One of the things that had the biggest impact on me while I was in Waveland was actually very simple. But I think it's funny how those simple, basic things are often the most vital bits you need for life and yet you totally over look.
We met a woman, Janet, who is just now getting her house built back. Before Katrina I think her family had a house there for atleast 50 years. They had passed their land down for several generations. She's less than 200 yards from the beach front and was planning to stay through Katrina like she'd done with other storms, until it was moved up to a category 5 storm. She evacuated to Florida, and after the storm passed and the waters went down came back to live in a tent on her land. She said that with all the debris, it was basically like taking a tent to a landfill and living there. She came back to no house, no job, she'd lost friends, neighbors...then there was the long process of trying to locate people who left.
So in all of the stories she told us about her life through and after the hurricane, a couple things struck me most. The first was her attitude about work. After the storm, she hadn't even really thought about working yet. A woman drove by and stopped by Janet's land and asked if anyone needed a job. At that moment it hit her that she had no job anymore. So she quickly jumped at the chance to work. She became part of the cleanup crew for her town. I can't imagine already having to face going through all the debris of my own home, but also having to go through everyone else's. But she said something that really changed me. She said she was grateful for the job not just because it was work, but it gave her the chance to be part of the solution. She said after the storm she learned to be grateful for what she is able to do, anything that she could do herself, she wants to do because she knows its such a gift. I'd say before I met her, I had an attitude much like she said she did before Katrina. There are a lot of things I could do myself but I'd rather let someone else do for me because it would take more effort for me than them.
Janet also told us about coming back to a place where there was nothing left but debris. When you go through a disaster like Katrina, she said you learn what's really important. It's fire and water, plants and animals, friends and family. And it's the invisible things that hold them together. It's love and the like that are unseen but most important. And it's the invisible that no one and nothing in this world can take away. Often people would say that as much as Katrina took away, it gave back so much more because they appreciate that now. I'm starting to see it too...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Pieces of Waveland
I just got home from Waveland Mississippi a couple days ago. As dramatic and cliche as it may sound to say "I am forever changed" yet again after a mission trip, it is true. I have so much to share after that won't all fit into one blog post, so I'm just gonna start with this bit.
I think going into a place devastated by a storm such as Katrina, you expect wear and tear, you expect there to be major damage. But nothing prepares you for the nothing. Simple concrete squares and a few beams are the only remains of the houses that once stood so strong. Weeds and dying trees stand where families used to be in their yards. Nothing.
One dear woman described their struggle to rebuild something like this... "You take a child out to that beach, and they'll start shaping tunnels and finding ways to run the water in to the sand and such. They'll shape it into something that works better, they'll leave their mark. We can throw up our hands in despair. But we can all shape our world, we can all change our world and impact it somehow. You look around at all the mess and you say 'Well I've got an extra tent, I've got some old bathtub, and I've got this old wood stove, how can I use this to make our lives better?' and you do what you can and use what you do have." She turned that stuff into a small bath house of sorts for friends and neighbors. And that's how they've been doing this. Bit by bit. Living in tents around debris heaps, sharing found bits of debris with neighbors 'till some kind of mementos are restored. Opening already shattered lives to the volunteers, the strangers who come to offer help. They pull together the bit they can from what was, and look forward with thankfulness to what is and will be.
The people we met persevere in tragedy and human failings. They are thankful for the simple help and love we came to bring. The people understand the difference between what you need and what you want. Between stuff and what is truly valuable beyond monetary payment.
I held the pieces in my hands, and I can't forget it. I can't forget the emptiness of the land, the debris that still lies waiting to be found. I can't forget the people who face the devastation and rebuild shattered dreams and lives. Finding new dreams, new life, and renewed hope in something more than what is tangible.
A piece of a steel and concrete wall from a house in Waveland.
How can I say what flooded my heart as I held the bits of the homes of people in Waveland? I held pieces of the houses where they made their homes. Not just pretty little houses where they lived it up on the beach, but the place where their families had lived for generations, houses that they had strengthened to with stand many storms before. All my judgements and preconceived notions were put to shame and revealed for the foolishness they were.
I think going into a place devastated by a storm such as Katrina, you expect wear and tear, you expect there to be major damage. But nothing prepares you for the nothing. Simple concrete squares and a few beams are the only remains of the houses that once stood so strong. Weeds and dying trees stand where families used to be in their yards. Nothing.
One dear woman described their struggle to rebuild something like this... "You take a child out to that beach, and they'll start shaping tunnels and finding ways to run the water in to the sand and such. They'll shape it into something that works better, they'll leave their mark. We can throw up our hands in despair. But we can all shape our world, we can all change our world and impact it somehow. You look around at all the mess and you say 'Well I've got an extra tent, I've got some old bathtub, and I've got this old wood stove, how can I use this to make our lives better?' and you do what you can and use what you do have." She turned that stuff into a small bath house of sorts for friends and neighbors. And that's how they've been doing this. Bit by bit. Living in tents around debris heaps, sharing found bits of debris with neighbors 'till some kind of mementos are restored. Opening already shattered lives to the volunteers, the strangers who come to offer help. They pull together the bit they can from what was, and look forward with thankfulness to what is and will be.
The people we met persevere in tragedy and human failings. They are thankful for the simple help and love we came to bring. The people understand the difference between what you need and what you want. Between stuff and what is truly valuable beyond monetary payment.
I held the pieces in my hands, and I can't forget it. I can't forget the emptiness of the land, the debris that still lies waiting to be found. I can't forget the people who face the devastation and rebuild shattered dreams and lives. Finding new dreams, new life, and renewed hope in something more than what is tangible.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Guatemala
I wasn't sure what to expect out of a trip back to Guatemala. I've said that before. How to explain what I saw in a new way, well I don't really think I can.
