The Time I Traveled Halfway Around the World Without Enough Money to Get Back

Shanghai - Our Destination

One of the core beliefs I have about living an extraordinary life is that I have to take risks. Playing it safe, always coming in on the side of comfort and security, and being too careful are sure-fire ways to have an unremarkable life. The people who stand out in the world are those who take unimaginable risks and come out on top.

The thing is, you have to be intentional about risk taking. If you don't have a mindset that accepts risk as part of the equation, you'll never even begin to start doing interesting things with your life, let alone exceptional ones. But also be intentional about the reasons for taking the risks. I've seen people do some pretty reckless things that have little or no value besides the adrenaline rush. I'm not talking about risks like that. I'm talking about taking a risk in order to produce something of value in your life.

Like the time I went to Nepal without enough money to get back. I was involved in non-profit work and was taking a team of 6 people from Switzerland to Nepal, on to Hong Kong, then back to Switzerland from Shanghai. The airline tickets were open-jaw, meaning we flew into Kathmandu and flew out of Beijing. Total trip was three months long. It was my responsibility to get the team from Kathmandu to Shanghai during those three months.

Here's the thing. One of the team members was unable to come up with all the money she needed for the trip. We wanted her on the team and were convinced that taking her was the right thing to do. What that meant, practically, though, is that we would have carry her out of the funds of the other team members. We didn't have enough money for the team to purchase the tickets, travel between the two locations, and pay for things like food and housing for the three months in between. If we left, we truly did not know how we would complete the trip with the money we had. All we did have was a conviction that we were doing the right thing and a willingness to ride out the adventure, wherever it took us.

As we left Switzerland, one of the main emotions I was feeling was one of “What the heck have I gotten myself into?” I think this is a normal part of adventure. There is always a moment (or a whole long string of moments) where I start to double-guess myself, wondering if I'm being adventurous or simply crazy. Normal people don't do these kinds of things, I think to myself. Then the irony of that statement hits me: I don't want to be normal, do I?

The first part of our trip went well, or as well as can be expected for these sorts of trips. Stomach problems, bad drinking water, and harrowing bus rides over steep mountain passes were all part of the equation. I was approached to smuggle jewelry back into Europe by a shady store owner. Our bus was stopped by rebels demanding a bribe of the current newspaper before letting us pass. You know, routine travel stuff. I was constantly eying our money supply. Luckily, however, Nepal is a pretty cheap place to be in, especially if you're not always doing the tourist thing.

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Purchasing the tickets to Hong Kong was an experience, though. Five of the team members were American, one was Swiss. The tickets were actually more expensive than we had hoped, which ate into our already tight budget. We purchased the tickets from a local travel agent, who had to hand-write the tickets and submit stubs into the airlines and transit authority to make sure everything was legit. I was nervous about it because I had to hand over our team members' passports and wait for a couple of hours, something which violates one of my cardinal rules of traveling (Handing over the passports, not waiting).

When the appointed time came and I went back to the travel agency, he gave me the tickets and passports back. I looked them over and saw that they had filled out the Swiss team member's nationality as USA. I handed it back to him and said “This isn't right – she's Swiss, not American.”

He looked it over and made a tapping noise with his mouth. He said “Follow me.” We then proceeded to go on a crazy journey through all of Kathmandu hunting down people who's sole function was apparently to tell us to go find someone else back across town. I followed that little travel agent everywhere – at least three hours of going into a house, or a storefront, where the travel agent would converse briefly in Nepalese with whoever was there, and then turn around and go to the next place. Finally, after walking for what felt like all day, we landed in a slightly larger travel agency exactly three blocks from where we started. I could look out the window and see my guide's store where we had started. The travel agent there took the ticket, (I swear I am not making this up) erased the nationality, and wrote in “Suisse” instead. This turned out to be okay, since the customs agent at the airport was more concerned with our “departure tax” receipt than with our tickets.


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The real moment of panic came on the airplane between Kathmandu and Hong Kong. Our budget for Nepal had been about $7 per person per day, which covered all of our housing, meals, and transportation. China was a different story altogether. We hadn't made any contacts in China yet, so we were forced to rely on the Lonely Planet guide book. My heart rate kept increasing as I searched for hotel or hostel rates and found that the absolute dirt-cheapest place to stay was $10 per night. Looking at it now, that seems really inexpensive. But when we were covering all of our expenses for $7 per day, paying 150% of that just for a room was freaking me out.

