Good People + Jesus + 2009 = ???

"All is quiet...on New Year's Day"

For some reason, as the first hours of 2009 pass by, I'm thinking about what it means to share faith. I'm especially thinking of the things that either scare, offend, or simply "creep me out" about what it means to share faith. I was watching an interview with a Roman Catholic priest discussing the ministry of a very confrontational youth minister and he caught my attention when he said that the whole church should strive to be like this person...not necessarily to adopt his tactics, but to experience the sense of being "on fire" or truly inspired by the presence of God.

On this topic, here's an interesting video reflection from Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame). Jillette professes to be an atheist, but speaks of the power of "good people" who are motivated by faith/religion. He finds this particularly notable because of all the negative things that religion injects into the world.



I wonder if 2009 can be a year where good people can shed their religious skin and live in such a way that builds the kingdom that Jesus came into the world to show us. I wonder how "on earth as in heaven" will occur this year.