I saw things in Guatemala that I've seen before, things I've often played over in my mind day after day. It's the beggars, the people who appear to work so hard every day and yet have so little in my American perspective. I heard children who have been abandoned, hurt, or orphaned worshiping God in a language I can't understand with my mind but can join in with my heart and tears fill my eyes. The worship in different languages and cultures always gets me, because it's right there, I think the Spirit is just practically screaming the greatness and vastness of our Father. Our God who is not bound by culture or language or space, but His love so great and poured out for all people on this beautiful earth.
I was reminded over and over that happiness and the joy that comes from my Savior has nothing to do with what you hold in your hands but everything with the love and hope you have in your heart. But also that the smallest possession given by the compelling of love can bring the biggest smile I've ever seen.
I was reminded that adoption isn't just a nice thing to do, it's an act of God. There is no other way to explain how two little Guatemala babies are now safely sleeping in their home here in the States after being born into hunger and poverty. And seeing how much He's done to care for us here in this fleeting life proves to me how much greater He has provided for my eternal life with Him.
I was challenged to go deeper, to strive for more, that there is SO much more to be learned in my faith. I was reminded of how easily I can slip into complacency here in my "perfect" world away from deep material needs, but that great new adventures in this breath of a life await if I will take that first step.
I was reminded of what my Savior looks like, I saw Him in children's eyes, I heard His joy in their songs, I recognized His hope in their dreams and plans and talents. I saw His redemption and healing in a home where children find refuge and provision and love. And I saw His heart break as His creation walked streets begging for some bit of change, hungry people in need of a gospel that speaks more than just words and emotions.
I've seen it all before, I'm sure I meet my Savior every day. But it's so much easier to have our hearts open on those great and special one week trips out of the year. I'm pretty sure Jesus is who He is always, and I'm pretty sure if we were who we claimed to be we would see that a lot more clearly. It doesn't take Guatemala or Africa or a homeless shelter to see it, it's where ever you-are letting your heart open to a Love that can make your heart see and give much more than that selfish flesh ever could. So where ever our God takes us, Africa, Guatemala, China, the grocery store or across the hall, God is still God. Who are we?
I saw things in Guatemala that I've seen before, things I've often played over in my mind day after day. It's the beggars, the people who appear to work so hard every day and yet have so little in my American perspective. I heard children who have been abandoned, hurt, or orphaned worshiping God in a language I can't understand with my mind but can join in with my heart and tears fill my eyes. The worship in different languages and cultures always gets me, because it's right there, I think the Spirit is just practically screaming the greatness and vastness of our Father. Our God who is not bound by culture or language or space, but His love so great and poured out for all people on this beautiful earth.
I was reminded over and over that happiness and the joy that comes from my Savior has nothing to do with what you hold in your hands but everything with the love and hope you have in your heart. But also that the smallest possession given by the compelling of love can bring the biggest smile I've ever seen.
I was reminded that adoption isn't just a nice thing to do, it's an act of God. There is no other way to explain how two little Guatemala babies are now safely sleeping in their home here in the States after being born into hunger and poverty. And seeing how much He's done to care for us here in this fleeting life proves to me how much greater He has provided for my eternal life with Him.
I was challenged to go deeper, to strive for more, that there is SO much more to be learned in my faith. I was reminded of how easily I can slip into complacency here in my "perfect" world away from deep material needs, but that great new adventures in this breath of a life await if I will take that first step.
I was reminded of what my Savior looks like, I saw Him in children's eyes, I heard His joy in their songs, I recognized His hope in their dreams and plans and talents. I saw His redemption and healing in a home where children find refuge and provision and love. And I saw His heart break as His creation walked streets begging for some bit of change, hungry people in need of a gospel that speaks more than just words and emotions.
I've seen it all before, I'm sure I meet my Savior every day. But it's so much easier to have our hearts open on those great and special one week trips out of the year. I'm pretty sure Jesus is who He is always, and I'm pretty sure if we were who we claimed to be we would see that a lot more clearly. It doesn't take Guatemala or Africa or a homeless shelter to see it, it's where ever you-are letting your heart open to a Love that can make your heart see and give much more than that selfish flesh ever could. So where ever our God takes us, Africa, Guatemala, China, the grocery store or across the hall, God is still God. Who are we?
Thursday, June 11, 2009
People
So the following is just some thoughts I'd scribbled in my notebook.
People.
Here I am in Wake Forest, NC. About to leave for Guatemala on Friday. So excited, so expectant, and so sure God is and will be moving. As I've been out a bit here, sitting in a food court at the mall, meeting beautiful adoptive families, seeing a homeless man walking the sides of the road-all his possessions on his back-on the way from the airport. Checked out i-heart and read a story about a girl who was kidnapped and a sex slave. I am over whelmed by the way God is opening my heart and eyes.
People. It's never hit me in such a way before. People created in the image of God. Every person is a soul. Thinking about that, every face I meet is eternal, created-loved-known by God the Father, Christ died for each one. Oh how the Father loves each! I'm amazed at His Spirit in me, pushing me to reach out my redeemed life and love others with mine. This life is such a gift, such glimpse/moment/flash of what is to come. How I live affects every single persons eternity. Sounds lofty? No. My Creator made and formed each of us, lovingly, for this time.
This life. we make it seem so simple and singular to the self. We are all on this same earth. He has each of us here for a reason. We are "created to do good works," works predestined to bring glory-children,people- to God.
People. soul, eternity, creation, loved, beautiful, needy, spirit. People, there are many to be loved. But there is a Love greater than our numbers or population, and it's poured into us who know Salvation to be poured out again. It's never ending, forever flowing awesome Love.
Hope you got this, I know for me I've never been so over whelmed just by seeing another person. But if you stop to think about, each face you see is something really profound. You are looking into eternity, that person has a soul and a Creator who desperately wants to spend eternity with them. Love is for all people.
Love. People.
People.
