You ARE (fill in the blank) is very different than you MUST BE something. Or you HAVE something. Think about these you are statements... If you got the news... You ARE now a Florida Gator... you wouldn't keep submitting your college application, would you? When you grow up hearing your parents say... You ARE our precious child... you wouldn't try to prove your status as a daughter or son -- absent some pretty unusual circumstances.

So when the Lord says -- you ARE the salt of the earth, why do we sometimes hear -- you MUST BE the salt of the earth, or you HAVE the salt of the earth?

Our mission story this month begins with a woman sewing a glittery hem onto an old worn out pair of pants in an effort to extend their already expired life-span...

And it ends more than a decade later with a sentence in a book that metaphorically extends the "life" of that unraveled hem well beyond its shelf life.

Curious?

We sure hope so!

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of the Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation for the September 2023 mission challenge and true story called -- Salt &...

If you would like to receive the Mobile Mission Pack mentioned in this Episode, head on over to theridiculoushour.com and we will get one in the mail to you for free as long as supplies last!

The phrase mid-life is curious, isn't it? Especially when we have no way of knowing where the middle will be. Which is why mid-life tends to have us reinforcing holes. Asking questions like: “What have I left undone?” “What should I be doing in the time I have left?”

Our mission story begins with an invite to give a TED-style talk and how it moved a mid-lifer to face a stereotype he hid behind...

It ends with God reinforcing the holes in that adopted identity…

And somewhere in the middle, we hear how the holes were filled: "The best analogy I have is a pair of jeans with worn out knees. When you run your hand over that part you feel something in the thin place that you don’t feel on the rest of your legs. The presence of the Lord was overwhelming."

Curious?

We sure hope so!

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of the Mobile Mission Project at the Ridiculous Hour Foundation, for the August 2023 Mobile Mission launch – Mid-life: Reinforcing Holes.

If you'd like the physical Mobile Mission Pack discussed in this podcast, go to TheRidiculousHour.com and we’ll get one in the mail to you right away [free while supplies last].

*** Always with joyful gratitude to our sound editor, Shannon Alderman, for her creative work on this episode.

There is a truth that would make most of us viscerally nod our heads up and down -- a phrase that tugs our heart strings when we pause to think about the folks who live this out in our lives -- a phrase that reaches a deep tender place...

We long to be both fully known and still fully loved.

Think about it. To be DEEPLY known, warts and all, and STILL deeply loved requires a great deal of trust on the part of the known one and a great deal of patience and kindness on the part of the knower.

Our mission story this month starts with a nurse who explains, in an unforgettable way, why this kind of love is so hard to lose, and ends with a slap across the face that results in a... BEAR HUG!

Curious?

We sure hope so!

Join Kat Silverglate, Founder of the Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation for the July 2023 Mobile Mission called Old Love, New Love.

If you'd like to receive the Mission Pack referenced in this Podcast [always free while supplies last] visit www.theridiculoushour.com. We'd absolutely love to send you one!

We are so fond of the phrase "life is a gift," and it is; but, the middle letters in both these words, life and gift, are IF. Both center on the ability to question. It's what sets us apart. Makes us human, right? If we aren't careful, we can fall into the trap of believing that questions and doubts are a sign of ingratitude. Or a lack of faith. If we aren't careful, we can stunt our growth and that of others by calling honest questions and doubts by the wrong names -- ingratitude and faithlessness.

Our mission story begins with a girl whose parents give her the middle initials I.F. before they know her naturally inquisitive nature. A cancer diagnosis in her 20's amp up her questions about God and a fear that expressing them will signal ingratitude in the midst of so much care. Thinking that a carpe diem attitude is a higher way through cancer, she develops a poker face of confidence, stuffing her pain and doubts for years. COVID lockdown leaves her alone with all that stuffing and numbing mechanisms that no longer work. Our story ends with a "Godly Google Search" that results in friends who help her move from poker face to poker breath, a holy release from the desire to stuff honest questions and doubts.

Curious?

We sure hope so.

