Seeing as it’s Thanksgiving I thought I’d share some things that I’m thankful for this year. So here we go:
I’m thankful that…
1. Jen and I are more in love than we’ve ever been.
2. God is breaking off the parts of me that need to go!
3. Paris is beautiful in the mornings.
4. My team-leader, Frank, cares about my growth
5. I have a family that loves me as if I lived down the street even though I don’t
6. All of our needs are met and God has provided for us in amazing ways
7. I get to kick through the leaves that have fallen down on the sidewalk
8. My team here is great and we like being with each other!
9. We are going to see our friends and family in the States in 14 days
10. God’s grace is real and not a dream…that His love for me is not something that I have to beg for…I get it…and as much as I could ever need.
There’s a lot more, but some people (Amy) have said that they don’t read my blog cause it’s too long! If you want feel free to comment with some things that you are thankful for this year…
I haven’t written in a while…Not because there has been nothing happening…quite the opposite! There has been a lot happening and I’ve been really busy! School is still going well. It’s getting harder, but more interesting. I was getting bored.
Church stuff is going really well and there is a great feeling of momentum on our staff and with the people in Vintage. We just had a rockin Thanksgiving party this past weekend. I think there were around 100+ people that came throughout the day. We ate four huge turkeys (Butterballs from the States, I might ad…that’s a funny name…Butterball…why does it entice me?) and a ton of other things. People from all over the world were there. At one time there were four Kiwis…that’s people from New Zealand. 4 out of 2 million is pretty impressive! The party got finished around 11 and we went home really tired.
The next night we had Sanctuary at Bob and Kendall’s. Frank shared from the story of Jesus walking on water and we spent some time in worship and prayer. It was really simple, but exactly the way I like it to go. Bill (guy from Chicago doing an internship here with his family) is a great drummer and he played djembe with me. It’s really impressive what a good percussionist can do with one drum! Anyway…Bob and Kendall had volunteered to watch the kids this night and it was fun hearing them sing and play in the other room. Bob and Kendall have a gift for making people feel loved and I know the kids experienced that on Sunday.
After Sanctuary I headed down the Royal Canadian (a restaurant/bar) to watch NFL football with Greg, Christian, and Driana (’Gene’). The Colts were playing and I wasn’t going to miss it…I was actually the last person to leave at 1:40am! I had to be absolutely positive that the Colts were going to win when I left! I took a cab home (the first time I’ve ever taken a cab by myself) and got home at around 2am. I reeked of cigarettes (because smoking is allowed inside most everywhere in the world other than California!) so I had to take a shower. Got into bed and woke up to Jen wanting to jogging together. I hate jogging…it’s not a sport and it never feels like it accomplishes anything other than making my back and knees hurt..and on this near freezing morning…my ears ridiculously cold. But I went…and my knees hurt and my ears felt like they were going to freeze off, but it felt good to be outside getting my heart going. I should be more thankful that I can jog instead of complaining about it! The rest of Monday was full of emotional heavy lifting…the kind that hurts, but makes you stronger. I’ll write about this in another post later!
If you’ve finished reading this…you’re either my mom (hi mom), Jen’s mom (hi Christine), or you have too much time on your hands! Thanks though…It’s just that sometimes I feel like talking about nothing, cause the serious stuff hurts my brain…
In my last entry I talked (or typed) about pleasing God (or not) and I left out something that God made really clear to me last night. This is a no-brainer, but faith is really important. In fact, IT is what we do that pleases God. You know ‘it is by faith that you have been saved’, ‘by faith Abraham was justified’, ‘if we have faith the size of a mustard seed’. The passages in Scripture go on and on about faith.
When two people are friends and they experience things together, their relationship is stronger and deeper, and pretty much better. When we step out if faith, expecting to see how God is going to be true to His promises, it’s like having an experience with a friend that makes your relationship deeper. I think that we as followers of Jesus like to read about Him, talk about Him (a lot of talk about Jesus), talk to Him, and listen to Him. But there is something about going through an experience with Jesus that makes the relationship that much better. It is beyond all of these other things. It is faith! And honestly, I think God enjoys being true to His promises as much as we enjoy Him being true to His promises. He enjoys the relational experience with us as much as we do with Him.
So, because faith is so important to our relationship with God, I decided to do a little faith investigation last night. I wrote down a bunch of ‘faith questions’ that came to mind. Here’s that list:
1. What step of faith is God preparing for me next?
2. Have I stopped asking God to increase my faith?
3. Have I done anything lately that has required a further step of faith?
4. Have I taken a big step of faith that I now use to justify not taking anymore?
5. Why do I want to take greater steps of faith? For me? For greater dependance? For God’s Kingdom? For the ability to say that I took a big step of faith? For me to feel close to God again?
