Not too long ago, James Barnett was a fairly normal twentysomething, with a fresh four-year degree and a stable job.

Then he went to Nicaragua. “I heard once that Jesus disturbs the comfortable and comforts the disturbed. And I was very comfortable,” Barnett says. The trip brought him face-to-face with injustice and left him rattled—literally. While there, he visited a local prophetess who grabbed either side of his head, shook him firmly and said, “James, your obedience isn’t defined by that which you don’t do, but by what you do for the world your God so loved.”