My new blog buddy Brett Trapp wrote this post on 28 things he’s learned in his 20’s. Since I am so much older and wiser than Brett (3 whopping months) and since I loved it so much, I thought I’d take each of those things and elaborate on them over the next several days.

15. People who love people are the most powerful people in the world. -Trappstr

Wow! Never thought of it that way…probably because of all the thoughts that cross my mind when I hear the word power.

We live in a time of war, terrorism, immorality, and death; a time where violence, sex, drugs, hate, lust and greed have become normal fanfare. It almost seems like wrong is the new cool at times.

Burt Bacharach that, “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love! Its the only thing there’s just too little of…” Since my sophomore year in high school I’ve always had this deep sense that my life is to be all about people. So I asked God to break my heart for what breaks His…people! I’ll never forget the first time I read Mark 12: 28-31 which says, “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him “Of all the commandments, which is the most important? ‘The most important one,’ Jesus answered, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

Dang. Burt Bacharach had a lot of wisdom when he wrote that song. We need a love revolution. We need desperately to be more powerful as the church because of our LOVE.

16. The number 1 thing holding most people back is their dislike for reading. -Trappstr

YES YES YES! Why do kids leave our public schools hating reading so much? Something has to change. As a parent I think much of it is my responsibility.

I will admit that I have to set goals and sometimes MAKE myself read. This year I set a goal to read 40 books. I have actually read 728 books so far this year (yes, I’ve counted.) I won’t lie; 706 of those books have been library books that I read to Couper. We read 2 or 3 per night. Each one takes about 5-10 minutes. I guess those don’t count.

Of my 40 book goal, I think I’ll knock out 30 by the end of the year. Not too shabby, but not my goal.

Bottom line is this: I read a lot with my son, Couper because I want him to love to read and I read a lot for myself because I never want to stop growing in my leadership.

17. You only have a hand-full of truly good friends in this life. -Trappstr

Why is this? I think because of two things: trust and forgiveness. Both are essential to true friendship. And both can be incredibly difficult for us to muster up these days.

We all need someone that we can trust and share our lives, thoughts, feelings, and frustrations with. We all need a place to share our deepest secrets and struggles without worrying that those secrets will end up being spewed into the public.

Real friends also forgive one another where there has been an offense. We live in a culture often unwilling to forgive. Its hard for us to forgive someone. The true friends I have are those who I’ve had to forgive (or be forgiven) from the worst offenses in my life.

Want some true friends? Spend lots of time with them, build trust and return grace the grace that Jesus Christ gave us all by forgiving!