Abiders

There's a whole new level beyond being a follower! It's the Abider level. 

God has been using Ann VosKamp's devotional email and the local sacred community group to show how exhilarating a plan He has. He has been using all of life to push me towards the only thing He knows will sustain and carry me through. Himself.

God has really been talking through the ages through His Word in John 15 about abiding. But here's the exciting part: He told us the secret for our joy. And not just for a little thrill, but a beyond the moon, cloud nine, whipped cream kind of happiness that actually lasts a lot longer than the cherry on top! He cares about our joy! He doesn't hide the secret to happiness, but spells it out for us.

Abiding can seem like a hard command. Like what is this anyway? Ann did a great job on exploring the topic, so I will gladly forward the email, if you want to read her words on Abiding.

In sacred community, we read John 15 and it came alive to me. Jesus wasn't pushing us towards abiding or pruning for His sake, but ours. Our joy matters to Him!

When this world offers nothing more than mere survival, desperately needy drama, and abyss of trouble, remember that God wants to give you something different. Something that will bring you pure joy, found by abiding.

Abiding requires trust. You are not going to sit with Someone who you don't believe completely. 

Abiding means I don't do it on my strength anymore, but His. It's an acknowledgement that I don't depend on myself anymore.

Abiding is transformation waiting to happen. 

So if you read my last blog post aka rant, then know that I also need a lot of growth. There's a call to higher ground then I have reached. Abiding and going on HIS strength, not my own, will be the way forward.

Fan or Follower

I'm going to borrow the title of a recent sermon for a rampage of thoughts barging their way through my mind, and even disrupting my sleep.

Family is Uber important in the Menno world (and it is important) but should it be more important than God? Jesus said unless we forsake father and mother, we can't be a Disciple... Not sure what weight our excuses hold against Jesus' words.

 How can a church full of people sit brooding over hurt feelings and contemplating a split when not so far away is a woman who needs to go to dialysis 3 days a week with no one to support her? I understand hurt feelings. I've been there. But let's not get hung up there. There's lessons to be learned, and then we need to offer hope from our own broken pieces to those who know messy better then we can imagine it.

I have begged for social worker support for more than a month, and gone on all kinds of emotional rollercoaster rides for refugee friends over a much longer period of time, but beyond the social worker community, I don't get any better response from the Christian ppl around.

I don't tell stories for entertainment or any sensations. In fact, I hate just being entertainment. But when people have called me for help for the upteenth time for a lost child or to run them to the ER... What am I to say or do when I am personally running low on all my resources, and there's no one else to call?

You don't speak the right language, you say. Love trumps every language. 

There's needs in the church, but a lot of them would resolve themselves if we stopped the platitudes in Sunday School and dived into real world problems to get our eyes off ourselves. 

I like coffee too, but sometimes it feels pretty shallow people on Instagram or Facebook, if you know what I mean. First world problems.

Why does it seem like ppl like to hear that someone is doing something as long as it doesn't require them to do anything? Or maybe they can give to a cause, but they don't want to get messy themselves? How is that ok?

There's just a lot wrong with this world and I don't understand. Maybe you can help me, but don't start on the platitudes. It's simply too much.

Lately, there's been a lot of hard stuff that isn't easy, and I don't have answers. It would be easier to live on the other side of the world and not regularly crash between 2 different worlds called the city and church.

But I think that sermon on Sunday set something straight in my mind. There's a lot more fans than followers in God's House these days. 

Followers pray and listen. They take orders. They live from the overflow of a relationship, but that's a whole other blog post. Followers don't just know facts. Followers are in a relationship with the God they love. And there's where I see how much I still need to grow as a faithful follower. You can choose to be a fan, but I would take all the aspects of being a follower. Sometimes, coffee comes with it!;)

The Plagues

It's all about what you call something. If you look at the children of Israel in Egypt, you could talk about the plagues and how terrible they were, or you could focus on God as He worked the miracles.

The story of 2020 seems to read about the same. We might be on about plague number three or four or five. Still have who knows how many plagues to go. But remember their story didn't stop in the middle, and ours won't either.

We might walk away only to find ourselves facing a 'Red Sea' type of impossible. But it didn't stop there either. They walked through on dry ground, between walls of water. God can still do miracles today just like He did then.

The challenge for us is this: Are we going to look at the plagues and hard circumstances around us, or look at God who hasn't changed? The God who is still a Miracle Worker?