Last night number 4 hit me pretty hard. I look at my life and the changes that have happened in the past two years. I can clearly see the steps of faith that we have taken. Selling our house, resigning from the ministry at the Gathering, raising support to move to Europe…and we did all these things before we had ever even been to Europe! But the problem is that I feel like in some ways I’m trying to live off of past faith…when faith is only good in the present and future. Since moving here I have stopped asking God to increase my faith and give me opportunities to live in faith because it hasn’t even been on my mind. I have allowed our big step of faith to convince me that I don’t need to seek God for our next step. It’s like, “Well that was great…” and I want to sit around and talk about the good ‘ol times instead of looking to see what’s next. I don’t know which one of these questions hits you the most, but for me…#4 is a killer.
If faith is what God ultimately wants from us, then I suggest we all figure out how to give Him as much as we can…I have a hunch that a deep friendship with God is better than safety.
At our discussion group on Wednesday nights we’ve been talking about the idea of pleasing God. I walked away from tonight asking myself the question, “Why are we so obsessed with the idea that we have to please God?” I know that even asking the question almost seems rhetorical. I know, I know…He’s our creator and we should want to please Him…and I believe that we do! Think about it…as a Christian we have decided in faith that Jesus lived a perfect life (pleased God), died a death (we ‘crucify ourselves’ with Christ…spiritually) that frees us from the idea that we have to be perfect, and then rose from the dead. If we as Christians really believe that when we accept Jesus that He is our new life, He is our sacrifice, and He defeated death, then why do we act as if we still have something to do!?! I mean…isn’t that enough! Why is that I feel that I still have to do something else to justify myself? Maybe it’s because I don’t have the faith the believe that the story of Jesus is true. Maybe it’s because I think that I still have to do fulfill some part of the bargain…Or maybe it’s because the lies come in that I am not in relationship with God only based upon Christ. Maybe I really do have to do something else. Maybe I have to finish what Jesus left short.
But let’s be honest with ourselves…We don’t have anything to do now! Christ has done all that needed to be done for us to be in a perfect relationship with God through faith. Of course, when this truth is realized we WANT to do all this other stuff (the spiritual disciplines, ‘quiet time’, read the bible, etc.) because God is our friend, lover, and father. And if we don’t do these things then we miss Him. They are no longer motivated by guilt or a feeling that we have to do them (or won’t be a good Christian if we don’t). They are motivated by a loving relationship!
So where does the idea of pleasing God with what we do come from? You tell me! I don’t think that it’s found in the Bible…The only way can be pleasing to God is to live a life of faith that draws us into deeper relationship with Him. So stop trying to ‘please God’ and just enjoy the relationship that you have with your creator…You’ll probably love Him (and yourself) more if you do!
So yesterday was a great day…Jen and I had language class in the morning and then went to lunch. After lunch Jen had a coffee meeting with our friend Talia (A really cool girl from California that we met through people from Adventure!). While she was gone I went home and cleaned the house…did the dishes, straightened things up…for about 2 hours. Then she got home and I had to go to the store to buy stuff for dinner. I was cooking BBQ pizza for some friends that were coming over that night. While I was at home cleanining I had a realization…I am at home cleaning and Jen is out meeting with a friend from church…I had such a great feeling of joy while cleaning and shopping yesterday. It was so cool that for the first time Jen and I’s roles were switched and our partnership in ministry was experienced. I pulled my weight around the house and Jen was out doing ministry stuff! I am so glad that God is teaching us more about being a team…life is good…
So as many of you probably know, there have been major riots in the city of Paris for the last ten nights. Despite serious warnings from French officials haven’t been able to get the city under control with each night getting worse than the previous. Thankfully for us, none of the rioting has been close to where we live. Most of the worst parts have been far outside the city center. However, last night there were some cars set on fire in Place de la Republique which is in the city center, but still quite a ways from where we are. So, we’ll see what happens tonight.
But here’s what I really want to write about…It’s so amazing to me what the result of an ignored conflict is on a social level. Yes, there were two boys who died, but this situation is about so much more. It’s about a group of people who have felt oppressed for a long time and were never heard and now they are choosing to have a voice. Unfortunetely for the French government, the voice of these people has become a shout and not a discussion. This ’shout’ has resulted in close to 5,000 cars and countless buildings being burnt. It has resulted in people being arrested and some killed.
The question I have is, “Why do we as humans have to let things get to this point?” While saying this I am very much pointing the finger at myself. I haven’t burnt and buildings or cars, but have certainly allowed a growing frustration to manifest itself as a ‘riot’ in my relationships. Just like a mob mentality can sweep over a crowd, an anger mentality has swept over me too many times to count. As I watch the news and see the pictures on the internet I am in a way seeing what my internal life could look like if I don’t take ownership of the conflicts that are below the surface.
In all of the chaos that’s going on in Paris, I think that people’s eyes are being open to the reality that the equality is still a dream, and not yet realized. My prayer is that this situation will open everybody’s eyes to a greater desire to listen and be heard…and then act. I hope that people start to truly look out for their fellow man and not wait until cars and buildings are on fire to hear the needs of people. I pray that I myself will start living out these things…after all I do think that every big change is only a culmination of a lot of small changes…
If you want to read the BBC aricle on this click here
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