I calculated we could stay in China, at Hong Kong rates, for exactly 8 days. Then we would have zero dollars left. In fact, it was looking like even paying for train tickets straight to Shanghai and changing the return flight to be six weeks early would take more money than we had.

So, there we were, disembarking from the plane and going through customs with absolutely no idea where we were going to go or how we were going to make it work.

On an off chance, my amazing wife had written down a phone number of a local branch of the organization we were a part of. But those international branches were always a gamble. Sometimes, they were nothing more than an office with a phone that was rarely answered, and if it was answered the probability that they would speak English was pretty low. Not to mention we weren't entirely sure about China's laws and how they felt about NGO's operating in their country and what we could and couldn't do. However, with zero other options we figured we would at least contact them to see if they knew anywhere cheap to stay. It was a long shot, but it was all we had.

Amazingly, after we cleared customs and right before we got to the baggage claim, we found a courtesy phone. An honest to goodness free phone that anyone could use. My wife dialed the number for the branch office, and a friendly American answered right away. My wife told the lady on the other end of the line that we would like to come visit their office sometime.

“Well, where are you now?” the friendly voice inquired.

“Ummm...we're actually at the airport,” my wife replied.

“Really? Did you just get here?”

“Umm, yeah. Just now.”

“Well, do you know where you're going to stay?” she asked, still very enthusiastic.

“Well...Not really.”

“Well, this is great. We just had a bunch of people leave here, and we have plenty of open housing. We would love to have you stay here! In fact, one of our staff members is on the way to the airport now to pick up someone else. He can get you back here right away!”

One amazing lesson I've learned is that when you step out and take risks in order to have an extraordinary life, you end up having all sorts of “coincidences” happen to you. Case in point: Not only did we happen to arrive just as someone happened to be on the way to the airport who happened to have a nice, free place to stay, but one of the people he was originally meeting at the airport just happened to be a girl from my hometown that I had gone to high school with. How do you even begin to explain something like that?

Anyhow, we took the bus back to the branch office. The cost of the bus trip? Nearly $9 per person. Yep, just the bus ride from the airport cost more than an entire day's expenses during the first half of our trip. Needless to say, my heart rate was slightly elevated.

Well, our hosts were extremely gracious to us. They gave us a huge break by not charging us to stay there for a few days, they got us contacts within “mainland” China, and they helped us plan out the rest of our trip in the most cost-effective manner possible. In fact, we were told that the absolute cheapest they knew that anyone had ever gone to China for was a budget of about $12 per person per day. We were able to do it for about $10.

Despite their help, despite cutting every cost we could think of (Do we really have to eat every day?) we were still looking at the end of our finances in approximately 3 weeks. That left 3 weeks with no money.

As a team, you can bet we were praying and wondering how in the world this was all going to work out.

Then, just a day before we were going to head into China proper, one of our team members got some exciting news. (Remember, this is in 2001, before skype, before reliable internet throughout the world, and before international calling was so dirt cheap) His parents, who were unaware of our team's dire financial situation, had randomly had a garage sale where they sold some pretty nice furniture. They felt that the money was supposed to be for something else, so they wanted to give it to us! They got him word that they were depositing the money in his account, except that it wasn't just for him, it was for the entire team!

As it worked out, that was almost the exact amount of money that we needed to complete our trip. We did everything on our schedule, and by the time we finished we even had a little bit to spare.

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What does all this have to do with you? Well, I'm passionate about seeing you live a life that's outside the ordinary. It just can't be done without throwing caution to the wind every now and then. When everything is riding on the line, you find yourself focused on the moment, insanely aware of every detail, truly experiencing life. More than likely, you'll find that things work out even better than you can imagine them working out.

So go ahead. Take a big risk. It doesn't have to be traveling across the world. It might be quitting your job, or applying for a job. It might be starting a business, or talking to that certain someone. It might be anything. No one's challenge will be the same as yours. But if you long for something extraordinary, you have to take the first step.

Why Would Anyone Give Away Money?

Living on support requires two things: someone willing to live on support, and people willing to support them. So, an obvious question that comes up is why people should give away money – at all, to anyone. Not just me. So, continuing my series of articles about living on support, here is the big answer to the big question:

Why should you donate money? Why not just keep it all to yourself? After all, you earned it.