Let's keep history alive like God commanded the Israelites. They did it by building a pile of stones as a memorial. We could do it by journals, mementos, books, photos, art or whatever suits your fancy. We're going to need those reminders for the rest of the plagues, the tribulations of the end times, and just life in general.

God deserves our attention more than all the plagues from then or now. If you pile all the terrible plagues and what not on one side, and place God on the other, He will always be bigger than the bad side. Keep your eyes on Him.

Conflict

Sooner or later, it comes. Sometimes, unexpectedly, but it always comes. The dreaded tension. All the emotional upheavals. In the worst cases, you could say that the world turned upside down.

I've been through enough in my life to have spent a significant amount of time thinking about team conflict. How to avoid it. How to divert it. How to deal with the aftermath. I'm not ready for more necessarily, but I have also lost some fear of it.

It's not all bad. Paul and Barnabas split ways for a while. They reached more places separated then they did together.

Reality is, wherever there are people, there will be problems. No matter where you go, it happens at some degree at some level. Doesn't always get severe enough to separate, but the tensions can still make a few ripples anywhere.

Sometimes, you are the offended, and sometimes, you are the offender. Either way, deal with your heart.

In the light of this topic, I have read Tim Clinton's book on Attachments, and Healthy Me, Healthy Us by Les and Leslie Parrott. The strength of the conflict in a lot of ways matches the emotional wholeness and wounds of those at it's epicenter. If we have healthier attachment styles, and we are striving for wholeness emotionally, we will have less drama within the tensions.

The point boils down to one thing. We need to take care of our own wounds, and issues that flow out of them. God may have allowed this conflict for your healing and greater good!

Stop the finger pointing for the next month, and look deep inside. Is it all one person's fault? No, everyone has some flaws that enter the fray.

If the quarantine showed us anything, I hope we saw the extent of the stuff we just carry with us, and never take time to process because we're "too busy." Moving forward, how are you and I going to realistically deal with life as it happens. Especially if it's crazy dramatic like a lot of my weeks are normally???

Maybe it's a sacred community of friends speaking into our lives. Maybe it's more solitude. Maybe it's more praying. Or more intentional weekends/week nights. Whatever you need to do, do it because stuff can get deep fast. Change {me} before them.

Your relationship attachment style is merely a signal of where you are on the wholeness map. You choose as a kid whether you will avoid it, leech off everyone, or be healthy. If you want to change your life and attachment style, change your beliefs so your thoughts and actions can be transformed. Stop worrying about the other people and just ask God what He wants to accomplish in your own heart with it?

Determine to become better and not bitter.

Pray more than you push agendas. The chances are, God's really after a completely different purpose then anyone realizes. Seek His Face. He shows up as we surrender.

Let me say once more, determine to become better and not bitter if you don't know what to do. It pays! Let this conflict be the one that sparks an internal change.

Sacred Community

Sacred Community...A place for a group of people who inspire, encourage and urge each other on in their individual journeys with God.

Something that is so needed, and yet so few relationships are safe enough, or deep enough to be what develops spiritual growth.

It's not counseling. It's not advise. It's hearing from God together. It's praying for the others in the group. It's not fixing, but it's joining God in creating the beauty and redemption He wants.

It happens among people who have built relationships where pretentiousness and social protocol don't have any say. It happens in places where gossiping is shunned and excommunicated. It happens among people who are broken and ok with the mending journey being messy. It happens among the people who can share unedited stories without any judgement.

This is what we all long for, and yet too many prefer that life stay so neat and predictable that you can't keep it real.

Ask hard questions.
Am I in relationships that encourage growth?
Am I changing the things I can first of all in me?
Am I courageous in speaking life and hope to others?
What cost am I willing to pay for meaningful relationship?
Am I really known or do I hide behind busyness or anything else?
Where have I come from?
Where am I going?
Who is going with me?

See we are not meant to go the journey alone. We need people to walk with and speak into our lives. We are also called to reach out to others and bless them. Find a group you can allow into the sacred space of your life and walk with them.

Urgency of the Hour

I was sitting on my couch at 7:58pm on a Sunday night recently when I heard semi-auto shots in rapid succession.

The next morning, my heart sank as I realized a human had seriously injured other people just around the corner. I'm not the type that could even kill an animal, and this was people we are talking about.

3 weeks before this, a random murder happened that took the daddy of one of my students. They had just gotten to the USA 4 months before this. This victim had sat in my office.