Here I am in Wake Forest, NC. About to leave for Guatemala on Friday. So excited, so expectant, and so sure God is and will be moving. As I've been out a bit here, sitting in a food court at the mall, meeting beautiful adoptive families, seeing a homeless man walking the sides of the road-all his possessions on his back-on the way from the airport. Checked out i-heart and read a story about a girl who was kidnapped and a sex slave. I am over whelmed by the way God is opening my heart and eyes.
People. It's never hit me in such a way before. People created in the image of God. Every person is a soul. Thinking about that, every face I meet is eternal, created-loved-known by God the Father, Christ died for each one. Oh how the Father loves each! I'm amazed at His Spirit in me, pushing me to reach out my redeemed life and love others with mine. This life is such a gift, such glimpse/moment/flash of what is to come. How I live affects every single persons eternity. Sounds lofty? No. My Creator made and formed each of us, lovingly, for this time.
This life. we make it seem so simple and singular to the self. We are all on this same earth. He has each of us here for a reason. We are "created to do good works," works predestined to bring glory-children,people- to God.
People. soul, eternity, creation, loved, beautiful, needy, spirit. People, there are many to be loved. But there is a Love greater than our numbers or population, and it's poured into us who know Salvation to be poured out again. It's never ending, forever flowing awesome Love.
Hope you got this, I know for me I've never been so over whelmed just by seeing another person. But if you stop to think about, each face you see is something really profound. You are looking into eternity, that person has a soul and a Creator who desperately wants to spend eternity with them. Love is for all people.
Love. People.
Monday, June 8, 2009
pride-part 50 million
I'm about to leave for Guatemala in few days, a mission trip to visit and work for some beautiful orphans. I'm so excited and keep thinking about last year when I went to China for a trip kind of like this. I've been thinking today about pride, I think the Spirit is trying to remind me to be aware of this, be surrendering this flesh in advance this time around. Last year was a painful wake up call that just because I might not have a mirror or camera in my face 24/7 doesn't mean I can't have a problem with pride and self.
It's so easy to get bound up in pride, to fall into it's grasp and live a life there. It's easy to be caught up in yourself, so frustratingly easy. I despise and crave pride at the same time, it sounds a bit weird but that's the human in me I suppose. The Spirit knows that this self is the last thing I need, but the 'old man' -woman in this case- constantly craves attention. The old desires thoughts of self, how does everything affect me, how do I feel, what do I want, it's a maddening and destructive cycle.
Even in surrendering pride, pride still can find a way to slide into your life. Making you think that it's all about you getting your focus off yourself, which is just a crazy circle that comes right back to where it's doesn't need to be. Often I try as David said to "take my life into my own hands," and so wash away my sin with my dirty hands, but self can not get rid of its very own self.
The thing is, I want to use this life to bear Love's heart out into this world I'm in, but I can't bear Love's heart if I'm too busy bearing out my selfishness on my life. When I'm focused on myself, that will bear out in my actions and life each day whether I realize it or like it. But when I gaze faithfully and passionately at Love above all else, it will inevitably show in my life.
Love
It's so easy to get bound up in pride, to fall into it's grasp and live a life there. It's easy to be caught up in yourself, so frustratingly easy. I despise and crave pride at the same time, it sounds a bit weird but that's the human in me I suppose. The Spirit knows that this self is the last thing I need, but the 'old man' -woman in this case- constantly craves attention. The old desires thoughts of self, how does everything affect me, how do I feel, what do I want, it's a maddening and destructive cycle.
Even in surrendering pride, pride still can find a way to slide into your life. Making you think that it's all about you getting your focus off yourself, which is just a crazy circle that comes right back to where it's doesn't need to be. Often I try as David said to "take my life into my own hands," and so wash away my sin with my dirty hands, but self can not get rid of its very own self.
The thing is, I want to use this life to bear Love's heart out into this world I'm in, but I can't bear Love's heart if I'm too busy bearing out my selfishness on my life. When I'm focused on myself, that will bear out in my actions and life each day whether I realize it or like it. But when I gaze faithfully and passionately at Love above all else, it will inevitably show in my life.
Love
Friday, May 29, 2009
Beautiful People
Take a look at me
So you can see how beautiful you are
I know I can't make you stay,
But I would give my final breath
To make you understand how beautiful you are
Understand how beautiful you are
I heard this song, "Stranger" by Second Hand Serenade, while with a couple friends who are big fans. I don't really know much of the guys music, but when I heard those lines up there, oh my heart just melted as I pondered them in my mind. This didn't bring the typical romantic thoughts to my mind. As I heard those lines and just kind of whispered them about in my mind, I thought about how this seems to be what Jesus speaks to us. When we turn our eyes to Christ, we see what we are created for and our own beauty-not because of anything we are on our own but because of who we are in HIM.
And then it made me think of something else. God's Spirit is in me. When others see me, I want them to see how beautiful they are, I want them to see that they are worth something, I want them to see that they are divinely loved by their Creator-by their Father.
So, what do people see when they look at us? What do we want them to see? What do they need to see? Are we selfless enough to let them see Christ instead of ourselves?
People are beautiful. Not in self's eyes, but in the eyes of Love they were created for.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Bubbles and Questions and Divisions
I was reading a guys blog who was talking about the "bubble" we often get stuck in in life, and the balance of living outside that bubble but keeping from going off in the wrong direction. Then I've been reading ch.10 of Pursuit of God by Tozer over and over just soaking it all in. It got me started thinking about some things I'd been meaning to write for a bit and I'm finally going to write it down like I've been meaning to.
