us & them?

Back in Holland one of my Young Life guys pretty regularly asked me a big question—and he had a reason for it too. In the rare moments that he and I found ourselves in a serious place he would question (I’m sure you can guess it), “Mad Mike, why do bad things happen to good people?”

I'm sure youth pastors around the world can relate to the helpless feeling I'd get in my gut as he'd look at me like I knew the answer.

And like any good Christian leader, I'd answer him by beating around the bush. I'd say, "Well Jay, what exactly is a good person to you?" And I'd draw him this little graph (I know that I often tell some of you guys that I get frustrated when people try to make the Gospel into a science... like drawing graphs... but give me a break I was flustered).

My theory was that it's hard to do anything but call all humans 'bad' when put on a bar graph up against God's goodness. God's infinite goodness sets off the scale so much that it almost looks as if Mama T, Hitler, and I are all on the same 'goodness' level. Now Jay was okay with my graph but the more I think about it the more I realize that he had every right to argue, "If God is that good how could anything bad happen at all?"

Here at the Dale House it's tempting to draw a big bold line between what is good and what is bad... I'm ashamed to admit that it's even tempting to generalize who is good and who is bad. The other day, my primary even said that he knows he can be good and has been good, but it gets boring. Sometimes it's more fun to just be bad. You all know what I mean.

On Thursday, the director of the house (George) read this quote from N.T. Wright...

'The line between justice and injustice, between things being right and things not being right, can't be drawn between "us" and "them." It runs right down through the middle of each one of us.'

It runs right down the middle of each one of us. Me and my primary. Hitler and Mother Teresa. This idea of 'us and them' amongst Christians is fogging up the world's picture of God's all encompassing love. Us and them-- Us "the Christians" and them "the Muslims." Or us "the Americans" and them "the illegal immigrants." In fact, I'm inclined to believe, based on what I've read in the gospels, that Jesus might befriend the illegal immigrant far before introducing himself to me. ... maybe I'm 'them'...

Annie and I just got back from a bike trip with the staff at the Dale House. We biked 80 miles in two days and we got to hear everyone's beautiful life stories. It was apparent that there is no 'us and them' and we all know and have known both good and bad. We have all done both good and bad. The vulnerability on the trip really strengthened the community amongst old and new staff.

Here are some pics from that trip and some pics from Grey's Peak and Torrey's Peak (Annie and I went on a hike last weekend).

Here's us matching kind of unintentionally...we biked down a pass into Brekenridge and a town called Frisco stayed the night there then rode up and down Vail Pass...80 miles in two days!
At the top of Vail Pass
Our crazy friend Ryan who makes us laugh till we cry

On the hike up Grays and Torreys Peaks!

At the top of Torreys peak : 14,267 feet

At the top of Grays Peak : 14,270 feet


Rock climbing with the kids for a weeknight activity

Annie here! I decided I would write down a few thoughts since Mike writes a lot. Don't expect anything eloquent or deep but here it goes:)

So we're into our 3rd week here at the Dale House. We just finished our 1st weekend "on" which consisted of us starting at 2:30pm on Friday and ending at 8am Monday morning! A few highlights of the weekend are as follows: watching a children's movie with a few residents on Friday night; Mike having to cook his first meal here (shake and bake chicken) which was his first experience in baking in his whole life and really delicious; Going on a night hike to the top of a mountain with all the kids who complained the whole time but secretly loved it; Getting to go to an awesome multicultural church with one of the residents who is super excited about his faith; and lastly--
-- taking a walk with another resident where he told me his whole life story....from his adoptive parents that didn't care about him at all, to the time he first met his real Mom, who is addicted to methamphetamine and marijuana, and the first thing she did when they met was hand him a bottle of alcohol. He also told me about how he used to rob people every night to help support his sister's new born baby. This was heavy stuff that he was talking about but I just kept thinking about how he is a teenager, he's 18 years old and he's already gone through all of that.

We talked about how much he has already learned at the Dale House and how much he appreciates the staff and the way they care. One thing that he said that really stayed with me was, "I really value family time and I never had it growing up. I love when I walk in the door after work here and I have about 10 people asking me how my day was...it's the greatest thing ever"

Also, some more updates on primaries and new residents! Mike has a new primary that just got here a few days ago. He had just gotten his wisdom teeth pulled the day he came and so he was mellow and a little out of it but it has been cool getting to know him. He and Mike have already had quite a few good conversations. He told him that he wanted to earn trust with people here and show respect....he also talked about the fact that he knows he can be a good person and make good decisions, but every once in a while he just has a craving to do something bad. More to come on that later (from Mike)

Last thing--I visited the jail this last week to meet an 18 year old girl who will probably become my new primary! It was an altogether interesting and exciting experience. It was a little eerie being in a jail where ever door you walked through someone had to unlock for you and every 'inmate/juvenile' was in a light blue jump suit. I have another meeting with her and her client manager this week to talk about her transition to the Dale House. If everything goes well she should be here by the first week in October. She seems really awesome, self-aware, motivated and insightful. I'm so excited to get to know her more!

Thanks for reading and being a part of our lives...we appreciate your support!! You can pray for strength and compassion for Mike and I as we do our best to show Christ's love to these kids!!!

here are a few pics!


Our friend Ryan Jara from Hope (on staff) with one of the residents at the top of the peak that we did on our night hike. This is the resident I took a walk with and talked to about life
On the hike...Colorado Springs down below

One handsome resident

A previous resident that recently got out of jail and is living in one of the apartments that we rent out at the Dale House

A few residents fooling around in the kitchen, while Mike does the dishes.......typical