Hahahaha. I have to laugh at myself. I'm just not very good at this. :P
This past week has been so infinitely amazing and crazy. Arkansas was hit by its own Snowmageddon last Wednesday, and our school was buried under 6-8 inches of powdery snow. The roads were completely iced for two days (which, by the way, makes for a lot of fun times in a Jeep). It really was one of the best snow weeks I've ever had. Annie came up to the apartment and got snowed in with me, so we watched movies, cooked yummy comfort food, and hung out with the guys -- doing donuts in the Wal-mart parking lot, sledding and skiing behind the Jeep in the parking lot, swing dancing on ice, blasting the stereo with the windows down and snow blowing in our faces (granted, that was cold, but the windows fogged if we left them up), eating soup and chili and popcorn, and playing hilarious board games. I couldn't have asked for a better time to relax, connect, and enjoy my friends. I'm so thankful that we can't do life alone; we need each other.
I've been learning lots from my brothers and sisters, from the Holy Spirit, and from the Perspectives class -- mostly an ever-increasing clarity about the direction my life is meant to take. While I don't have specific details, I do have general ideas and impressions that are helping to guide me in the character development, relationships, and projects I pursue right now: finishing my degree, learning about missions and unreached people groups, growing in spiritual gifting and maturity as a part of the unified body of Christ, dealing with conflict, developing relationships. God is continually providing people at the right place and the right time, and seemingly “coincidental” ideas and themes that pop up over and over in completely different areas of my life. I love it when He really does tell me what to pay attention to. It makes me wonder why I ever doubt that He’ll direct my steps, because HELLO...He’s GOD. Of course He can get my attention. He knows just what to do and what to say.
So, in light of that, I think it’s kind of interesting that my project for Perspectives is doing research on an unreached people group and developing a possible strategy for reaching out to them. Chris has just started talking about feeling led to pray for and possibly plant a church within an unreached people group somewhere in the world, and we’ve all begun to pay attention to and pray more consistently for persecuted Christians, missionaries, and those who haven’t heard the gospel. I don’t really think it’s a coincidence. I feel like God is stirring me, and a lot of people around me, in this awareness. So now, I’m just trying to keep my eyes open to whatever God has for me to do. We shall see. :)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Reflection #9
This made me smile.
Matthew 5
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is the Church. We are God's people. The world will know us by how we love.
Matthew 5
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is the Church. We are God's people. The world will know us by how we love.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Reflection #8
Wow, too many thoughts, too little time. Or at least that's my perception. I'm sure it's not actually true. I just get overwhelmed when my mind is actually awake: creating, processing, imagining and solving. If you've ever seen one of those rock polishing sets where you dump jagged chunks of rock into the tumbler and let them bounce around for a while before they come out as shiny and beautiful orbs of color, you've seen how my mind works. I'm constantly throwing sharp rocks inside my head (a great idea...) and shaking them up (or letting God shake them up) until they are somehow transformed into attractive, useful thoughts that I can express. (This is why I need a blog: so that I'm not constantly dumping my shiny rocks on whoever will listen! lol) I’m pretty sure Ali usually has to dig out from under a pile of them before she can go to bed, anyway.
One rock that's been bouncing around for a while came from a conversation I had with Kendra recently about friendship, the topic of her honors thesis project. We started talking about how we tend to want our friends to choose us -- essentially because it makes us feel wanted and needed and affirmed for who we are. I realized that it's definitely a natural tendency for me, too, to have a desire for people to want me and need me. Who doesn’t?
But, whenever I realize that I have a natural tendency, that’s usually a red flag for me. That realization always puts me on alert, because I have to wonder: have I discovered one of those natural tendencies that needs to be transformed into Christ-like character? In this case, I think I have. We receive the love of God so that we can love. Can we be secure enough in Christ’s love to feel affirmed, even if our friends haven’t called us as much as we would have liked this week? Could we even be secure enough to go first in extending that love to them? Waiting around for someone to love you seems kind of silly when you know that you’re already loved with an unconditional and everlasting love, and you have the ability to give that gift to another person.
So, instead of bemoaning the fact that we wish our friends would call us and waiting for them to take the step to let us know that we’re wanted and needed, we should be the ones stepping out to let them know that we want and need them. Imagine the joy in their hearts when they realize that someone has gone out of their way to let them know they’re loved -- even though they don’t think they’ve done anything to deserve it. What could be a clearer representation of Christ-like love? Friendships are a way to share the love of Christ with others, which means living humbly and putting the needs and interests of others ahead of our own. (Philippians 2) How beautiful would it be if we started living out this kind of humble love with our friends?
One rock that's been bouncing around for a while came from a conversation I had with Kendra recently about friendship, the topic of her honors thesis project. We started talking about how we tend to want our friends to choose us -- essentially because it makes us feel wanted and needed and affirmed for who we are. I realized that it's definitely a natural tendency for me, too, to have a desire for people to want me and need me. Who doesn’t?
But, whenever I realize that I have a natural tendency, that’s usually a red flag for me. That realization always puts me on alert, because I have to wonder: have I discovered one of those natural tendencies that needs to be transformed into Christ-like character? In this case, I think I have. We receive the love of God so that we can love. Can we be secure enough in Christ’s love to feel affirmed, even if our friends haven’t called us as much as we would have liked this week? Could we even be secure enough to go first in extending that love to them? Waiting around for someone to love you seems kind of silly when you know that you’re already loved with an unconditional and everlasting love, and you have the ability to give that gift to another person.
So, instead of bemoaning the fact that we wish our friends would call us and waiting for them to take the step to let us know that we’re wanted and needed, we should be the ones stepping out to let them know that we want and need them. Imagine the joy in their hearts when they realize that someone has gone out of their way to let them know they’re loved -- even though they don’t think they’ve done anything to deserve it. What could be a clearer representation of Christ-like love? Friendships are a way to share the love of Christ with others, which means living humbly and putting the needs and interests of others ahead of our own. (Philippians 2) How beautiful would it be if we started living out this kind of humble love with our friends?
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