Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Present Kingdom
Monday, June 25, 2007
A Prideful Heartache
I just finished Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, kick A book you should read it. In there he talks about bringing living in the Kingdom today,
“True spirituality then is not about escaping this world to some other place where we will be forever. A Christian is not someone who expects to spend forever in heaven there. A Christian is someone who anticipates spending forever here, in a new heaven that comes to earth.”
I finished this earlier in the week, and like I said, it was an eventful week. Yet again, God graced me with so much more than I deserve (P.S. I learned a lot about grace this week, but we’ll get to that later). On Saturday we went down to Lancaster again and put on a little “jam” session, it was pretty tight I must say. Our friends Tay and Thomas sang and jammed for us, along with a bunch of their friends and ours. These people have more spiritual wisdom than anyone I’ve ever seen, it’s incredible. It’s like when they sing, the words that echo from the mic are only a fraction of the burning that’s in their hearts. You can see it in their eyes. There’s no show involved, they just get down to business. Not many people make me feel really young, but talking to Thomas makes me feel spiritually immature, and I am. Then again, he makes us all look like amateurs. He can sit there and tell me about how he went to jail for petty theft, and how he went back a couple of times for missing his parole hearings, but there is no bitterness in his heart about these things you know why? Thomas is first to admit that his pride got him in jail, his pride kept him there, and then his pride sent him back. This man is homeless! He never went to college, never read a self-help book or watched Dr. Phil to know he had to man up to his immaturity. He doesn’t complain about being homeless, he’s never even mentioned it to me. He only talks about the Lord, his family, his friends, and music. His character bursts with authenticity and honesty. Man I hope I can one day harbor half of the spirit that man has. More and more I see that by having “nothing” (and by nothing I mean the material things we’ve been told have meaning) we have so much more spiritually. It’s not an easy place to get to, especially in the culture we live in, and sometimes I catch myself wondering how the heck I could ever get to such a place. That’s where the transition phase comes in. We’re “in between” journeys here, ready to catch the next plane but a little scared to fly at the same time. But that’s when we look around and notice we’re not the only ones standing at the ticket counter ready to board, there’s a whole family beside us, ready to embark on the journey with us. So while we’re “transitioning” around these days, the Lord is placing people in our paths with the same anxieties and fears, but also with the same heart beat.
I ended the weekend at a John Mayer concert so I find it appropriate to use some of his lyrics to wrap up this week…“Someday I’ll fly/someday I’ll soar/Someday I’ll be/ something much more/Cause I’m bigger than my body gives me credit for…” So here’s to dreaming some Godly dreams this week…just get ready to soar when you do
Monday, June 18, 2007
Humbled in His presence...
We've really been burdened with this going to downtown Ft. Worth. We're working with a homeless ministry there to buy this building and turn it into an outreach/resource center for the community off of East Lancaster. It would be a place where people could store their belongings (so crucial for these people you would not believe), get a mailbox, and hopefully have a voicemail system all in the hopes of getting them permanently off the streets. Literally this has the potential to transform the homeless community down there and even erase it completely from the area. Yet one of the things we've been humbled by (thank you Jesus!) is that feeding these people will do them little good, they don't "want our sandwich" as we've been told countless times. But for years churches have gone down there to hand out food, trying to serve these people the best way they think possible. It's easy to sit here and point the finger, tell them they're enabling the problem, tell them we have "the answer." But who are we? Who are we to claim our way is God's way? We can't, and God help us not to! Let us only cry out for more for these people. Let us only reach down into our own pockets for more than money. Let us fall flat on our faces, begging God to show us his will!