Yes, you did earn the money you have. You do have any right to do with it whatever you would like to. However, there are several very good reasons to be generous with your money.

1. Being generous frees you from the influence of money. Let's face it, money is intoxicating. If all you want is to reach a point where you don't need any more money, you will never reach it. No matter how much you have, you will always want more, or know someone who has more. I've known a multimillionaire who was one of the most greedy people I've encountered. I've also met some poor people who seemed more content and happy than I thought was possible. Wealth is an illusion, and all the money in the world can't satisfy your need for more. The only way to break free of the addicting power is to start giving money away. Intentionally putting money into something that will not benefit you directly is one of the most powerful things a person can do to make their life better and more exciting.

2. Giving money allows you to be involved in something you otherwise couldn't be.

Many times we would like to do things to make a difference in the world. But try as we might, we are only one person and can only do so much. If you are someone who has a job, you probably have a job for an honorable reason – like supporting your family, or driving the economy, or because you don't want to live with your parents (If you don't have a good reason for having a job other than paying the rent, maybe you should seriously re-evaluate the choices you're making). Earning money, however, has this ability to consume nearly everything you do, so that by the time you're done working and earning the money you have very little time to give to something that you feel is truly worthwhile and meaningful. That's where giving comes in. Not everyone can just quit their job. I get that. However, they can donate some of the energy that they use working on that job to a cause they believe in by giving some money to it. That way they are still participating, still doing the work of world-changing, just in an outsourced kind of way. It's a partnership: one person works a job so he can earn money, but is unable to do any sort of work helping others; another works helping others but is unable to receive any pay for it. By working together, both of their goals are accomplished.

3. There is a huge payoff in giving money away.

Financially, you will never see that money again. You can kiss it good-bye. However, emotionally and spiritually, there is a huge reward. You get the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing something honorable. You get the pleasure of knowing that you are making a difference, not just being a leech on the planet. You get to have relationships with people who are on the front lines. You become a source of good instead of just a receptacle for it. In the end, it simply feels great. That's an awesome reason.

4. You can.

This one seems so simple. If we could somehow shrink the world down to one dinner table, we in the western world would be astounded at how grossly we gorge ourselves while the rest of the world has to make due with the bare minimums. I'm not saying that we should equally re-distribute wealth. I'm simply saying that it becomes less important to upgrade to the new 120 Mhz high definition monitor when you consider that there are young people selling themselves into unspeakably hellish situations because they don't see any other means of surviving. Life is not about how much you can cause to flow towards yourself. It's about flowing outwards, creating life instead of simply consuming it.

5. God asks us to.
   If you're a Christian, this is a basic part of your belief system. (If you're not a Christian, I highly recommend it!) However, Biblical generosity is not simply 10% - that's just the bare minimum (and if you really want to get into it, the 10% amount is questionable – more like 24-30% in the Old Testament). True Biblical generosity is about giving everything that you have and everything that you are, laying down your rights and your very life to do what God wants in this world. Giving 10% to a church is a far cry from the radical generosity God calls us to.

So, you up for the challenge of giving up some money? In the next few days I'll tell you why you should give to me, and answer some other pressing questions about tent-making, missions vs. church, and others!

The Postmodern Evangelist Monologues

This came out of my musings about evangelism, purity, post-modernism, the church, and some other stuff. Hopefully there's something here to challenge pretty much anyone.

PART I:

Don't talk to me about purity. I know all about the kind of purity that you're peddling.

No thanks.

Seriously, leave me alone.

You just want to talk? Well...fine, I have a few minutes. Yeah, I can go sit down over there. But I'm telling you, I don't want what you have. Why? Because I can already describe it for you.

How would I describe it?

Are you sure you want to hear this?

Okay, fine. First of all, I don't believe the same things that you do. No, not just the stuff about what you should and shouldn't do – even though I do think that's a bunch of bull – but I mean the deeper things that you probably haven't even thought about. For example, I don't believe there's a God. I don't believe that the world was “created” at some point 10,000 years ago. I sure as hell don't believe that a bunch of fairy tales written by a bunch of white guys hundreds of years ago has any meaning to me today. See, I don't believe that, but you still want to tell me how to live.

