Having been raised in the church and being a Christian since the age of seven, I was interested to see if my gospel had a hole in it? Better than average at treating the people around me, consistent church attendance (college years don’t count right), Bible studies, elder board, and no “big” sins. Surely if there is a hole…it would be quite small! 

However, I have also spent most my life turning my head or turning the channel when I came across pictures or stories of hunger, poverty, and death. I cannot stay in my comfort zone seeing clear evidence and knowing that kind of wickedness exist in the world that I live.

Richard’s book The Hole in Our Gospel ripped me out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t a complicated book to read but it was a very hard book to read. Hard because the horrible stats took on a realness that I had never felt. The motivation by him to describe the pain and the way that we have missed it was out of love not guilt. And his presentation as to why this is an integral part of the Gospel of Jesus is clear and convicting. Richard’s experience in the business world, the “Christian” world and in the world that few of us venture to go (the hopeless world of hunger, poverty and AIDS) has given him the credentials to tell the rest of us where we have fallen drastically short. To live out this part of the Gospel would inconvenience us and expose us to great pain and heartache. Therefore we accept Jesus but rarely follow Him into this part of His story.

I am humbled to say I have a gaping hole in my gospel. But I am now committed to closing that hole because of Richard Stearns and his book. Thanks to Richard and Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this work.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Christmas. It’s time for family, for comfort, for love. And for Christians, it’s a time to celebrate what’s most important, the birth of Jesus Christ.

But there are a lot of things we get wrong about Christmas.

For one, we give each other so much stuff. Whether it’s out of obligation or just to truly show someone we care, we’re still essentially material-rich people giving other material-rich people more… materials. The purpose of our holiday, though, is Christ. And Jesus made his purpose clear to us – sacrifice. He died so that we could live. And we struggle to keep that the focus of Christmas while we’re busy buying and unwrapping gifts.

Let’s face it, we actually sacrifice very little. But what’s small to us can be huge to someone who lacks basic health necessities. Just $20 is enough for one person to have clean water for two decades, for example.

So, this year, I’m asking others of you to join me and give up some gifts and donate that money to help me build a well. 100% of all funds raised go directly to the water projects. Between now and Christmas, I aim to raise $2,500 in my charity: water campaign.

Jesus sacrificed himself for us. This is the least I can do.

Please join me and donate whatever you can…..http://mycharitywater.org/ebroussard

THANK YOU!

Sanford’s confession

It seems that these stories come one right after another. South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford announced yesterday that he has been involved in an extramarital affair for over the past year. In the wake of his selfish weakness is a career in question, a state and a staff in disbelieve, and a shattered marriage and family. He spent seven minutes of a nine minute news conference apologizing to to all the people that will be directly affected. There will be untold thousands that are indirectly affected by this one man who was not strong enough to  maintain a sacred vow and commitment.

Let’s play the multiplication game for a minute, Mark Sanford is just the latest public figure to live over the line. Between politicians, pastors and other prominent men we get a news jolt like this on a very regular basis. For every high profile man that wimps out on their wife and family…how many thousands of men’s stories do not make the nightly news? How many walking wounded do we have from this devastating scud missile.

“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men“— Martin Luther King, Jr. 

When will men, stop living these lies?