Our church did something different for Lent this year. (Lent is the 40 days or so leading up to Easter.) Many Christians traditionally “give something up for Lent” as a way of identifying in some small way with the sufferings of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Some give up alcohol, or chocolate, or coffee — something that actually feels like a sacrifice.

So this year, I encouraged our folks to take the H2O Challenge presented by Living Water International.  Here’s how they describe it:

Sometime during Lent (February 25 – April 11), take the H2O Challenge. For two weeks, make water your only beverage. Save the money that you would normally spend on sodas, coffee, juice, milk, and sport drinks. At the end of the two weeks, send the money you saved to Living Water International for the drilling of wells in needy communities.

What difference can you make? If you saved just one dollar a day for two weeks, you could provide three families with clean water for a year. If you got your friends, your church, or your youth group to do it with you, you could reach a whole village. Or more. Every bit really does make a difference.

So we did it.  Some for two weeks, some for all six.  And when it was all said and done, our little group gave $1,000 to help dig and repair clean water wells in Haiti (more on the results here).

On average, $1 provides clean water for 1 person for 1 year (see onedollarwater.com).  So we helped 100 people have clean water for 10 years.  Or 200 people for 5 years.  Or however it worked out.  I’m just amazed that there are people who will be able to avoid the life-threatening diseases they would otherwise have caught from drinking dirty, infected water… all because I skipped my soft drinks for two weeks.  Wow.

Hop over to www.water.cc to learn more about how you can make a difference, too.

Stacey snapped this pic with my phone when we were walking the dog this afternoon. Except for the shades, this is what I preached in this morning. It was a little less wrinkled before my afternoon nap.

I can’t wait for summer!

I just ran across this over at Mark Beeson’s blog and wanted to share it with you.  (It’s a small part of a much longer post.)

Whether this is a Christian nation may be secondary and consequential to this poignant consideration: Am I a Christian? How many ask the former question to avoid facing the latter? How often do I find myself so worried about what everyone else is doing that the soul-searching work of fulfilling God’s purposes in my own life never gets done? No one is going to do God’s work, with God’s love, in God’s Name but God’s people. Be one of God’s people! This is no time to shrink back. There is work to be done.

Mark Beeson is the pastor of Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, where they’re doing the work and doing it well!

I recently read this week’s Newsweek cover story, The End of Christian America, by Jon Meacham.  (That’s the title online, anyway.  The cover of the printed copy reads: The Decline and Fall of Christian America.)  He notes that recent surveys of Americans have shown that today fewer people are identifying themselves as Christians (from 86% in 1990 to 76% in 2008) while more are identifying themselves as atheists or agnostics (from 1 million in 1990 to 3.6 million in 2009).  Coinciding with this is the apparent decline of the political and cultural influence of what is usually called “the religious right.”  Some evangelicals are saying we are entering a post-Christian era in the United States.  It’s an interesting article, and I have to say I don’t find any of it too surprising, nor do I find any of it frightening or cause for alarm.

Unfortunately, it appears that enough people assumed that his article was an attack on Christianity that he had to write a follow up: Faith Isn’t Under Fire: The Difference Between Christianity and ‘Christian America.’ The fact that some people don’t seem to understand that these are two separate things is a bit frustrating to me.  I’ve bumped into plenty of Christians who don’t seem to get the idea that the church does best when it is not wed to political power.  We get hooked into thinking that all hell will break loose if we don’t rally behind this political party or vote for that ballot initiative.  But in fact, Jesus himself resisted political power and rejected the attempts of the people to make him king, opting instead to face death at the hands of the empire.  Yet the temptation is always there for Christians — especially here in America, with our strong religious heritage and representative democracy — to try to wield the sword of political power, to build our own empire in God’s name.

My hope, as we approach Easter Sunday in the midst of a changing religious, political, and economic landscape, is that we who call ourselves Christians will continue to trust and follow Jesus Christ.  I hope that we will remember that the way of Jesus is not that of wielding the sword of political influence against those who disagree with us but is that of loving service, even to those who consider themselves our enemies.  Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus Christ show us that the power of God’s love will always be greater than the power of the empire.  So let’s hold tight to the unstoppable love of God and trust that the way of loving service is the way of transformation. Love wins.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this.  Please feel free to share them in the comments below!

Also, of course, if you don’t have a church home and live in or near Valparaiso, Indiana, we’d love to have you join us at Living Hope this Sunday morning at 9:30 at the Aberdeen Manor banquet hall. Details are on the Living Hope website.