It was an honor to be featured on the High Calling Blogs network this week with a handful of other talented writers. David Rupert shares the following about which pieces were chosen and why:

There’s a folder in my desk stuffed with letters – some 40 years old or more. Despite the passage of time, the handwritten swirls of ink from friends and family continue to inject wit, understanding and love. Within these folded pages are the annals of people who make an impact in my life.

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I just saw this video about David Platt's new book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, and it got my blood boiling. Here's one quote that really struck me as both incredible and challenging: "We do not have time to waste our lives living out a Christian spin on the American Dream."

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How often do you wonder or worry about if someone is praying for you? I think most of us take it for granted that someone, somewhere, is thinking about us, wishing us well, and yes, even praying for us.

But that's not the case for millions of children around the world -- orphaned and forgotten.

When my friend Tom Davis came to a recent missions training camp, he shared how Russian orphans are one of the most targeted groups for sex trafficking, because no one will miss them when they are gone.

He told us that we need to begin our fight for justice by praying for the orphans of the world -- those who have no spiritual protection.

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One of my new favorite writers is Sara Kelm. She's an up-and-coming author based out of Oregon that you should be watching. (Seriously.)

Since I've been ranting on youth and 20-something culture, I thought this post on birthdays that Sara recently wrote was particularly relevant to some of the discussions we've been having on this blog.

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Today on his blog, John Maxwell posed the question that all leaders ask themselves:

How do you gain the trust of others?

Trust is the lifeblood of any successful organization; it is what inspires leaders to keep leading, even through tough times. It is what holds communities together in adverse circumstances. It is what leads to long-term change.

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Here's a great post by my friend Tom Davis, plugging an AIM mission trip to specifically address the issue of human trafficking. Tom writes:

Friends, I'll be blunt: I don't think that it's time for apologetics or theology or philosophical musings. I think it's time to act.

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Interesting video that I found thanks to my new buddy Jim Gray.

Random geek question: How will Facebook Places change the way online and offline interactions are made? Or will it? Is this just nerdy hype or really the dawn of a new social era?

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Wow.

That's all I have to say about this group on Facebook: International Burn a Koran Day.

What do you think about a church that encourages people to burn the Koran?

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Perhaps against my better male judgment, I went to see Eat, Pray, Love last weekend with my wife. I bought this New York Times bestseller for her just before our taking a trip to New York City for Labor Day last year.

We've started an informal tradition of buying each other books before traveling. I bought her Wonderful Tonight, the story of Patti Boyd's love triangle with Eric Clapton and George Harrison, before going on our honeymoon. She bought me a Star Wars book before my mission trip to Costa Rica last spring.

I'm not sure why we do this, except that because maybe we both believe in the transformative power of travel. Travel has always been a part of our life and relationship. In fact, our first year of dating (it was more like courting) occurred while I was traveling with a music ministry.

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You hear a lot about justice issues like human trafficking these days. Celebrities like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have popularized them through their advocacy and humanitarianism (which, don't get me wrong, is a really great thing).

But if you're like me -- a sponge for news and different forms of media -- you can get desensitized to all of these various issues and categorize them as just that, issues.

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