Over Christmas break, I fled south to be with family for Christmas. A friend messaged me to say that our mutual friend was moving out of state before I would be back. Again, my heart dropped. I have the Good News in her language, and I hadn't gotten around to having the perfect time to share it with her.

I got home, and luckily she'd stayed in town one more week. That last time I had with her, we went shopping like normal, to the laundromat and I made sure she had a functioning link to the Story. My last memory is of her watching the link as I left. Within a week, she is living hours away.

This week, I saw the Free Burma Rangers movie with war scenes from Burma and Iraq, followed by an Alice practice drill at school the next day. This is prepping for an intruder at school.

God is looking for people who are not afraid to step up and into hard situations because He wants others that He loves to know Him, too.

Most of the time, there are no bullet ridden cars around. It's called loving the person in front of me. It's defending a child. It's helping a family. It's being a friend. It's normal stuff that anyone could do. But it's being intentional with where I put myself.

Most of my world has little contact with Jesus followers because they are not going out intentionally even though this city is known for churches. Churches who have heard about volunteer opportunities and aren't willing to step up to the plate. I'm not talking about any certain denomination here. It's across the board...

For some reason, there is this big fat lie that floats around the pews that people who go out have to be special, called, holy people. It's like a friend said recently, the stories of missionary people sound super amazing in church, but get them in your home, and you hear it's not all glorious. Sometimes I am shocked that God would use even me with my issues. But I struggle to talk about my issues cause I am supposed to be a good person.

This lie has to be replaced with a bit of the truth. Everyone is called. From Genesis 12 on, the heart of the Father is clear. The blessings we have are given for one reason. To be a blessing to all ppl. It's not just the Great Commission. It's practically the concept of the whole Bible. If you believe the cross was necessary for your sins, what about everyone else's?

Do you have to travel across the world? No. Travel is one of the best experiences ever, but across the street is just as ripe an opportunity as I observed my neighbor going on a "witch Hunt" with a 2x4 after an argument at their house where a car took off.

Let the bullets remind you of the urgency. God doesn't give the spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind. 99% of the time, you likely won't be dealing with guns, but with people. Love them well.

Embracing the Color

Years ago, at the Bible School in Arkansas, we all had to introduce ourselves with our personality color. Mine is not the perfect Mennonite shade for females, to put it simply. And the journey of embracing my color (who God made me to be) began.

Over the years, God met me on this, and even sent the color of butterflies to me that He wanted for me, not what I wanted. But as I looked at them sitting literally on my bare toes in Thailand, I couldn't argue.

Culture dictates so much in our lives. That's a global problem. Are we going to rise above what they say, and do what God created us to?

For example, you should be married by 22 according to culture. Are you going to wait for marriage to start your life, or get on it now? I'm closer to 22x2 then the original digit, and still single. But I know that the opportunity to speak into the lives of the children and adults around me is exponentially greater than the amount of lives I would have touched if I had gotten married at 21.75 years. I chose to embrace the story God has, and make the best of it. It's been beyond anything my wild imagination could possibly come up with!

I'm not bashing marriage, and if that is the story God has for you, I am sure it will be just as good.

Whether you are 17.95 years old, or 22, 35 or 95, are you asking God what He had in mind for you, and working with Him to develop the giftings and character He has placed in you?

Do you know what your personality is on the Disc or Myers Briggs test? Are you self aware enough to know what your response is to different personalities?

Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? You can study Ephesians 4, Romans 12, or 1 Corinthians 12. There are also tests online.

Gary Thomas talks about the way we relate to God in Sacred Pathways. Not all of us hear from God the same way. Are you aware of how He speaks to you?

What are your interests and hobbies? Development of those can bring a lot of glory to God.

Think about your story until now. What are significant themes? Sometimes God uses our painful pieces to connect with others. Once I felt like God really wanted me to talk about the dark suicidal thoughts I struggled with a decade before this in a camp on the other side of the world. What I didn't know was that a girl had attempted suicide the year before that sat in my class. A few years later, I was visiting Asia again, but was hours away from this village when I ran into a man from there that told me she was now married and had a child. God might have redemption stories like this one for you.

My prayers for all of us is that we embrace the story God has for us. Accepting our personality, culture, giftings, hard pieces, and what ever our story hands us is one of the best ways we give God glory as we let Him use all of it.

You may not be the same color as I am, but are you accepting the color you are?