i really like shane claiborne. i heard him speak on a podcast in 2005 and thought the simple way (the intentional community that he is a part of) sounded like a cool place to check out. so i went there for a week and that made me like claiborne all the more. he lives out what he talks about and that’s awesome.
shane posted over on the sojourner’s website “12 hopes for 2012” and i think they are great. i find them food for great thought and very challenging. the only problem is that they will actually cost me some effort … i prefer hopes that at best cost me nothing personally and at worst cost someone else instead of me. 🙂
here they are:
12. Do something really nice – that no one knows about.
11. Spend more money on other people than I spend on myself. Love my neighbor as I love myself. And love myself as I love my neighbor.
10. Laugh often… especially at advertisements that try to convince me that I must buy more stuff in order to be happy.
9. Learn a new life skill – like carpentry, pottery, or canning vegetables. Teach someone else I life skill I know how to do.
8. Love a few people well, remembering that what is important is not how much we do but how much love we put into doing it.
7. Write a letter to someone I need to say thank you to. Write another letter to someone I need to ask to forgive me.
6. Track down a critic or someone I disagree with and take them to lunch. Listen to them.
5. Compliment someone I have a hard time complimenting… and mean it.
4. Choose life. Do something regularly to interrupt the patterns of injustice – do something to end violence, bullying, war, capital punishment and other mean and ugly things.
3. Pause before every crisis and ask “will this matter in 5 years?”
2. Get outside often and marvel at things like fireflies and shooting stars. And regularly get my hands into the garden… so when I type on the computer I can see dirt under my fingernails.
1. Believe in miracles. And live in a way that might necessitate one.