Here's some problems that I have with you. Yes, you and everyone you represent. You don't open your eyes and look around. Science has made our lives much better than religion ever did. We don't need some god-fantasy to explain why things are the way they are. We've figured it out, and it doesn't have anything to do with some all-powerful angry guy in the sky. But it doesn't matter what we discover, or what new things people figure out, because you people all keep saying the same thing over and over: “Do this! Don't do that!” I swear, as soon as we find something to make everyone a little bit happier, all the Christians come out in force to say how terrible it is and how we should keep it away from everyone, especially the kids. Open your eyes! The world is changing out there.

Another thing that really bothers me about you guys is that you don't understand all the harm that religious-types have done over the years. Like I said, science is making our lives better all the time, but for the 2000 years that religion ruled the world, all you basically did was kill each other. I know – I know it wasn't you, but just like you're doing now, you try to pass that off as “someone else” and that it's not your fault, never realizing that you're running your own crusades right now. What about democrats, or environmentalists, or the whole homosexual community? I swear, if your churches had the power it would be Auschwitz all over again. It makes me wonder what you would do if you didn't have anyone to hate.

And then here you come to me, a complete stranger, and try to start telling me how to live. Don't you get that this is the same thing? You're running a little “Crusade” right now. All you're doing is showing how little you actually care about me. In fact, you're sitting there trying to tell me to turn my whole life around as if you even know how I live or what kinds of things I do on a day to day basis. Hell, I would be willing to bet that my life looks more “Christian” than yours does – minus the whole trying to convert people thing. I volunteer, I'm involved with charities, I do things to make an impact on my world, and I recycle. It's not like I'm some sort of twisted psycho who needs a saint to come down from heaven to help me see the error of my ways. But you don't even care, do you? You would rather I conform to your image of what it looks like to be “pure,” no matter what I'm doing right now. You just want me to jump through the hoops that your pastor holds up for me.

And that, I think, is the worst thing of all for me. The fact that you come in here, don't even try to understand me or get to know me in any way, and immediately demand a performance out of me whether I want to go there or not. You don't even know me, how could you possibly care about me? You're not interested in me, you're interested in getting some notch on your Bible, or in proving how right you are, or something. I don't care really. All I know is that the last thing on earth I would ever want to do is be like you, or buy in to what you stand for.

Like I said, no thanks.

PART II:

Look, most of what you've heard about me is probably wrong. In fact, right now you're not even responding to me, you're responding to all the negative stereo-types that have been slapped on me by people who make a living sensationalizing things. If you can set those things aside, just temporarily, I think that you might like to hear what I have to say.

Just give me a minute, let me explain myself.

I'll keep it short. And I'll buy you a coffee.

First off, let me explain that I'm not trying to change your behavior. That might happen, yes, but that's not the goal. I don't want to be the one that tells you how you should behave. Honestly, who would want to do that? I have enough problems just figuring this thing out for myself, there's no way I would want to have to figure it out for someone else. The way you behave is your own business, and if you want to do something I think you should just go and do it.

I get that you think that I'm totally irrelevant in a world with science and answers and shiny new things. But what has all that gotten us, really? Sure, people have bigger houses, we live longer, and we have 500 channels on TV, but is anyone really fulfilled? Are you fulfilled? I find that most people struggle through life just hoping to find something that will instill some spark, some joy inside of them that proves that they're really alive, not just surviving. Sure, you paint a happy image of life in TV commercials, but in the real world you're bored and looking for something to inspire you, not just entertain.

At some level, you realize all this which is why you end up throwing it all away and saying that no one knows anything for sure and that the most anyone can hope for is to attain their own happiness. You blindly claim that since science has failed then there is no absolute truth, and each person makes their own truth. You let everyone make their own choices. That's you're new reality, that choice is the only ultimate good. Not everyone will choose the same, but so what? What's good for them might not be good for you, but you're not them so you can't decide. Even though you can plainly see that the choices some people make cause them to be thoroughly unhappy, and possibly even suffering, you don't help them because you don't want to violate their sacrosanct choice. You fear control so much that you reject all types of control, and by doing so you sever the very hand you would use to help people who need it.

No, don't get me wrong. You're sympathetic. Probably more than me in a lot of ways. You feel what those people are feeling. You hang out with them. You cry with them. You even march for them. But when it comes down to doing anything, you have no ability. You can't help them because you can't tell them what to do, because you're so afraid of becoming an oppressor. So you're stuck – always wanting to do more, never knowing how.