We have no right to harbor bitterness, resentment, anger, frustration, or anything else in vain. We have no right because Jesus was given these rights and he turned them away. He was given the Kingdom of Heaven and all of its riches, only to come down to earth and shed all his "rights" for our eternal salvation. Yet we can't help it. We harbour it, store it up, maybe even seek out more. I'm guilty of it, and I hate it. I hate that I can't let things go. I hate that I only want to unconditionally love others and seek nothing in return, yet as hard I try to avoid it I still sometimes get disappointed when it's not returned. For this reason I fall on my face and cry out to Jesus to forgive me for my pride. How did he do this? How did he love us so much? How did he bear the burden of our sin all while giving us his Kingdom in return? Tonight I am utterly humbled by his presence. He is SOO faithful in this journey how do I ever think for a second he will not deliver? Lord let me continue to fall on my face. Let me continue to be humbled again and again by your word. Let me give you all glory for your faitfullness that I am completely undeserving of...
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any afflection and sympathy, complete my job by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in HUMILITY count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus."
Phillipians 2:1-5
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Taking back Jesus' Neighborhood
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me"
I witnessed one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen this morning. As I sat talking to a man at the Resource Center on Lancaster this morning, I watched as my friend Becca went and got some paper and a pen to sit down with a woman and teach her how to read and write. Um, WOW. That is some radically lovin right there...There was a patience about it all, a geniune care for this woman she had only met a few minutes prior. Yet I don't think she doubted doing it for one minute. That's the character of Christ, unconditional love. You want to know how miracles happen??? Let's talk about how Becca and I were barely even friends in high school. Yet Christ worked on both our hearts for the past year, brought us together on the same beat, and before we knew it we were trying to figure out how to live this thing together. Beautiful, simply beautiful.
I cease to be amazed by the wisdom of those who "have the least" in this world. As much as we have to give to them, we have so much more to learn from them. We've type-casted them on the outskirts of society, yet they are living much more authentic lives than any of us could ever dream of!! The single mom on her own, the homeless man under the bridge, the teenage prostitute trying to support her family, they all impart a wisdom that utters to the heart of Christ. I've really been thinking lately what it would look like for us to become communities of believers again. Now I don't just mean round up all your Christian friends and throw them in a house, I mean like live on the same street as "the least of them." Live out your life alongside them, with them. Yeah it's scary, but do we really have a choice?
"So what must we do?
Here in the west we want to follow you
We speak the language and we keep all the rules
Even a few we made up
Come on and follow me
But sell your house, sell your suv
Sell your stocks, sell your security
And give it to the poor
What is this, hey what’s the deal?
I don’t sleep around and i don’t steal
I want the things you just can’t give me"
This incredible thing is taking place under our feet, under the church buildings, and it's about to happen right before our eyes. It's more than a movement, because we're using more than our feet, it's a revolution, transformed by our hands, feet, eyes, ears, hearts, souls, minds. We're not judging what's behind us, or even what we sit in now, we're just crying out that Jesus demands more, and we desire with all our hearts, soul, and mind to give it to Him. So many of us are groaning for the same things and we haven't even talked before...that's what you call Jesus' righteousness right there. It's not a blueprint, it's not a another set of rules to abide by, it's simply being driven by our hearts, our desire to live our lives as close to the beat of Christ as possible. To hold his children, ALL HIS CHILDREN, against our breast and cry for the same heartache, ache for the same pains, and forgive for the same sins. Let us not forget we are all beggars at the feet of Christ. None of us could ever be worthy of a drop of his righteousness on our own, but that's why we have each other. The bible was first and foremost a communal book, people had to wrestle in it together because there was no other choice. Yet now that it's the most published book in the world, we can keep it to ourselves, or better yet, keep it on the shelves...
"Because what you do to the least of these
My brother’s, you have done it to me
Because I want the things you just can’t give me"
Lord, let us get back to this place of community! Let us wrestle, question, beg, laugh, cry, hunger, toil, beat, and LOVE together once again! Let us shine light upon your Kingdom, the Kingdom that "is upon us", and let us not waste one drop of its glory on anybody but you...
