You know when an idea just gets in your head and takes hold of you and you can't even sleep for it consuming all your thoughts?! That's what's happened to me! Of course, it's VBS week at church and I'm dying from the not-sleeping thing, but who cares? I just finished David Platt's book, Radical: Taking back your faith from the American Dream (Buy here!) and I'm hooked. Platt explains how our American version of faith in Christ is pretty far from the example set for us by Jesus Himself, and how we can work to change that. He offers his readers a challenge at the end of the book, which I've written on my mirror now so that I won't forget (which is also why I'm posting about this!), which is to do these five things for a year and just see if it doesn't open your eyes to a greater relationship with the Lord.
1. Pray every day for the entire world. How often do I spend time in prayer for the tribes in Nigeria that have never heard the name of the Lord? Without prayer, and with the way that Christians seem to skim over the Great Commission now, there does not seem to be much hope for the people of this world.
2. Read the whole Word. Most Christians I know have at least one Bible, if not more, and in the corners of the world where being a Christian is against the law or poverty is rampant, many Christ-followers have to memorize the Word because they cannot be found with it in their possession, or they cannot afford to purchase one.
3. Give sacrificially to a specific purpose. Under the awning of this tenet, I've vowed to give up Starbucks for the next year and to give a portion of my weekly paycheck to a family at my church that I work with that is going through the process of bringing home a little boy from Rwanda. I'm passionate about adoption, and this is a way that I can be held accountable for my giving and also that I can see it work.
4. Spend time in another context. I don't know what true poverty looks like. I don't know what a life without access to the Gospel looks like. I want to change that, and take opportunities to serve others and show them the love of Christ outside of my personal comfort zone.
5. Be an active part of a multiplying community. PHEW! I'm so thankful that I've found a fantastic church to be a part of here and the ministry that I serve with could not be better suited to my gifts.
A year. Where will I be in a year?
Also on the front of my brain is the "what are you doing after college?" question. I'm passionate about teaching, kids, and I'm a little dismayed by the state of the public school system (okay, more than a little), and so I'm starting to mull over the idea of getting my master's in Christian Education and then going to teach somewhere off the North American continent. Maybe South America, or Guatemala, or even Africa.
This means I've got to learn a language other than Southern drawl...oh dear.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Any way you want it...but what DO I want?
Today was a great day :) I went running in the delicious humidity (okay, that might be sarcasm, but it was a nice run!) and then went and hung out with a friend who is always an encouragement, whether or not he realizes it. We went to see the horribly bad new Judd Apatow movie, full of laughs but SHEESH the language! Anyways, as we were walking around the mall after the movie (and he was hiding from any screen showing the US-England World Cup game so that he could watch it in its entirety later), he asked me a question that left me rather speechless. Speechless for me is a rare phenomenon, though my tongue is always one of the things I struggle the most with taming. He asked me what I was looking for in a significant other. I kind of laughed and went to answer and realized, I really don't know. I know what I've chosen in the past, and through that I've learned a little about what personalities don't mesh well with mine, what traits I admire in someone, and I can easily make a vague list of desirable characteristics in a lifelong partner. But what I want, what I'm attracted to...hmm.
I guess what bothers me about this is that I believe without a plan, things fail. I plan my days, my errands, my grocery lists; my Google calendar is color-coded and minutely detailed. I realize that I have a definite issue with control (or rather the lack of it), and that as a Christian, I need to trust the Lord with every little thing, and not spend time worrying about earthly entanglements. However, I also don't think that actively placing my trust and life in the Lord means that I should not plan at all...just that I should make plans that are a. centered around glorifying Him and b. flexible should He call me to something else.
Tangent over, but I'm throwing this out there for those of us who rant, I mean define, what we don't want in a godly husband. And, this seems to extend to other areas too...We can critique the way our churches do things, the way others raise their kids, the way a friend acts towards us, but do we ever stop to examine what the positives are? Do you actually know what you do want in a friend, in a relationship, in your ministry, in your parenting? Are we ruling out people because the qualities we see in them we associate with negative characters we've encountered before? Are we judging others because of what they fail to do, where they've been in their past, or are we asking God to take away the burdens of our heart and cleanse away the hardened souls we develop over time?
Are we too busy focusing on our sin to look up and see the beauty of the cross?
The Christian radio station I listen to did this challenge a few weeks back for its listeners, asking if they could go 30 days without saying anything negative. At first, I thought it would be easy, because I consider myself a positive person. However, as the days dragged on and I caught myself thinking about ways that someone could have handled a situation differently, the things that I don't do well, etc, I realized that I am guilty of constantly judging God's creations, including myself. One of my favorite verses, Psalm 19:14, reads "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." In Phillipians 4:8, Paul commands us to think about whatever is true, pure, admirable, lovely, noble, and right. Basically, when you boil it down, it's "don't waste My time thinking about the past, others' or your own flaws, spend time meditating on My Word, My love for you, My sacrifice, how you might better glorify My name." Which is a great point. We have only the rest of our earthly lives to further His kingdom and when we let the Devil drag us into focusing on things we can't change, things that God was in control of the whole time, then we are wasting His time, wasting the gift of life He's given us.
I'm still not sure exactly what I'm looking for. But I know that from now on, I'm going to pray for revelation in that area, and also for what I do desire, not what I'd like to avoid or what I coulda-shoulda-woulda done if things had been this way or that way.
