Leaving on a Jet Plane

T- 2 days until France and Belgium!!!!

I can't wait for Duvel, Belgian chocolate, trains, cathedrals, impressionist art, Goupil le fol, croque monsieur, Le Pain, streets of cobblestone, the Sablon, the forrest, muesli, and all things Parisian!

My ABC's

I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School at church to a precious group of 1st and 2nd graders this past year. My friends Joel and Justin signed up to teach and needed a girl to "fill in" for a couple weeks in the other female teacher's absence. After a couple weeks, the "fill in" became a permanent fixture and what a blessing it has been! I forgot how much I love children, how much joy I receive from watching them learn, and just how much I underestimate them. Their little minds grasp so much and they are actually amazed (and excited) by Jesus. Though they don't understand everything, they just believe. They wonder at Jesus and actually delight in Him. They bring any request before the Father. I promise you, those kiddos taught me more in the past nine months than I actually taught them.

This coming Sunday, the kids will have an opportunity to present what they learned this past year to the congregation. Thank goodness kids are fearless and relish in taking the stage. We studied the "ABC's of God" this year, learning about a different characteristic of God each week. Our first lesson was on the letter Q, which stood for questions. Strange, I know, but "Q" is the framework for the rest of the lessons. We learned that questions about God have answers, answers that can be found in scripture. We learned 3 questions to ask: Who is God? What is God like? How should I act towards God? With each week and each letter, we learned a little more about the nature of God. The kids had no problem answering what God was like, and neither did the teachers. The challenging part is the response - how should I act towards God? The purpose of study is not (just) knowledge, it is action. Bible studies, Sunday School, sermons, blogs, books - all of it is great and necessary, but we do not feast on the Word simply to eat, it fuels us to do. How should I act towards God because He is ______? How should I act towards others because God is ______? How do I respond to Truth? We asked ourselves and the kids these questions each week. Pretty basic, right?

I think training ourselves to not just listen, read, and study, but actually respond is hard. It is so easy for me to listen to a sermon, understand, and just chew on it. I need the Gospel to penetrate the very depths of my heart and I need to challenge myself, each time that I hear it to respond. I must. Our commission is to go and do. It is not to spend our lives collecting and hoarding knowledge about the goodness, love, faithfulness, and mercy of our God.

I guess you could say I needed to be reminded of some basics, some ABC's...

Gratitude

We ended Monday night's community group just like we do any other week - by taking prayer requests. Several people requested prayer for their businesses while others made comments about feeling overwhelmed by work. One of the guys in my group who works for the research institute at Tech requested prayer because his job has been super intense these past couple weeks. He elaborated for a few minutes, commenting on the demands of his job and how stressful he feels. Immediately, sweet Robert, a man in my community group who has been without work for quite some time remarked, "I want a job, so I can feel stressed!"

At that moment I felt thankful for an abundance of work, even if it is stressful, frustrating, and exhausting.

The Swagger Wagon

The Swagger Wagon... courtesy of Lollie.

http://www.youtube.com/sienna

Almost makes me want to trade my car for a minivan...

The Relearning

"Attitude is everything." Growing up, I heard this all the time. Most of the time I just shrugged or scoffed in response. I realize the truth in this statement more and more each day. Last week, it became painfully clear over breakfast with my director that I needed a little lesson on the importance of attitude. Not the time for lessons to become painfully clear. After telling me that he is in the process of recruiting another college grad to join the team this summer, he asked, "What advice would you give to a recent grad about to start his/her first job?" I sat there for a moment, completely unprepared for that question. I thought about my job and how frustrated I have been these past couple months, driving hundreds of miles each week through MS and AL, working tirelessly on sales and customer relationships and then watching them slip through my fingers. I tried to muster up something positive to say. Finally, I responded, not knowing how tactful or truthful my words would be.

At that moment, I taught myself a lesson I needed to relearn: each experience, each day, each conversation, each meeting is an opportunity (and a gift!). You decide how you are going to receive that opportunity and what you are going to make of it. I look back and think about all the opportunities devastated by my poor attitude and lack of enthusiasm and it makes me hurt. My job is such an incredible opportunity to build business skills, share the Gospel, and develop my gifts and passions (and accrue Hilton Honors points), and I have squandered it these past couple months. I am ungrateful and failed to make the most of what's in front of me, longing for something else. It saddens me to think of how I wasted what the Lord graciously gives to me and not received them with gratitude or joy.

