Travis Tritt concert.

I wasn't thinking about Travis Tritt at the time. The song, "Here's a quarter, call someone who cares," wasn't on. I wasn't even listening to Third Day, who's singer I used to think was Travis Tritt after some sort of miraculous country music style conversion inevitably involving a slide guitar.

I think I was pondering the wonders of Travis Tritt last week because I was nervous about going to the Catalyst Conference. If you've never been, Catalyst is like if a U2 concert and the Super Bowl had a baby and dedicated it to the service of the Lord. It's huge, but at the same time, surprisingly intimate. The worship is amazing, the speakers are great, the whole thing is unbelievable.

And I was speaking.

Two years ago, I held a meet and greet for fans of Stuff Christians Like. I honestly thought that around 100 people would show up to hang out. I brought pounds of Skittles and 1,000 stickers. And after waiting in the room for 90 minutes, only 1 person came. (This is a photo of that moment.)[image error]

As I prepared for Catalyst this year, I was afraid of something similar happening. I knew more than 1 person would show up to the lab I was leading on Wednesday, but other than that I didn't know what to expect.

So it was with a great degree of sweatiness that I stood by the door waiting for my lab or breakout to start.

What happened? How did it go? How was it?

We hit fire code.

Within a matter of minutes there was standing room only. We exceeded fire code for the room and then had to bar the doors. Dozens of people got turned away. If one person left for the bathroom, one more person could come in. It was crazy, and that was only the beginning.

Catalyst sold out of the Stuff Christians Like book.

Random people went out of their way to be kind to me. Pastor Andy Stanley told me his kids bought the book with their own money. Perry Noble told me how true Stuff Christians Like was. Out of nowhere, one of the best selling Christian authors of all time emailed me to ask I had someone to write the foreword for my next book.

Wave after wave of good things hit me. I was feeling overwhelmed in a good way as I stood in the dark tunnel that led out to the stadium. The move to Nashville two months ago. The site having over 160,000 readers in September alone. Writing two books. There were so many big, bright, honestly very good things going on and in that moment I heard a whisper.

I always feel kind of like a snake handler when I talk about feeling as if God speaks into my heart, but there it is. In the loudness of that day, like a firecracker going off under water, muffled by the noise of the moment, I felt like God jumped in. And he told me,

"This is small.

This is small.

This is small, compared to my love. The happiness of today, the wildness, the unfettered shine of it all is beautiful, but it is small. My love for who you are, who I made you to be, who I will reveal you to be, that is so much bigger than all of this. I am bigger. I am biggest! Nothing will compare to my love for you. Not today, not ever.

My love eclipses the greatest happiness this world can offer like the ocean crashing down on a single raindrop. This is small compared to how much I love you."

That is what I heard and then 30 seconds later I watched John Mark McMillan play an acoustic version of his song, "How he loves." And then I started to cry in the tunnel, because it was true.

Sometimes I fear that Serious Wednesday posts stray into the melancholy. I struggle with fear and depression. I write sometimes like lyrics from the Cure or a long acoustic version of the Counting Crows "Round Here."

But today will be different. Today, like Abraham stacking a pile of rocks in a place God showed up as a reminder for generations to come, I just want to write of love. I want these words to be rocks and I want the reminder to be simple.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

I don't have a witty insight or a clever twist to leave you thinking about. I just have those three words and I hope they sink in today. I hope in meetings and the grocery store and waiting in the car pick up line at your kid's school, you will hear that whisper too. And you will know.

God loves you.

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Having our ideas stolen by pop culture. (Finally!)

[image error]Despite being an early adopter of both Gavin DeGraw and Salt & Vinegar Pringles, people rarely call me a "visionary." (Both of those things should be more famous by the way.)

No one looks at me as a shaper of culture, as a predictor of fads, as a trendsetter if you will. Until today. A few weeks ago I hinted at something that came to be. I joked about something that actually came to pass. I hate to exaggerate, but I kind of predicted the future.

How?

In a post I wrote on August 23, I asked the shoe company TOMS, if they would be OK if I "started a handkerchief company called, SMOT?"

I found the idea of starting a company so obviously inspired by TOMS to be humorous, dare I say rife with mirth. And I laughed, oh I laughed, until I saw the new shoe by Skechers. At first I thought they were teasing or pulling my leg or even joshing a little bit. But they are not. They recently developed a new shoe called "BOBS."

Here is a photo of the BOBS:

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Here is a photo of TOMS:

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Not only do they look alike, but they have the same program of giving a pair of shoes to someone in need every time you buy one, just like TOMS does.