Have you ever seen the commercial on TV where the people jump from one bubble to another, each bubble playing a different song? I think that's been me a lot. There have been separate bubbles for the way I talk, another for my actions, one for being with my friends, another for my parents, and so on. I've been thinking about my faith, about my Savior. I don't ever want to be ashamed or too distracted to live Christ' ways or to speak his name. I've been thinking about how so often the things in my heart, word, and deed are so different. Tozer calls this the 'sacred-secular antithesis.' We so often divide our lives into different areas, some we consider 'sacred' good things like church or singing a certain hymn, and others we consider 'secular' and are frustrated yet very drawn too like eating or movies etc. It's a difficult balance, I find myself constantly in situations where I wonder what I'm suposed to do and be. It's hard to know when to preach with words or deeds. It's difficult to feel as if you're a Christian when you often end up in places that contrast church or a religious place. Sometimes it's easy to feel as if you have to either be this wet blanket depressing 'christian' or else the wild little sinner. And both leave you dissapointed.
This has been on my heart and mind for a while. And after questions and pondering I've come to a realization, but I'd rather just share those questions and thoughts right now. I hope you'll find what I did.
What if my words were the same as my actions, and my actions reflected by my words?
What if my heart compelled every action I do and word that I spoke?
What if nothing in my life were separated by bubbles, if there were no separation between my actions, my words, my thoughts, my heart?
What if it's not even about my words, deeds, or heart?
What if my self were gone, and only the image of Love remained?
What if everything I am were surrendered and captivated in Love?
I don't want to live this life in a bunch of different bubbles or even just one bubble, asking a bunch of questions, but never having the guts to break out of those bubbles and live the answers out.
Have you ever seen the commercial on TV where the people jump from one bubble to another, each bubble playing a different song? I think that's been me a lot. There have been separate bubbles for the way I talk, another for my actions, one for being with my friends, another for my parents, and so on. I've been thinking about my faith, about my Savior. I don't ever want to be ashamed or too distracted to live Christ' ways or to speak his name. I've been thinking about how so often the things in my heart, word, and deed are so different. Tozer calls this the 'sacred-secular antithesis.' We so often divide our lives into different areas, some we consider 'sacred' good things like church or singing a certain hymn, and others we consider 'secular' and are frustrated yet very drawn too like eating or movies etc. It's a difficult balance, I find myself constantly in situations where I wonder what I'm suposed to do and be. It's hard to know when to preach with words or deeds. It's difficult to feel as if you're a Christian when you often end up in places that contrast church or a religious place. Sometimes it's easy to feel as if you have to either be this wet blanket depressing 'christian' or else the wild little sinner. And both leave you dissapointed.
This has been on my heart and mind for a while. And after questions and pondering I've come to a realization, but I'd rather just share those questions and thoughts right now. I hope you'll find what I did.
What if my words were the same as my actions, and my actions reflected by my words?
What if my heart compelled every action I do and word that I spoke?
What if nothing in my life were separated by bubbles, if there were no separation between my actions, my words, my thoughts, my heart?
What if it's not even about my words, deeds, or heart?
What if my self were gone, and only the image of Love remained?
What if everything I am were surrendered and captivated in Love?
I don't want to live this life in a bunch of different bubbles or even just one bubble, asking a bunch of questions, but never having the guts to break out of those bubbles and live the answers out.
God is God wherever we are, when ever etc. And His Spirit is alive in us.
....let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... Hebrews 12:1-2
Monday, April 13, 2009
Injustice
Today I was checking out some pictures from International Justice Mission that just totally broke my heart, made me rather angry/sad, and caused my soul to cry out. I saw pictures of beautiful young girls, who had been rescued from trafficking and were now in a safe house. That's great, I'm so glad to see justice and hope being brought into their lives. But the thing that made me so upset was that they even needed to be rescued. The most basic things of life, having a home and someone, like a parent, to love and surround you as you grow up in safety and love, that was taken away from them. It's ridiculous to me that in an age where we walk on the moon, drive one of our several cars down paved roads, that such disgusting injustice lives on the same earth that I do. Those girls in the pictures should never have had to be rescued in the first place, there never should have been such a twisted 'business' to be caught in.
You know what else is totally crazy to me? That I can sit and look at a computer screen and my heart so totally go out to girls I've never seen before. I love that God so breaks my heart for them and that He shows me that there are better ways and that this trafficking thing that got those girls is not right. But that's not all, it's totally crazy to me that I would want to love and help those girls I've never met, because their condition of need is so visible and tangible to me, and yet that I would hesitate or refuse to reach out and love a neighbor because their problems are only of the invisible, non physical need of a soul for Christ' love. In an age where the gospel is so easy to come by and share here in my community, I'm afraid or 'too busy' to share what I know.
For me to love someone here is to step out against the normal ways of this society and truly care not just about how someone looks or what they do or don't have, but to care about what they'll have in the next life, weather or not they have any true hope for this life and after. If I'm going to love someone here it's not going to be easy, because there are so many other things that the world I live in offers me here and it rarely points me to anyone but myself. I don't pretend the world is not tempting and that very very often I'm not lulled by this race for the American Dream that I've grown up around, but the more I press into God, the more I'm awakened to the injustice right here. To the Father my neighbor is just as important and valued as the girls I saw who were rescued from trafficking, they were created just as uniquely and with beautiful plans and purpose for their lives in the hope of Christ.
Injustice. It's not fair that those precious girls from Cambodia have gone through so much that they had to be rescued and taken to a safe house where their faces have to be blurred from pictures for their protection, and it's not fair that my neighbor is often just a familiar face in the little brown house, that an encounter with them is often thought of as annoying or an interruption to my day. I am saved from my own sins and their eternal consequences only by the sacrifice of Christ for all, so I'm meant to be sharing what I've been given and to be a part of the body of Christ who is alive and working still. To every soul there is a value and an urgency that we can never see until we are willing to choose to set aside what pleases our eyes and self, and allow Love to open our hearts to what his heart sees.
