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  It could be argued that this act of faith is a little more involved than the ones I shared yesterday. But, it still involves this idea of stepping out in your everyday faith into what God’s calling you towards.
    Ben is a senior in college who I met when he was a baby freshman in our bible study my senior year of college.   I went back to visit a friend over spring break who had an interesting looking book called “Green Bean Spirituality” sitting on her nightstand. I picked it up and saw the author was Ben MacKinnon.
         “ummmm Colleen? Is this the Ben MacKinnon from DCA?”
“Yes. He wrote a book.”
         “Seriously? Is he done school??? That’s amazing.”
“oh no, he still has a year left… he’s pretty motivated huh?”
 
Yeah. I’d say so.   Later we ran into Ben in a Mexican restaurant and I asked him about the book. His response was “Well, I always wanted to write a book. God said do it now… so I just kinda made the time and wrote it last year.”   
 Ummmm I don’t even think I have time to write email and Ben wrote a book and raised the funds to have it published… while he was a junior in college… working part-full time to pay his way through school.   Wow. This floored me. And the book isn’t half bad either!   J 
In the book Ben shares his faith via 5 points in the Gospel message: Sin, God, Jesus, Grace and Faith.    What intrigued me from the beginning is what he shared in the preface.   He encountered a 12 year old who was bold and courageous in sharing the gospel with one of his friends…. At first he was taken aback and even offended and the “canned” gospel message presented … but as he built a bridge and got over it, it encouraged him to write this expression of his faith.

Here’s an excerpt:  (…s are added by me… i don’t know how to properly excerpt something, sorry Ben!)

“Spencer is a child prodigy whose left brained prowess has enabled him to take 400-level math classes at the age of 12… In the academic sense it could be said that Spencer is much better at math than I am, and if you feel you are impervious to bitterness, try being trumped in any area of your life by somebody who has yet to reach puberty. I did not realize how intense this self righteous rage was until a friend of mine had a run-in with my pint sized counterpart.

My friend Dave was walking out of class one day in the Physics building and Spencer pulled him aside… and began questioning him. He was asking if Dave has ever lied, stolen, cursed, etc. Dave answered these questions as honestly as a twenty year old should, which gave Spencer the fuel to move to his next point. Spencer told Dave he needed Jesus!  

… My knee jerk reaction to this story was to rip into the math departments’ pre-pubescent evangelical. I thought this kid was completely wacko thinking that canned theology was going to have an impact on anybody… Did this kid realize he was dancing in murky water with people who are much smarter and much more combative than he is? In mid-rant my friend Dave stopped me and told me his presentation was fair. According to Dave, Spencer mentioned sin, grace, Jesus, God, and faith with elaboration on each part by use of his twelve years of experience to draw parallels. Dave even mentioned there was a lot to be said about a twelve year old kid stepping up to the plate and sharing the gospel with people almost twice his age. Dave may have been right, but I still thought this kid was a looney-in-training.   When I later got home I began to think about what it was that made me so vehemently opposed to this young man’s tact.”

And the result of this thinking was Ben’s expression of faith on those same points Spencer shared in his gospel message in a busy college hallway.

When is the last time you were obedient knowing the road He was calling you wouldn’t be easy and you would probably be rejected along the way?

If you want a copy of Ben’s book to support this young author, display the cool cover art, or even perhaps to read you can buy it on Amazon:     Green Bean Spirituality