Ultimately, you're lost.

The only solution you have is to lash out at people who do claim to have an answer – me – who you perceive as an oppressor. Which I'm okay with, really. You can think what you like about me. All I'm trying to tell you is that I've found it. The spark, the life, the inspiration. The thing that TV-commercial families act like they have. I don't claim to understand it completely, but I absolutely want to share it. See, you think I'm here to condemn you and force you to change, when really I'm here to share with you the one thing I think everyone is looking for. I haven't yet found someone who wasn't interested in being more alive. If you're not looking for life – and I mean the knock-down-drag-out-full-in-your-face kind of life – then fine, I'll let you on your way. You can even call me narrow-minded. But if it is something that you want, maybe it's worth at least taking a look at.

Dream Like Everything Is Possible

The Guide to Extraordinary Living - Part 2

Mr. Dream, a 235 lb. boxer, lost his only fight to Little Mac, 98 lbs.

Remember the first lesson, that everything is about others? Life is not about you. If you don't remember that, go back and read Part 1. Actually, find someone else who would benefit from reading Part 1 and have them read it, then you can read it for yourself.

I can hear you now: “It's cool. Life is not about trying to make myself happy. Check. Got it. Alright, I understand already. So, what should I do that's not designed to make me personally happy? Hmm..go buy a happy meal? Oh, wait, no, that's about me. Watch a movie? Oh, that's about me again. Make a sandwich? Hmm..this all seems to be about me. What should I do?”

Well, let me tell you. Start Dreaming. Go ahead – try it right now. Start dreaming about what you want your life to look like.




Okay, okay, stop. We're running into two problems. First of all, you're not sticking to the first principle, which is that things are not about yourself. These ideas are supposed to build on each other - like the beautiful and long lasting pyramids, not be stand-alone concepts – like the ugly and target-worthy Sphinx. Secondly, you're not dreaming big enough. You're dreaming like everything in your life just happened to go well, like you had the best day of your life or something. I don't want you to dream about winning the lottery, or scoring the perfect job, or marrying the perfect person. I don't even want you to dream about making the neighborhood you live in a nicer place (though that's a good start). I want you to dream WAY bigger than that. Dream like everything is possible.

What do I mean by that? Let me explain it this way: Suppose Bill Gates and Scrooge McDuck dropped by your house. They offered to fully fund whatever your dream was, for however long it took to accomplish it, and then said that if you somehow failed or came up short, they would supply the manpower that it would take to make sure it happened (or they would consult the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, which might have just the solution you need).

What would you dare to dream if you were guaranteed to be successful?

Now we can really start the dreaming. Poverty? Gone. Preventable diseases? Prevented. Human Trafficking? Eliminated. Corruption? Confronted.

See, right about now I'm losing some of you. You're totally checking out. You've heard this before, you think. I can imagine that voice in the back of your head, the one that keeps whispering “How? How would you get there? It just isn't practical.” I can imagine that voice quite well, since it's in the back of my head, too.

No matter what you dream, that voice will be there. Many times, it will actually come out of other people's mouths – the very people who are supposed to love and support you. It will constantly be telling you that it's ridiculous to dream like that, that one person can't make a difference, that it's a waste of time to give yourself to a cause that's doomed to fail from the beginning. But let's remember something: Without a dream, life is already a failure. Dull, lifeless – remember?

So, what do we do with the doubts and fears that have stopped many people ahead of us? How do we handle the voice that will confront us every step of the way, even in the very beginning of our dreaming stages?

It's easy. We act. We take a step. We start making the dream a reality. The voice hates that.

That's also the next part in the series...

Accept That Everything You Think You Know is Wrong

The Guide to Extraordinary Living Part 1

Everything you know is wrong. Yep. I’m sorry to be the one to have to break this to you, but you’re wrong. Totally.

I don’t just mean the kinds of things you think I mean. I don’t mean the correct spelling of pseudonym or how many miles it is to the sun (even though, if we were being honest, you probably are wrong about those things, too)*. I mean the important things, such as the basic assumptions you have about what is real that direct the decisions you make, and ultimately how you live your life.

Huh?