You know what else is totally crazy to me? That I can sit and look at a computer screen and my heart so totally go out to girls I've never seen before. I love that God so breaks my heart for them and that He shows me that there are better ways and that this trafficking thing that got those girls is not right. But that's not all, it's totally crazy to me that I would want to love and help those girls I've never met, because their condition of need is so visible and tangible to me, and yet that I would hesitate or refuse to reach out and love a neighbor because their problems are only of the invisible, non physical need of a soul for Christ' love. In an age where the gospel is so easy to come by and share here in my community, I'm afraid or 'too busy' to share what I know.
For me to love someone here is to step out against the normal ways of this society and truly care not just about how someone looks or what they do or don't have, but to care about what they'll have in the next life, weather or not they have any true hope for this life and after. If I'm going to love someone here it's not going to be easy, because there are so many other things that the world I live in offers me here and it rarely points me to anyone but myself. I don't pretend the world is not tempting and that very very often I'm not lulled by this race for the American Dream that I've grown up around, but the more I press into God, the more I'm awakened to the injustice right here. To the Father my neighbor is just as important and valued as the girls I saw who were rescued from trafficking, they were created just as uniquely and with beautiful plans and purpose for their lives in the hope of Christ.
Injustice. It's not fair that those precious girls from Cambodia have gone through so much that they had to be rescued and taken to a safe house where their faces have to be blurred from pictures for their protection, and it's not fair that my neighbor is often just a familiar face in the little brown house, that an encounter with them is often thought of as annoying or an interruption to my day. I am saved from my own sins and their eternal consequences only by the sacrifice of Christ for all, so I'm meant to be sharing what I've been given and to be a part of the body of Christ who is alive and working still. To every soul there is a value and an urgency that we can never see until we are willing to choose to set aside what pleases our eyes and self, and allow Love to open our hearts to what his heart sees.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Hunger Touches All of US
So I was checking out i-heart.org today, ( the I heart Revolution site) and followed the link to freerice.com. Just through playing the games, you can help feed hungry people. For every answer you get right they donate ten grains of rice, after five minutes or so it really adds up!
A few facts on hunger:
963 million people do not have enough to eat, more than the populations of USA, Canada, and the European Union
Every six seconds a child dies because they are hungry
25,000 people (adults and children) die every day from hunger and related causes.
Lack of vitamin A kills a million infants each year.
For more stats check out http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats.
Pretty crazy, that we live in this 'other world' where this doesn't really touch us. Or does it?
I remember so many times that I fell to my knees in the comfort of my church, "Jesus I want to know you, you seem so far away. Draw me closer I want to know you more." He already answered that cry over two thousand years ago, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Quite simply, to serve others is to serve Jesus, to lay down your life for another is to be like Jesus. Think about how much you can learn about someone by visiting them in the hospital, or by cleaning their house, or by just taking time to talk with them unexpectedly. Think about how much better you understand another person's perspective when you pause your own thoughts long enough to think of theirs. That's the point I think Jesus was trying to get across, when you humble your self enough (think about how humble that the Son of God came to earth as a mere man) and put your self aside, you're becoming like Christ and the veil between you and him is torn, self is on longer in the way.
So yes, hunger touched me (and quite honestly still does) in the form of hungering more for myself, and in that way hunger gripped the starving all the more through my selfishness.
Hunger touches all of us. When we blatantly ignore the cries of the hungry, we are touched by hunger not in the form of starvation, but of gluttony. Hunger and starvation bring yet another under their power. When we ignore or turn away from those who are hungry, not only do we not avoid it, but we become a valuable ally and slave to it. But when we choose to touch back, to touch the starving, we erase a bit more of the darkness that is hunger. When we choose to stop our lives for a moment to reach into another life with love, we push back the injustice reigning over lives. Let's take a stand against all hunger with the one thing that every soul needs, Love.
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
A few facts on hunger:
963 million people do not have enough to eat, more than the populations of USA, Canada, and the European Union
Every six seconds a child dies because they are hungry
25,000 people (adults and children) die every day from hunger and related causes.
Lack of vitamin A kills a million infants each year.
For more stats check out http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats.
Pretty crazy, that we live in this 'other world' where this doesn't really touch us. Or does it?
I remember so many times that I fell to my knees in the comfort of my church, "Jesus I want to know you, you seem so far away. Draw me closer I want to know you more." He already answered that cry over two thousand years ago, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Quite simply, to serve others is to serve Jesus, to lay down your life for another is to be like Jesus. Think about how much you can learn about someone by visiting them in the hospital, or by cleaning their house, or by just taking time to talk with them unexpectedly. Think about how much better you understand another person's perspective when you pause your own thoughts long enough to think of theirs. That's the point I think Jesus was trying to get across, when you humble your self enough (think about how humble that the Son of God came to earth as a mere man) and put your self aside, you're becoming like Christ and the veil between you and him is torn, self is on longer in the way.
So yes, hunger touched me (and quite honestly still does) in the form of hungering more for myself, and in that way hunger gripped the starving all the more through my selfishness.
Hunger touches all of us. When we blatantly ignore the cries of the hungry, we are touched by hunger not in the form of starvation, but of gluttony. Hunger and starvation bring yet another under their power. When we ignore or turn away from those who are hungry, not only do we not avoid it, but we become a valuable ally and slave to it. But when we choose to touch back, to touch the starving, we erase a bit more of the darkness that is hunger. When we choose to stop our lives for a moment to reach into another life with love, we push back the injustice reigning over lives. Let's take a stand against all hunger with the one thing that every soul needs, Love.
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Confrontation
Personally, for me it's much more natural to avoid confrontation at any cost, even if it means letting myself or something I believe in be trampled on. The negative effects of confrontation far out weigh the good in my mind. Oh yeah, I can get into a debate or argument over things, even important 'big' things. But when it comes to actually getting into the face of a problem or someone who needs to take a step or two back, I'm ready to run and hide. If it takes more than some words or a few minutes of heart felt effort I'm not so into it. I think we're all a bit like that, even the most obnoxious, 'tough' people have their certain things they avoid confronting. Why? Why are we so afraid to face up to certain things? Because we either fear or, more often than fearing, know that we don't have what it takes to face that thing and at least come out some what whole.