:)
I guess what bothers me about this is that I believe without a plan, things fail. I plan my days, my errands, my grocery lists; my Google calendar is color-coded and minutely detailed. I realize that I have a definite issue with control (or rather the lack of it), and that as a Christian, I need to trust the Lord with every little thing, and not spend time worrying about earthly entanglements. However, I also don't think that actively placing my trust and life in the Lord means that I should not plan at all...just that I should make plans that are a. centered around glorifying Him and b. flexible should He call me to something else.
Tangent over, but I'm throwing this out there for those of us who rant, I mean define, what we don't want in a godly husband. And, this seems to extend to other areas too...We can critique the way our churches do things, the way others raise their kids, the way a friend acts towards us, but do we ever stop to examine what the positives are? Do you actually know what you do want in a friend, in a relationship, in your ministry, in your parenting? Are we ruling out people because the qualities we see in them we associate with negative characters we've encountered before? Are we judging others because of what they fail to do, where they've been in their past, or are we asking God to take away the burdens of our heart and cleanse away the hardened souls we develop over time?
Are we too busy focusing on our sin to look up and see the beauty of the cross?
The Christian radio station I listen to did this challenge a few weeks back for its listeners, asking if they could go 30 days without saying anything negative. At first, I thought it would be easy, because I consider myself a positive person. However, as the days dragged on and I caught myself thinking about ways that someone could have handled a situation differently, the things that I don't do well, etc, I realized that I am guilty of constantly judging God's creations, including myself. One of my favorite verses, Psalm 19:14, reads "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." In Phillipians 4:8, Paul commands us to think about whatever is true, pure, admirable, lovely, noble, and right. Basically, when you boil it down, it's "don't waste My time thinking about the past, others' or your own flaws, spend time meditating on My Word, My love for you, My sacrifice, how you might better glorify My name." Which is a great point. We have only the rest of our earthly lives to further His kingdom and when we let the Devil drag us into focusing on things we can't change, things that God was in control of the whole time, then we are wasting His time, wasting the gift of life He's given us.
I'm still not sure exactly what I'm looking for. But I know that from now on, I'm going to pray for revelation in that area, and also for what I do desire, not what I'd like to avoid or what I coulda-shoulda-woulda done if things had been this way or that way.
:)
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Pursuit of...
Tonight after my Bible study met (via video chat...how cool is that?!), my beautiful partner-in-Chacos and I were discussing boys...what's new right? We're almost at the age where they're men, which is kind of scary to be honest, and only partly because so few of the ones we know actually live up to that description. Well our chat focused on the things we wish the guys in our lives did. Maybe we watch too many chick flicks, or maybe our free time is just spent differently, but we came to the conclusion that we would make great boyfriends. We love planning surprises, making our own holidays to celebrate, taking walks outside (or really just spending time outside, under moonlight or basking in the sun, whatevs), car-dancing, writing each other letters and making CDs with encouraging songs, and whatever else we can think of...and we would love any guy who consistently did those kinds of things for us. I say consistently there, because most guys are good, or even great, at the reeling-in-the-fish portion of dating, but once they get the fish, it's as if they don't know what to do with it. Granted, a level of comfort is to be expected, and you can't live on the 'can't eat, can't sleep' high forever, but why is it that there seems to be a severe slack-off in the pursuing part of most relationships after the "hey, we're boyfriend/girlfriend" thing happens?
I wish I knew. I pray for someone who, after forty years of marriage, still gets a kick out of making my day by bringing me home a flower, or something that he saw and made him think of me.
However, that was not the revelation I had after our conversation. Here I am, talking about all the great ideas I have for a relationship, and how nice it'd be to be blessed with a man who is intentional and consistent in his pursuit of me when I can't honestly say that that is how I approach the Lord. The One who saved me, who took the Moabite widow out of the field and called her His own, who blesses and keeps me every moment of my life, who brings me daffodils in April every year and hydrangeas and tulips, I don't pursue Him like that. I rearrange my quiet time to fit Him in my day, or I pray sporadically and without thanksgiving on hectic days, I don't sing Him love songs with my whole heart...
I don't know. It's just a thought really. But I do know that whether or not a man comes along and rides me off into the sun(rise not set, I think it's way more unique), my responsibility is to serve and glorify God in the way that I dream about being pursued.
Why are convictions so...convicting?
Your steadfast love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Psalm 36:5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlhXsUVjMH4&feature=related
I wish I knew. I pray for someone who, after forty years of marriage, still gets a kick out of making my day by bringing me home a flower, or something that he saw and made him think of me.
However, that was not the revelation I had after our conversation. Here I am, talking about all the great ideas I have for a relationship, and how nice it'd be to be blessed with a man who is intentional and consistent in his pursuit of me when I can't honestly say that that is how I approach the Lord. The One who saved me, who took the Moabite widow out of the field and called her His own, who blesses and keeps me every moment of my life, who brings me daffodils in April every year and hydrangeas and tulips, I don't pursue Him like that. I rearrange my quiet time to fit Him in my day, or I pray sporadically and without thanksgiving on hectic days, I don't sing Him love songs with my whole heart...
I don't know. It's just a thought really. But I do know that whether or not a man comes along and rides me off into the sun(rise not set, I think it's way more unique), my responsibility is to serve and glorify God in the way that I dream about being pursued.
Why are convictions so...convicting?
Your steadfast love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Psalm 36:5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlhXsUVjMH4&feature=related
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