Now clearly, this raises some questions:

1. Would it have been worse, or better if Skechers had named them the "TIMS," and only changed one letter?

2. If changing TOMS to BOBS becomes a trend, would it be odd if I became a Christian musician named, "Chris Boblin," instead of Chris Tomlin? My first song will be titled, "How Greater is our God."

3. For some reason, "TOMS" sounds like a playful kid you went to elementary school with, and "BOBS" sounds like a gentleman who owns an Astrovan and has a thick mustache. The name Bob doesn't sound that way to me, but making it plural is weird, am I wrong?

4. Is it wrong to want to make an Office Space joke right here?

5. Is this an "ends justify the means," conversation? Is the bigger issue that kids are getting shoes they need and what's originality anyway? Nothing is original.

6. Should someone who ripped off the Stuff White People Like site to create this one really be poking someone else for lack of originality?

7. Is it weird that I'm happy that for once, pop culture is copying Christianity? All our years of turning "Got Milk?," into "Got God?" or "Got Destiny?" have been absolved.

8. Is it possible that TOMS gave Skechers permission? Soles4Souls is the one running the program and I've heard good things about those dudes. Is this possibly all on the up and up?

9. If I made a running shoe called, "NOKES," would Nike get all upset?

What's your take? Huge flattery or imitation gone too far?

You in Team TOMS or Team BOBS?

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Loving or hating Glee.

As the nights turn cold and the days grow long, I can't help but think of one thing. As leaves burst with color and wood fire places light across the Tennessee hills I find myself in, there is one thought that I can't shake. As the season and sunsets turn into a kind of Thomas Kinkade/Yankee Candle mashup worthy of Double Rainbow strength awe and wonder, one thought is bursting across the landscape of my heart and soul …

It's almost time to break out Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas album.

Easily the greatest Christmas album of all time, Merry Christmas is a steady jam of the best holiday songs ever. From the ridiculously awesome "All I want for Christmas is you," to the gospel choir backed, "Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child," the whole album is a mistletoe flavored cotton candy explosion of perfection. And there's a part two being released this year. (She should title it either, "Merry Christmas II, the revenge," or "Son of Merry Christmas." You can have those for free Mariah!)

But when I tweeted about the album recently I was surprised how the responses only came in two varieties.

Some people loved it.

Some people hated it.

There was absolutely no middle ground. No one "kind of liked" it. You either passionately recognized it as the gift to humanity it is or you blindly missed how wonderful it is.

And the same thing is happening with Christians and the show "Glee."

If you've never seen it, heard about it, been shamed by a friend who is mad you're not watching it or "Modern Family," then let me quickly describe it. Glee is a comedy/drama/musical centered on a glee club at a high school. Despite leaning heavily on "theme episodes," they often tackle tough social issues in some surprising ways. It's blown up in the last year. So much so, that bands who initially refused to let them use their music have come around. When I tweeted that Coldplay said no to Glee, people told me that was because Coldplay had too much "integrity." Then the ratings exploded and Coldplay apologized to Glee and asked them to use their music.

But what I keep noticing is that there are two popular Christian reactions to Glee:

1. You've got to watch it!

In church on Sunday a friend described to me some of the Christian undertones and discussion that often peppers the script of Glee. Then someone else tweeted me and implored me to not only watch it, but write about it. "It's awesome! You would be crazy not to be watching it!" That's what some people tell me.

2. I can only assume that satan is the executive producer of Glee.

Worst show ever. In addition to butchering Journey songs, they're pushing a really horrible agenda on us. It's garbage. I would sooner slow dance with the Golden Compass or share a sleeping bag with a bunch of Harry Potter books. I hate that show and all Christians should.

There's no middle ground. You hate it or you love it. Or so it would appear. I've not watched a whole season and don't have a firm opinion on Glee. (I don't love it as much as I love the new music from Mumford and Sons for instance or Alpha Rev.)

How about you though?

Do you watch Glee?

What's your take?

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Friday, we're going to do it again.

Last year, we raised $30,000 in 18 hours to build a kindergarten in Vietnam.

This Friday we're going to do it again. Only, it's going to be a little different.

I'll give you more details all week, but make sure you follow me on Twitter and join the Facebook page to get the inside scoop in the coming days.

In the meantime, please enjoy a video of people breakdancing in the rain. Why? Because it's Monday and I find that the best weeks tend to begin with breakdancing.

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Bowlin' with Chris Tomlin

It would be difficult for me to love this video more. Tripp Crosby and Tyler Stanton created this masterpiece, alongside singer Chris Tomlin. This is hilarious and perfect for a Sunday afternoon. Check it out after the jump.

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