That's how it was for me the first time I faced something really big, I'd thought and talked about this for a long time and all the words and phrases and verses were in my mind. I went into it thinking I had this under control, oh it was going to be so hard but I was ready for it, I was going to wear my stoic "I'm so strong and brave in the midst of this" face and walk right in and out of this situation. Then I got sick on my flight, I mean the kind of sick where I was starting to try and figure out which people looked like they could best handle being puked on around me. Suddenly all the phrases and words I'd memorized were gone, and I was left with basically one, "God help me." As waves of nausea and feeling like I was going to pass out kept taking their turns crashing on me, I was ready to get off that plane and be in my hotel bed. As we flew over the beautiful and very needy country of Guatemala, I wasn't quite ready to meet the reality waiting the second our plane touched the ground. To be honest I was like a bowl of jello dropped in a big mess on the floor. After finally making it through customs or whatever all that mad passport stamping was, and don't even get me started on how they dump your luggage out of the plane, we were on our way outside to be picked up by our hotel. So I thought.
Then it happened, confrontation.
Not a normal kind of confrontation, but the kind that confronts and challenges or up sets everything in your life. I saw poverty, poverty I could never end even if I completely emptied the wallet I was clinging too in fear that 'those people' might take the paper stashed inside. It was so hectic, the fumes and smoke from the vehicles, the smells of too many people and too few showers, all the suitcases and business people, the traditional dress of the natives, and the language I couldn't understand all spinning around my already spinning head. Then there she was, the spinning stopped and she looked me straight in the eye and begged me to buy a pack of gum so her children could eat. Confrontation. Everything I'd ever known collided into a parallel world that just happened to be a few hours flight from where I live every day in my perfect little life. The heart break for this woman, what ever her situation was, screamed to open my purse right there amongst the crowd and madness even though it wasn't smart, hey this woman was in need. But to my self the fear screamed much louder, 'someone might steal from you if you loosen your grip, they might even hurt you if they see you pulling out money, for all you know she's a drug addict or an alcoholic, she might not even have kids.' The spinning started again and there was our ride to the hotel, I dismissed her with the excuses that I had to go and technically I didn't have anything right in my hands to give her, but not before I saw the look in her eyes. That look still haunts me, the look of fear and disappointment, a struggle to hold to some sense of worth and hope as she turned to find some one else.
I was in Guatemala with my mom to adopt two kids into our family, adoption was something I'd prayed for our family my whole life. For the first bit of our drive I quickly found that looking into the streets of that city meant looking into the reality of the poverty there, and I was ready to get back on that plane and leave the country. So I tried basically staring a hole into the van floor, "God help me," I prayed, I didn't want to be there and I didn't want to see this over whelming need that I knew I couldn't fix no matter how many packs of bubble gum I bought from these people. Then I heard the voice of God probably the most clearly I've ever heard, "Don't look away." That simple, but it changed my life completely. Confrontation is what I was made for.
I was born again into a life of love and grace through the Savior who walked this earth confronting sickness with healing, the bound with freedom, the sinful with forgiveness, the hungry with food, the broken with restoration. We've let this idea of confrontation become something negative with us, we take phrases like 'everybody love everybody' and 'peace' and then think that means just sitting back and taking it easy. I thing it's time we wake up and shake off the dust of self and realize that to love some one you've gotta get up in their face and love them even if that's hard for you or them to take at the time. Loving someone doesn't mean staying out of their life and giving them space all the time, love confronts the hurts and anger and fears and does something about it. And peace? Oh sure, this isn't the real world, if we sit back and are polite then all the jerks out there are going to magically leave us alone and no one will hurt anyone. There is wrong in this world, there is evil that would deny peace and freedom to innocent people. So what, we sit back and don't fight that which tears peace and denies justice in the name of 'peace'? It's time we stand up and confront every situation and wrong with the love and strength we don't have in our selves but in God.
We were not made for a life of just getting by or our own pleasures, we were made to be an army of people united in belief that the love of our Father is what this hurting world needs. Let's confront the bitterness, pain, grief, hate, poverty, fear, complacency, anger, addictions, selfishness, orphaned, slavery, injustice and every wrong we meet with the perfect love of our Father.
That's how it was for me the first time I faced something really big, I'd thought and talked about this for a long time and all the words and phrases and verses were in my mind. I went into it thinking I had this under control, oh it was going to be so hard but I was ready for it, I was going to wear my stoic "I'm so strong and brave in the midst of this" face and walk right in and out of this situation. Then I got sick on my flight, I mean the kind of sick where I was starting to try and figure out which people looked like they could best handle being puked on around me. Suddenly all the phrases and words I'd memorized were gone, and I was left with basically one, "God help me." As waves of nausea and feeling like I was going to pass out kept taking their turns crashing on me, I was ready to get off that plane and be in my hotel bed. As we flew over the beautiful and very needy country of Guatemala, I wasn't quite ready to meet the reality waiting the second our plane touched the ground. To be honest I was like a bowl of jello dropped in a big mess on the floor. After finally making it through customs or whatever all that mad passport stamping was, and don't even get me started on how they dump your luggage out of the plane, we were on our way outside to be picked up by our hotel. So I thought.
Then it happened, confrontation.
