$1 Love

November 5, 2006



I had the surprise of running into one of my modern-day heroes, Shane Claiborne. Shane's a goofy guy from east Tennessee who moved into the Philadelphia neighborhood and began an organization and a way of living and loving called The Simple Way. I heard him speak in New Orleans when I was in college and was so inspired by him. I love his book called The Irresistable Revolution, and I got to hang with him again at The Gathering in September. No one emanates more love than Shane. I can't explain it, but when I'm with him, I know that Jesus loves me. When I'm with Shane, it makes me want to be closer and more intimate with Christ. It's powerful and raw.

Shane asked me if I would join him and help him in his Youth Specialties presentation in Anaheim, CA. I sat on the side and watched Shane inpsire people to think about what it really means to love your neighbor and to serve others. He made his audience laugh as he shared stories of being a young passionate student and a bit off the beaten path. He told stories of his time with Mother Teresa; and he encouraged people to think about loving people well.

At the end of his talk, I walked along the front of the stage and scattered thousands of one dollar bills across the floor. This was Shane's honorarium for speaking today. He had cashed it in dollar bills and wrote "LOVE" on each one. He asked each person in the audience to pick up one dollar and use it to serve and love someone, whether it be taking a homeless person to coffee or providing a year of water for an African. The worship band came up on stage to play some music while thousands of people walked to the front of the stage to collect their dollar. I stood on the side to watch what was taking place, and I wept.

There's so much power in each person's ability to love one another. I stood there dreaming of the incredible change and transformation that could happen if we valued something as simple as a dollar and something as significant as connecting to one person. Do small things with acts of great love, as Mother Teresa had said. I was standing in a place where, if people caught this simple message of love, if I caught this simple message of love, our world would never be the same again. God has given us such boundless opportunity to love and serve others, to align ourselves with the unlovely, to take risks in disarming ourselves from the weapons of comfort, privilege, fear, and convenience...I simply hope we can be good stewards of the opportunity.