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of The Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation, for the June 2023 mission story and challenge. If you choose to begin this mission on June 1st, you will be joining individuals in 13 countries, 45 states and 270+ cities who are receiving these messages and activities. If you would like the physical Mission Pack with the equipping pieces described in this Episode (always free while supplies last), go to https://theridiculoushour.com/mobile-mission/ and request one or sign up to receive them automatically by mail.

This episode is dedicated to my little sister Shannon I.F. Alderman who is brave in her questions and faithful in her journey toward hope. As sound editor to this podcast, she has blessed countless others through The Ridiculous Hour mission. We thank God for her daily.

What is hope before it's tested? It's a funny question, isn't it? I mean, we know transformation happens between untested and tested hope, but what kind?

C.S. Lewis focuses his answer on revelation in his book A Grief Observed: “God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't." The Apostle Paul goes beyond self-revelation to an often painful trajectory that ends at a fruitful promise: "...we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame..." Romans 5:3-5

Which leads some of us to this bold honest question... So does that mean it's possible to get to the point where we move through suffering and tests differently because we trust they lead to resilient hope? To a hope that does not disappoint? After reading Carlisa's story, we think you might find yourself declaring, "of course it does!"

When God called Carlisa and her husband to foster* nine children [not all at the same time], He already knew that it would pull her through the biggest faith crisis of her adult life -- the death of her beloved mother. Our mission story begins with a grief stricken daughter declaring "I don't do God anymore" and ends with a wild, nearly comical series of God-incidences that leave her shamelessly hopeful!

Curious? We sure hope so.

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of the Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation, for the May 2023 Mission story called Tested Hope. If you'd like to receive the free Mission Pack discussed in this podcast, we'd be thrilled to send you one by snail mail while supplies last. Simply visit the mission page at www.theridiculoushour.com.

Note*: some facts about the children have been changed to protect their identities.

End Note: With ridiculous gratitude to our sound producer, Shannon Alderman, for your excellence in making these podcasts pop with music and vocal edits.

Waiting sounds like such a passive thing, doesn't it? The act of waiting. You let time pass until the wait is over and then you go on, right? Sometimes we do, but not always.

Not when it's the hardest kind of waiting. Not when it is the kind of waiting where you have zero control over the outcome and the outcome will seriously impact your life. You have a routine medical test. You get that call... you need a biopsy. While you're waiting for the test and then the results, you feel like you have a gremlin living in your head. He does laps around the creases in your brain repeatedly yelling "what if, what if, what if..." He's loud and rude and he won't shut up. You keep getting in the car with him like you're in a NASCAR race and you let him drive you to the scene of various worst case scenarios again and again. You're very active in that waiting room, but you know that it isn't the right kind of active waiting. How do you find it?

Our mission story this month begins with that little fear and worry gremlin driving a woman bonkers while waiting for biopsy results and it ends with perfect strangers feasting in a hospital room and experiencing peace together before the results come in.

Curious? We sure hope so!

Join Kat Silverglate, the founder of the Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation for the April 2023 mission story and challenge called Active Waiting. If you would like to learn more about the project or you'd like to receive the Mission Pack described in this episode [while supplies last], go to www.theridiculoushour.com and click that orange Get Started button at the center of the giant bike picture.

This episode is dedicated to Alma Figueredo who found peace again and again while she waited.

With gratitude to Shannon Alderman for the sound edits to this episode.

I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm too inexperienced. I'm too poor. I don't have any talents. I'm too tired. I'm too busy. I'm not creative. I'm not bold. I'm afraid. I'm not fixed enough. I'm not ready. I'm not equipped. I'm not good at anything special. I'm afraid to fail. I'm shy. I don't have anything special to add. I don't have any unique skills. I don't know where to start...

Tell this to Margarita and Barbara, two best friends, who at 70 years old started making handmade dolls for people in need of comfort. It started with one doll, then another... and now, at 76 and 77 years old, they are close to their 7,000th's doll. Did they buy all that fabric and stuffing and thread? Nope. It was donated. Did they pay to have the dolls shipped to countries all over the world? Nope. Established ministries, churches, strangers and friends carried or shipped them to those in need. Do they have a formal organization? Negative! Just a name, Komfort Kuddlies and a heart to share the Lord.