Not a normal kind of confrontation, but the kind that confronts and challenges or up sets everything in your life. I saw poverty, poverty I could never end even if I completely emptied the wallet I was clinging too in fear that 'those people' might take the paper stashed inside. It was so hectic, the fumes and smoke from the vehicles, the smells of too many people and too few showers, all the suitcases and business people, the traditional dress of the natives, and the language I couldn't understand all spinning around my already spinning head. Then there she was, the spinning stopped and she looked me straight in the eye and begged me to buy a pack of gum so her children could eat. Confrontation. Everything I'd ever known collided into a parallel world that just happened to be a few hours flight from where I live every day in my perfect little life. The heart break for this woman, what ever her situation was, screamed to open my purse right there amongst the crowd and madness even though it wasn't smart, hey this woman was in need. But to my self the fear screamed much louder, 'someone might steal from you if you loosen your grip, they might even hurt you if they see you pulling out money, for all you know she's a drug addict or an alcoholic, she might not even have kids.' The spinning started again and there was our ride to the hotel, I dismissed her with the excuses that I had to go and technically I didn't have anything right in my hands to give her, but not before I saw the look in her eyes. That look still haunts me, the look of fear and disappointment, a struggle to hold to some sense of worth and hope as she turned to find some one else.
I was in Guatemala with my mom to adopt two kids into our family, adoption was something I'd prayed for our family my whole life. For the first bit of our drive I quickly found that looking into the streets of that city meant looking into the reality of the poverty there, and I was ready to get back on that plane and leave the country. So I tried basically staring a hole into the van floor, "God help me," I prayed, I didn't want to be there and I didn't want to see this over whelming need that I knew I couldn't fix no matter how many packs of bubble gum I bought from these people. Then I heard the voice of God probably the most clearly I've ever heard, "Don't look away." That simple, but it changed my life completely. Confrontation is what I was made for.
I was born again into a life of love and grace through the Savior who walked this earth confronting sickness with healing, the bound with freedom, the sinful with forgiveness, the hungry with food, the broken with restoration. We've let this idea of confrontation become something negative with us, we take phrases like 'everybody love everybody' and 'peace' and then think that means just sitting back and taking it easy. I thing it's time we wake up and shake off the dust of self and realize that to love some one you've gotta get up in their face and love them even if that's hard for you or them to take at the time. Loving someone doesn't mean staying out of their life and giving them space all the time, love confronts the hurts and anger and fears and does something about it. And peace? Oh sure, this isn't the real world, if we sit back and are polite then all the jerks out there are going to magically leave us alone and no one will hurt anyone. There is wrong in this world, there is evil that would deny peace and freedom to innocent people. So what, we sit back and don't fight that which tears peace and denies justice in the name of 'peace'? It's time we stand up and confront every situation and wrong with the love and strength we don't have in our selves but in God.
We were not made for a life of just getting by or our own pleasures, we were made to be an army of people united in belief that the love of our Father is what this hurting world needs. Let's confront the bitterness, pain, grief, hate, poverty, fear, complacency, anger, addictions, selfishness, orphaned, slavery, injustice and every wrong we meet with the perfect love of our Father.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Heart
The church and Christians, we refer to ourselves as the 'body of Christ' and as being 'Christ-like.' But I wonder if we really understand what that means, what it even is to live so caught up and surrendered to Jesus' love and grace that it consumes us and we become more like him. As I've spoken some on faith and a lot about loving others and how we need to show our faith in actions, I've also been really coming to realize that we can not be the hands and feet of God if we don't have our hearts so consumed in his. I've realised that so many times I'm quick to jump into being 'his' hands and feet and doing and going all 'for him' that I lose sight of the grace that enables me to do anything, I've realized that often I think that it's all about what I can do for him, how much I can work. It's crazy that I've actually caught myself doing things in an effort to please and earn what I've been freely given by my Father, I know so much better if I would slow down enough to just ponder this amazing love He has for me.
So my point in all of this is, how many times do we get so caught up in the look of God's heart instead of actually getting into His heart and love 'till that spills into our lives? If the heart of the church is not God's heart, how can we be his hands and feet? In James chapter 2, it talks about how the body without the spirit is dead and goes onto say that faith without deeds is dead. The church without the Father's heart is dead, the church without the Spirit of God is going to be dead. We can't be the hands and feet of him until we have his pulse to give life to our hands and feet, without his Spirit living in us we can't be alive in Him. In John 15 Jesus tells us that He is the vine, and that every branch that does not bear fruit will be cut off. And get this, here's such a simple and basic thing that we often just totally forget, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (John 15:4)
It's so easy to let these human logic's get in our way. I've went through a Genesis study in school this year and I know that I've always before totally missed the fact that the temptation Adam and Eve faced was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After thousands of years it really hasn't changed much, we still want to do things our own ways with our own knowledge instead of relying on God. It's so easy to only see what's right in front of us in the human sense rather than surrender our flesh and let the Spirit open our eyes to God's kingdom. But we can't have it both ways, we can't get to God through our knowledge and our actions, we can't share the love of Christ with the world just by copying nice things he did for people. We've got to reach down in our hearts and souls and give it all up, let the sacrifice of Christ wash away the self and the old ways of sin so that the love of God can take over in our lives. "Remain in me, and I will remain in you." It's not going to be easy for us to to remain in Christ, we are born into the flesh and sin so it's going to take waking up every day and choosing Christ and surrendering self. We've got to continually press into the amazing love of our Father and the grace He's pouring down, Jesus isn't going to stay where He isn't welcome anymore, where our own motives and ways of following him are taking first in our hearts rather than the Spirit's lead. But if we deny ourselves and chose to remain in him, he will remain with us and show us how to live and be the body of Christ.
Alright, so all of that to basically just say that if we are going to bear Love's heart we've gotta know him first.