Let’s take the classic example. Take the entirely fictional case of Timmy. Timmy is in his senior year of high school, and he sure is excited. He has big choices to make. Which college to go to, what major to choose, who to take to prom. Good thing for Timmy, he’s a child genius, the star Quarterback and a 100 mph left-handed pitcher. So he has his pick of colleges and prom dates.

He’s managed to narrow it down to two. Colleges, that is. On one hand, there’s Yale. On the other hand, Lone Pine Community College. He sits on his bed with the acceptance letters to both laying on the covers in front of him. His eyes dart back and forth. Finally, they settle on one. His hand reaches for the letter. Which one does he choose?

The wrong one.

No, not the community college.

They’re both wrong.

How can they both be wrong? Because they’re both based on the assumption that if he goes to a good school, he’ll get a good education. And if he gets a good education, then he’ll be able to get a good job or maybe even start his own company. And if he gets a good job he’ll make a lot of money and then he’ll be able to provide a safe, comfortable life for himself and his future family. And then he’ll be happy.

There’s the problem. He assumes that a safe, comfortable life will make him happy. But it won’t. It will make him dull. Lifeless. He may have a semblance of a happy life, but that won’t be the extraordinary life that he is longing for in his heart. Safe and Comfortable are what the padded cubicle walls are built out of. Instead of being set free by riches, he is made a prisoner by them.

You see, we've all bought into this idea that we are to be successful, or pursue what is in our hearts, or be rich or famous. That, whether we are teachers or shoe salesman or Fortune 500 CEO's, we should be happy doing what we want and that we should achieve some measure of comfort and stability. It's a subtle way of turning everything that happens into something about you. It's totally inward focused. The key to success supposedly lies somewhere inside of you, where if you can just create the right environment, you'll trigger this thing called happiness and then: you will have arrived.

Which brings us back to the dullness of life. We can't always do things only for ourselves – sometimes we are forced to go to a job, or live somewhere we don't like, or be in close quarters with someone we don't enjoy. We make up for this by going on self-indulging binges whenever we have the chance. Movies, food, sports, sex, video games, hobbies, TV, even religion. We pour so much energy into making ourselves happy despite the fact that we're obviously not happy that we miss the most central truth to all reality: life is not about us.

Life is not about you.

Real life, I mean. Extraordinary life. Think about it for a minute. Think what would happen if you stopped doing all the things you did every day that were designed to make you happy. If you seriously consider it, you might start to realize that everything you ever do is done in an effort to satisfy this insane hunger to become happy.

I would humbly suggest that the path to extraordinary living lies in exactly the opposite direction. Instead of the world flowing inward to me, to satisfy my needs and desires, it should flow outwards. I should focus my attentions and energies on other people, and pour myself out to help meet their needs and desires.

A few steps down this path, and you start to realize how amazingly refreshing it is. Don't get me wrong – it's not all clouds and roses. In fact, it feels a lot like I imagine a heroin addict would feel during detox – crazy, unstable, and intensely hungry. When you're not gorging yourself on entertainment, your eyes begin to see things clearly for the first time, and that can really hurt.

When it happened to me, I realized several things. That I essentially suck at relationships. That I don't make any sort of impact with people. That I am weak and fearful and hardly ever do anything daring or bold. But I also realized how free I was – how much more strength and potential flowed through every second of my day. Since nothing was about me anymore, I had way more space to move about. I was no longer a slave to my comfort.

So, that's the first step to extraordinary living: Accept that everything you know is wrong. That life is not about you, it's about what you can do for other people. If you can grasp that, you begin to sense the limitless potential and dream of much bigger things than a nice house or big screen TV.

But that's the next step...

*The sun is approximately 93 million miles away from earth. See, I told you that you were wrong.

Luke's Guide to Extraordinary Living

Let’s face it, life is drab. Real life, that is. Sure, there’s lots of excitement, humor, and drama on TV, but it can only come portioned in 30-minute or one-hour chunks. Real life is almost depressingly boring.

What do I mean? Boring is getting up, showering, going to a job, coming home, eating, sleeping, doing it again. Boring is looking back over the last three weeks and realizing that you don’t have one distinct memory out of the entire block of time. Boring is listening to radio, or reading the news, or watching TV, just looking for something to get worked up about.

Like I said, drab. Plain. Muted.

In fact, in most work places I’ve been at they actually encourage drabness. There was one office I worked at that literally had a policy that you couldn’t hang things on the cubicle walls because it ruined the “sound absorption qualities” of the cubicles.