Another lesson that I have learned again and again this past year is that each morning must be a reteaching of all that our head and our hearts forget. Some days, I am amazed at how quickly I abandon the beauty and truth of the Gospel. As my pastor noted, "It feels like all the truth of God's love written on our hearts is actually scratched on sand." It's true. Anxiety, fear, a bad day, frustration, and the truth in our hearts is gone. Man is exactly how the Bible describes us - foolish, hard hearted, and distracted. We must live life in expectation that we will forget spiritual truth all the time. Therefore, we must read, hear, affirm, and tell of Jesus' love often so that our hearts do not forget. Repetition is the answer to our forgetful spiritual lives. I must begin each day with a reorienting and a retelling.

When Helping Hurts

Have you ever done anything to help the poor?

Have you ever done anything to hurt the poor?

Many of us can answer the first question quickly and relatively easily. We're pretty good at helping the poor, right? We donate food, clothing, buy MARTA tickets, give money to the guy on the street corner, and sign up for short term mission trips. But have we really ever done anything to hurt the poor?

The reality is that many of us, in our best efforts to help the poor have done considerable harm. We focus on the symptoms, rather than the underlying illness. By treating the symptoms or mis diagnosing the illness, we often inflict damage upon the very people we are trying to help.

Shocking, isn't it?

A couple days ago, I picked up a book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert called When Helping Hurts. I highly recommend this book. It is guaranteed to make readers uncomfortable and even saddened to think how your understanding of the Gospel (in my case, a narrow understanding of the Gospel) impacted your ministry among the poor. Corbett and Finkertt combine theology, research, foundational principles and proven strategies to prepare readers for ministry amongst "the least of these." At the beginning and very heart of the text, the authors address why Christ came to earth. Many Christians (myself included) have a narrow and concise answer to this question explaining that "Christ came to earth to save sinners." Though this answer is true, Jesus' message is even more epic and sweeping than that. In Colossians, Paul describes the nature and work of Christ this way:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or power or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Col. 1:15-20)

Jesus is the Creator, Master, Sustainer, and Reconciler of ALL THINGS. Yes, Jesus died for our souls, but He also died to reconcile all that He created - "far as the curse is found." The task of all Christians and of the Church is "to embody Christ by doing what He did and what He continues to do through us: declare - using both words and deeds - that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords who is bringing in a kingdom of righteousness, justice, and peace." We need to do it where Jesus did it, among the blind, the poor, the lame, the outcast, and the oppressed.

Also central to any poverty alleviation efforts is an understanding of poverty and its origins. The authors explain that poverty is the "result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious, or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings." Poverty is a result of the fall and is rooted in the brokenness of our relationships. That means every human being is suffering from a poverty of spiritual intimacy, poverty of being, a poverty of community, and a poverty of stewardship. The fall really happened and it is wreaking havoc in each of our lives, just in different ways. Until we embrace our own brokenness, our work among "the poor" will likely do more harm than good.

More to come. This book is awesome. It is hard not to post entire chapters.

Comments on Forgiveness

The coordinator of the women's ministry at my church sends out a monthly newsletter of happenings, celebrations, ministry updates, etc. This month she included a couple comments on forgiveness on the front page of the newsletter that I found challenging, encouraging, and simply beautiful:

"Forgiveness is how we enter the kingdom of God - the way in which we are transferred from the domain of darkness and put in the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:13).

The way we enter the kingdom is the way we are to walk in it. The daily exercising of forgiveness works in us a daily deliverance.

And what would it work in the world around us if we were a people concerned with sowing nothing but the love of God?

Who doesn't need to experience the love of God? The Lord gives us an opportunity to make Him and His love plain every time we seek forgiveness for our sin."

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you step out of your little kingdom and into His.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you say that the Bible's description of you and everything around you is accurate.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you declare that your life does not belong to you, but has been created for the purpose of Another.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you remind yourself of what you truly are and who you truly need.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you are worshiping the king of forgiveness and asking others to do the same.

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you tell yourself that for all the good you have experienced in God's kingdom, there is still more needed and still more to come.

"A lifestyle of seeking forgiveness expands everything you are touching to the size of God's kingdom. Do you find joy in the liberating lifestyle of seeking forgiveness?"

[Paul Tripp, A Quest for More]

How visible would the kingdom be in our homes, our relationships, our churches, our cities, and our own hearts if we exercised forgiveness daily?