About a month ago my wife D’Aun had a fun trip with a few of her friends. So I had a ton of time on my own, and I spent it writing an absolutely ridiculous series of devotions. They are unlike any of the other edgy devotions I wrote and more, well … more … well … you’ll see.
Basically, I take an imagined vacation with Jesus. To Belize. In 2022. And while we’re there—which somehow also takes place two thousand years ago, by the way, before Jesus begins his public ministry—he talks through an upcoming sermon he calls “The Beatitudes.” Maybe you heard of them?
Is that a silly, perhaps insane theme for a series of devotions? Probably! Does it border on narcissism to think Jesus would vacation with me? Absolutely! Will I be forced to put words in Jesus’s mouth that are surely going to tick some people off?
Um, yeah.
There are lots of objections to something like this, but hey, I like having fun. And when I read about Jesus in the Bible, I often find myself speculating on what might have happened. Like, did he practice his sermons? Did he toss ideas around to see what imagery worked best? Did he try new jokes when old ones grew stale? What did he say that didn’t make it into the Gospels?
If you disagree with the concept of this vacation with Jesus—if it just seems too ludicrous for Jesus to go on vacation with me of all people, or you can’t quite get your head around these devotions taking place in 2022 and 0000 simultaneously—that’s okay.
But I do hope these devotions cause you to look at things in a new light. Hopefully I’ve written these stories … oops, I mean devotions … from a gritty perspective that is honest to the realities of the moment.
Do you trust me enough to encourage others to sign up? Serious question. Past devotion series have relied on clever marketing and damn good graphics to capture peoples imagination. And, much to my surprise, people signed up. Most of them are glad they did.
But this time, instead of slick marketing, I’m hoping this will be more … I dunno, organic? Something more natural. My hope is you will encourage friends and family to sign up. If you enjoyed them, you probably know people who will also enjoy them. So please ask them to sign up here.
It all starts next week and runs about 2-weeks.
Thanks for your help!
PS Shameless plug – much of this trip is based at Jaguar Creek Belize, which I co-founded. It’s an amazing place for a vacation. You really should go!