I know most of us have come to accept that there is a certain amount of routine required for living, that in order to survive you have to have a paycheck, and in order to get a paycheck you’re going to have to get a job. The dullness just goes with the territory. You can have your fun on the weekends and holidays. I know most of us have come to accept that, but I believe it’s a very reluctant acceptance.

I think really we long to be free. We long to do something with our lives that makes us excited. We want to feel passionate about what we are doing. We know there has to be some way life can be more vivid, more inspired. We ache for the rewards of a life that has meaning to it, that can take our breath away with beauty and pierce our hearts with tragedy. We are tired of being numb.

But, we quickly let the sound absorption qualities of our cubicles stifle those thoughts, because immediately following them is a fear. A very subtle fear invades us when we start thinking about freedom and purpose. It’s not the kind of fear you would expect, not the “How would I pay the bills?” or “I have responsibilities, I can’t just let everyone down” type of fears. Those are simply the clothes we dress the fear up in. Those are the sensible words we use to cover up the fear that really eats at our souls. The real fear, the one we hardly ever truly address, is this: that there is nothing greater - that this dull reality is all there is, and that if we were to go crazy and risk everything for our dream of extraordinary living, we would find that it was all just a pipe dream and that extraordinary life doesn’t exist.

You see, as long as we don’t put extraordinary living to the test, we can at least hope that it’s out there somewhere. The hope - that maybe one day we will stumble into it, that the perfect job will come along, or we’ll marry the right person, or win the lottery, or invent something that will make us millionaires overnight - that hope keeps us alive and gives us the motivation to push through the dullness day after day after day. Without that hope, we have to face the awful truth that we are half-dead already.

So, is it out there? Can you truly live an extraordinary life?

Yes.

How? I aim to show you. In the next series of entries I will reveal a simple - yet difficult - guide to extraordinary living. It’s more possible than you ever imagined.

Stay tuned…

Why Portland?

So, many times we get asked this question: "Why Portland?"

This question usually follows us explaining that we feel called to start a discipleship school in Portland. But not usually right after. The people asking this question usually wait two or three days and spring it on me at an inopportune moment, when my mind is totally engrossed with the sandwich I'm eating, or exactly how far I can tip that chair back without falling over, or something equally mundane. They'll just walk up to me out of the blue and say "Why Portland?" like I should have some deep insightful answer just sitting there, waiting for someone to ask me.

What usually ends up happening, is I stammer out a few stats about human trafficking, something about how much Portland needs it, or homelessness, or maybe something about how cool of a place it is. It's not convincing at all, and it sounds very much like I'm not committed, or that I haven't thought through this thing at all, but that's about as far from the truth as it could be. It's just that my mind doesn't switch into sales mode that quickly. I'm more apt to be wondering how the decay of the speed of light as a universal constant could be a convincing argument for creationism, or about how the organizational structure of YWAM spells it's own death, or about what light waves refract in the atmosphere above the clouds.

What I'm not thinking about is: "What's a cool way to communicate the vision I feel God has put on my heart for Portland and my future?"

So, here's an attempt:

Why Portland? I'm glad you asked! It's simple, really. God called us there. I don't understand all of his reasons. I just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's where he wants us to be. God is doing something special in Portland right now. There's lots of things being started there and being brought back there or moving there for the first time. I don't understand it completely, but Portland is spiritually significant right now.

Also, both Lydia and I feel that God is putting on our hearts some type of authentic community (yes, I know that's all the rage right now). Not like an ultra-hip church, though. I'm not ultra-hip, and I don't know how to be. Also, I don't go to church.

No, the community God is describing to us is a community of people that does life together. Instead of being committed to a "cause" or a "model" or something like that, they're committed to each other. Plain and simple. They live together, they eat together, they get involved in each other's lives. They don't all work in the same place - in fact, they interact with and react to the community at large, but are so filled up with love and refreshed and enjoying life and God that they become beacons of hope to people who have no understanding of unconditional love, who may even be hostile to God.

Now, Portland seems like an awesome place to make that happen. I envision myself running a discipleship school half the year, then working with the previously described communal group the rest of the year. And raising a family. And having awesome microbrews. And going on missions. And writing a (New York Times Best-selling) book(s).

Want to come?