So my point in all of this is, how many times do we get so caught up in the look of God's heart instead of actually getting into His heart and love 'till that spills into our lives? If the heart of the church is not God's heart, how can we be his hands and feet? In James chapter 2, it talks about how the body without the spirit is dead and goes onto say that faith without deeds is dead. The church without the Father's heart is dead, the church without the Spirit of God is going to be dead. We can't be the hands and feet of him until we have his pulse to give life to our hands and feet, without his Spirit living in us we can't be alive in Him. In John 15 Jesus tells us that He is the vine, and that every branch that does not bear fruit will be cut off. And get this, here's such a simple and basic thing that we often just totally forget, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (John 15:4)
It's so easy to let these human logic's get in our way. I've went through a Genesis study in school this year and I know that I've always before totally missed the fact that the temptation Adam and Eve faced was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After thousands of years it really hasn't changed much, we still want to do things our own ways with our own knowledge instead of relying on God. It's so easy to only see what's right in front of us in the human sense rather than surrender our flesh and let the Spirit open our eyes to God's kingdom. But we can't have it both ways, we can't get to God through our knowledge and our actions, we can't share the love of Christ with the world just by copying nice things he did for people. We've got to reach down in our hearts and souls and give it all up, let the sacrifice of Christ wash away the self and the old ways of sin so that the love of God can take over in our lives. "Remain in me, and I will remain in you." It's not going to be easy for us to to remain in Christ, we are born into the flesh and sin so it's going to take waking up every day and choosing Christ and surrendering self. We've got to continually press into the amazing love of our Father and the grace He's pouring down, Jesus isn't going to stay where He isn't welcome anymore, where our own motives and ways of following him are taking first in our hearts rather than the Spirit's lead. But if we deny ourselves and chose to remain in him, he will remain with us and show us how to live and be the body of Christ.
Alright, so all of that to basically just say that if we are going to bear Love's heart we've gotta know him first.
Monday, March 9, 2009
To Bear Love's Heart
For quite a while I've wanted to do something dedicated mainly to orphans and this "new thing" in my life to share the heart of Love with those in our world who are so very needy. Over the past year or two God has used my brief meetings with those who truly can be called in need in the physical and material sense to open and motivate me to press into a deeper place in my faith. To have faith in the love He has given me, and so to try and share that as He's called me too not just with the poorest but with anyone who hasn't know the love of the Father. Quite honestly I think I'm probably stumbling along in this first phases of walking a deeper place of faith with deeds. But I'm trying and learning that the more I press into God and allow him to love me, not trying to earn or deserve it enough, but to simply allow the grace I've been given to open my heart and eyes to others and to break and share this amazing love I've so mercifully been blessed to know.
SO, this whole idea started when I was writing. Funny how the words I write are being used back towards me more than ever it seems of late, maybe I should stop writing....haha like that's gonna happen. So I'm sitting in church one night after I'd spoken earlier that day on orphans and Love and faith. Then these words just start to burn in my heart, "I want to be Your love song to the world, I want to bear Your heart in my deeds."
And now, this is what's kind of been 'born' I suppose you could say, in my heart. A desire to truly Bear Love's Heart in this world. It's my hope that the stories and thoughts shared in this blog are just the beginning of something much bigger, beginning with my own life but also in others.
Here's my definition, with some help from a dictionary on the word 'Bear', of what it means to Bear Love's Heart. And yeah, by Love I am referring to God.
To accept showing Love to my world as a responsibility.
To hold in my mind the desires and purposes of Love and communicate that to others.
To conduct and carry my self in accordance to Love.
To move and follow where Love leads.
To show Love not just through words, but by making professed faith in Love shown through actions.
To support and transport is one definition of the word 'bear', the goal is to support and transport Love through out my life.
To know Love's heart and continually strive to go deeper in my relationship with Him, to share what I've been given with the world, believing that God is love, the only source of love and to know Him is to know love.
To bear Love's heart is, in essence, to chase the heart of God and share what he shows and gives to our world through word and deed, to live our lives striving to be the reflection of Christ' light in our world. To show love and hope we can all have through the sacrifice of Christ to every person, rich and poor, young and old, local and foreign.
I challenge and encourage anyone who reads this blog to just open up your heart to the love of God, and let him reign fully there and use our lives to live in and out the love we have from him. It's what I've found I'm here for and know it's what we are all created for, to live a life in this imperfect world consumed by the perfect, unconditional love of our God, and to really live in a way that shows that love in all that we do.
Love.
SO, this whole idea started when I was writing. Funny how the words I write are being used back towards me more than ever it seems of late, maybe I should stop writing....haha like that's gonna happen. So I'm sitting in church one night after I'd spoken earlier that day on orphans and Love and faith. Then these words just start to burn in my heart, "I want to be Your love song to the world, I want to bear Your heart in my deeds."
And now, this is what's kind of been 'born' I suppose you could say, in my heart. A desire to truly Bear Love's Heart in this world. It's my hope that the stories and thoughts shared in this blog are just the beginning of something much bigger, beginning with my own life but also in others.
Here's my definition, with some help from a dictionary on the word 'Bear', of what it means to Bear Love's Heart. And yeah, by Love I am referring to God.
To accept showing Love to my world as a responsibility.
To hold in my mind the desires and purposes of Love and communicate that to others.
To conduct and carry my self in accordance to Love.
To move and follow where Love leads.
To show Love not just through words, but by making professed faith in Love shown through actions.
To support and transport is one definition of the word 'bear', the goal is to support and transport Love through out my life.
To know Love's heart and continually strive to go deeper in my relationship with Him, to share what I've been given with the world, believing that God is love, the only source of love and to know Him is to know love.
To bear Love's heart is, in essence, to chase the heart of God and share what he shows and gives to our world through word and deed, to live our lives striving to be the reflection of Christ' light in our world. To show love and hope we can all have through the sacrifice of Christ to every person, rich and poor, young and old, local and foreign.
I challenge and encourage anyone who reads this blog to just open up your heart to the love of God, and let him reign fully there and use our lives to live in and out the love we have from him. It's what I've found I'm here for and know it's what we are all created for, to live a life in this imperfect world consumed by the perfect, unconditional love of our God, and to really live in a way that shows that love in all that we do.
Love.
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