How Can I Help?

The problems of poverty, sickness, and injustice present a brokenness that is overwhelmingly widespread, intricately interwoven, and hopelessly complex. If and when we get a glimpse of the whole picture, it's very difficult for us to get ourselves out of the shock-induced paralysis that results, and out of the apathy of learned helplessness.

Maybe we should reconsider how God probably sees these problems. His omniscience is fully aware of the whole picture all of the time, but I suspect he approaches it differently.

First, God takes it personally. He sees not only the mass of billions barely getting by, but also counts the hairs on the head of each forgotten child. In today's culture of global communication, it is easier than ever to get involved an assistance programs at a personal level, whether it involves local service or the support of a special child around the world.

Second, God addresses it locally. God's plan to change the world started with 12 disciples making a different where they were, growing churches that were spread wide, but deeply rooted in their communities. Again, we have unprecedented opportunities today to partner with organizations that have a long-term, sustainable presence in the communities that they serve - whether they're down the street or in another hemisphere.

Third, I think God changes from the inside out. God sacrificed himself, so that we could be reconciled to Him - but that's only the beginning of the story of restoration and transformation that he wants to write on our lives. The rest depends on our own willingness to surrender our own misguided ways and follow His with hope and perseverance. In the same way, we should aid in ways that enable, give hope, and build up others to be deeply involved in their own restoration.

Power

I don't know about you, but I don't want to come to the end of myself. The idea flies in the face of all conventional wisdom, and against every fiber of my self-protecting and loved-one-protecting nature. Yet, as David Platt puts it: "This is how God works. He puts his people in positions where they are desperate for his power, and then he shows his provision in says that display his greatness." He used God's defeat of Jericho through Joshua as a reference, and he didn't even mention the top-notch military training program God used a preparation: circumcision. Yeah, that sounds like great preparation for an attack on the enemy. God's ways are certainly not our ways - his power loves those who hate and dies to live.

Which leads me to question: Do I really want more of God's power in my life?

Or do I just want God to give me more power?

Loving Freedom

 
"In the Sermon on the Mount and in other places Jesus is asking his followers to see that the way to more abundant life is the way of love. We are to love one another, and this love is to be more comprehensive than our love for family and friends and tribe and nation. We are to love our neighbors though they may be strangers to us. We are to love our enemies. And this is to be a practical love; it is to be practiced, here and now. Love evidently is not just a feeling but is indistinguishable from the willingness to help, to be useful to one another. The way of love is indistinguishable, moreover, from the way of freedom. We don't need much imagination to imagine that to be free of hatred, of enmity, of the endless and hopeless effort to oppose violence with violence, would be to have life more abundantly. To be free of indifference would be to have life more abundantly. To be free of the insane rationalizations for our desire to kill one another - that surely would be to have life more abundantly" (Wendell Berry, The Burden of the Gospels, pg. 62-3).

It is for Freedom that Christ set us free; it is because of His Great Love that He gives us the Freedom to choose. I want to grow in this unconditional Love.

Love and Loss, WIL 13

Is it better to have loved and loss rather than never loved at all?

Love is so wonderful. Loss is so awful. I believe the Gospel says it is better to love and lose. We were created with emotions to live abundantly in the present time...

Jesus modeled love and loss. He is our example.

In choosing to avoid the loss (the negative side of relationship), I am also choosing to avoid the love (the positive side of relationship).

Am I really a fully living human being when I avoid both sides and sit in the middle, on the fence?? Where do you sit?

The power that produces blessing comes through brokenness. Anne Graham Lotz

Rural V. Urban (WIL, 8)

Richard J. Foster says: "Rural life tends to function around a daily cycle, whereas urban life tends to function around a weekly cycle. In the country there are chores to be done morning and evening - such as milking the cows and feeding the chickens. A daily prayer discipline makes good sense in this context. In urban life, in contrast, everything presses hard toward Friday - TGIF, as we say - and the weekends are much more discretionary. In this context it might make more sense to order a prayer life around a weekly pattern. Instead of feeling guilty that we cannot set aside time for prayer on a daily basis, perhaps it would be better to devote Saturday mornings, for example, to more extended experiences of prayer and devotional reading" (Prayer, p.73).

Okay, I don't have cows or chickens, but, over the course of my marriage, I find I operate from a rural life perspective. I love the Slow Food movement and baking bread from scratch, especially in the morning. I prefer to chop vegetables by hand instead of using the much speedier food processor. I scoop out squash seeds by hand, squeezing them through my fingers, rather than using a spoon. I employ my slow cooker once a week (although I admit that is again an urban fad). I am even more likely to shower in the late afternoon than in the morning. Why shower before digging around in the garden?

I have a hard time planning on a weekly basis. I suffer paralysis of thought when someone asks, "What's going on this week?" Sometimes, it's easy to answer if I'm planning a trip or in the midst of a project that takes more than a few hours. Otherwise, it's hard to land on a thought worth mentioning that will take up a whole week. The question is really about the major agenda points, but when life is currently made up of little things, it's easier to take it one day at a time. I prefer to plan and be prepared. However, I push myself to focus on the Present rather than the Future, and thus, develop a habit of living Here and Now. It's a weird balance because I like scheduling my to-do list. Yet, I get lost in what I want or need to do and close myself to what God brings along my path.

A few years ago, my mind alighted on a thought: one way to serve those around me was to adopt an 'Available' mindset. The way I approached this new revelation was to be more Present and Open, watching for opportunities to Give and Serve inside the daily workings of life. Opening a door for someone, letting another car into line, breathing while I'm driving, shopping, working.
One of my favorite authors encourages using time to Just Be, not filling every spare moment with Doing something. Although it could be employed as an excuse, my programmed-for-efficiency mind warns, enjoying the gift of life is one thing we are certainly called to do. "Taste and see that the LORD is good" (Ps. 34:8); "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (Jn 10:10b).

The way that works for me is taking each day as it comes. "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him" (Mt. 7:11). Oh, Father, give me the grace and strength for this day.

(WIL, 8)