This dynamic duo has something to teach us about the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Something way beyond the call to use what we've been given. Something about the joyful freedom to invest our talents without the wrong kind of fear holding us back. Something about giving out of a deep security in God's love. 

Our mission story this months begins with a woman searching for a role model the way one might search for a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket and ends with two septuagenarians and a wild investment strategy. 

Curious? We sure hope so!

Join the Founder of the Ridiculous Hour Foundation, Kat Silverglate, for the March 2023 Mobile Mission -- Nothing Wasted With God. If you'd like to receive the equipping piece discussed in this Episode, visit www.theridiculoushour.com and go to the mission page. We'll get one out to you!

With gratitude to Shannon Alderman for the sound edits and production of this episode. Thank you for giving your talents so faithfully!

In 1964 a father penned a bedtime story for his sons called Flat Stanley. In it, Stanley is flattened by a falling bulletin board which makes it possible for him to be sent through the postal service in an envelope to a friend in another state. He returns in a fresh new envelope full of stories about his time with friends. Strangely, this seems like such an apt description of what we've become socially. We flatten our voices into text messages, our movements into reels, our physical presence into sharable images and we send them to our "friends." We stopped calling this "connection" long ago and now call it flat-out-relationship.  And while much of this was absolutely necessary during a global pandemic, and while it remains vitally necessary for those with compromised immunities or health challenges, and while it definitely works for folks separated by geography and for teaching on a broad scale, haven't we taken the flat thing a bit too far? In the Lord, the relational world was never intended to be flat. Far from it. It was designed to have the texture of touch and voice and presence. How do we push through a culture that says flat is where it's at?

Our mission story this month begins with the director of a Trial Academy Boot Camp lecturing young lawyers on the importance of texture in their interaction with a jury and we end with Flat Stanley sightings all over the world and beyond to the International Space Station. 

Curious? We sure hope so.

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of The Ridiculous Hour Foundation [Home of The Mobile Mission Project] for our February 2023 Mobile Mission Challenge. If you would like to receive the equipping piece discussed in this month's podcast, visit our mission page at www.theridiculoushour.com. We'd be thrilled to mail you one while supplies last. And if you'd like to sign up to take these monthly challenges, visit our sign up link on our home page at www.theridiculoushour.com.

With gratitude to Shannon Alderman for her sound edits on this podcast. Her skill adds texture to the mission!

We buy planners this time of year. Preprinted commercial books that give space for yearly goals, monthly calendars, daily plans. We are given room to write and then check off our accomplishments. Set our top priorities. Even schedule our days by 30 minute increments. Doesn't it seem a bit odd that there isn't a box anywhere on those tools for detours? For the unplanned moments when our steps are involuntarily reordered? When it doesn't go the way we want and we find ourselves off the page trying to get back on track? Doesn't it seem like there should be a checkable box for the detours? Don't they count? Do we live as if the unplanned is unusual? As if the detours don't count on life's map?  

Our mission story this month begins with a quirky family mantra -- "what's written remains" -- that causes one family member to freeze when it comes time to writing down goals and plans. It ends with a carefully scripted weekend that was marked more by interruptions than by check marks. A weekend that made that same family member grateful she could compare the written plan to the map her steps ultimately took. 

Curious?

We sure hope so!    

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of The Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation, as she introduces the January 2023 Mobile Mission -- Counting Detours. To learn more about this project or to receive the equipping piece discussed in this episode, visit www.TheRidiculousHour.com.

Our mission story this month starts with a little girl who communicates through sign language a desperate desire for more time with her grandmother and ends with a sign language word that we may decide to use for the rest of our lives to remind ourselves and others that there is always more with God!

Curious?

We sure hope so!

Join Kat Silverglate, founder of The Mobile Mission Project at The Ridiculous Hour Foundation for the December 2022 mission challenge -- MORE! If you'd like to receive the equipping pieces discussed at the end of this podcast [always free while supplies last], visit the mission page at www.theridiculoushour.com and select "request materials."

May we all walk through December 2022 remembering this -- there is always more with God!