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Lovin' on East Lancaster
I love going down to Lancaster. The people there have such character, not to mention ARE such characters...there's never a dull moment that's for sure. There were a lot more people this Saturday than last, and it was just a little bit hotter (ok a lot). I was disappointed not to find my friend William from last week, but I'll keep looking for him. One scene from today that really captured my heart was this old man trying to get to his belongings that were locked behind an outside cage at the Resource Center. I don't know why he couldn't get in it (maybe he could of just asked someone) but to stand there and watch him struggle to reach his bag with a stick just so he could take something out was heartbreaking. These people have nothing and what little they do carry with them is either left unattended in the streets or "locked away in a cage." I can't even begin to think what I would carry with me on an everyday basis if that's all I had in life, could you? It's also pretty easy to see that drugs are definately the devil's candy down there. It's sad but yet it's so much more frustrating to think of what these people's lives could have/will be without them. I don't think it's an unrealistic goal. And to see so many people my own age! To think I get to go to college and get an education while they suffer on the streets, how blessed am I? Again, it's not about going down there to give them a meal. Yes, they are incredibly greatful for that, but look around, you won't see many starving bodies if you know what I mean. Today we talked to a young couple who, while eating their hot dog so graciously given by a local church mission, stood there and told us they wished the churches would just stop giving out food because it makes that life too easy. This is where I see the changes we have to make as a church BODY, not just a building or a denomination or whatever. What if we all got on the same page as one force of God's children? Dang, talk about moving some mountains...more and more I see that's what has to happen, and not just with the homeless. If we break out of those buildings just a little bit to see what our church neighbors are doing next door, maybe we can then see the people we're called to serve living down the street...
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Try this parable on for size...
The Grain Merchant's Parable:
There once was a successful grain merchant who had an assistant. His assistant always did what he was told, never questioning his master's orders. The two worked side-by-side for years and the merchant fully entrusted his business to his assistant. His assistant had numerous opportunities to steal or scam both his master or their customers, but he never did. One day it came out that the merchant had been fixing the scales, and he himself had been cheating his customers out of money without his assistant's knowledge. The two were tried for their crimes. The judge gave the merchant his sentence, more like a slap on the wrist if you will, but for his assistant he said, "but for you, you will recieve the harshest penalty." The assistant was astonished, asking the judge "but how your honor? I have done nothing wrong, I was completely faithfull to my master and only did what was asked of me!" The judge replied, "exactly, but your morality hid an immorality."
Don't get it? That's ok, that's usually how Jesus liked it anyways :). To me, picking up your cross doesn't mean walking in a straight line up the mountain with your head to the ground. It means looking around you, seeing who's walking beside you, picking up their cross when they can't go any further, and maybe even saying, why walk to the Kingdom when we could run, even if the burden is hard to bear? It's ok to question things, Jesus demanded this from us! His parables were nuts! They made no sense to the audiences that heard them. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed? Now why would I want to be a part of something that destroys all my crops? Because it brings new life, it grows among the weeds and the roses, it is small, but it multiplies (and maybe it makes a good condiment, but personally mustard grosses me out:). As Shane Claiborne says, It is grace in a "scandalous" disguise...
Monday, June 4, 2007
Breaking down the walls to build up the body
One of the beautiful things about when we come together is the power of prayer. It's not a go around the circle, say a prayer request and hope someone remembers it later this week thing. If we have something to pray about, we stop and we do it for as long as we feel like necessary. And man, is that some powerful stuff. I think we make it too easy to pray sometimes. We pray for the easy stuff in life, that would probably happen anyways, but we just have to "make sure God hears what WE want" so we throw it in there. What about the hard stuff? Do we pray for the things we have absolutely no idea how they could go? Do we pray for the things we're scared to get answered? Do we pray for the people that it's hardest for us to love? That's when we really start to see things transform. As the body of Christ, we are so much more than people you can shove into a building. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes, his ears, his mind, his heart. We are so much more than walls! Yet it's become mechanic for us to just go once a week, maybe even more, drop some money in the offering basket, maybe even go on one mission trip a year. But what are we doing with the time in between? Are we still connected to the body of Christ? Or do we press the pause button on Jesus because we just can't be those hands for him today...
One of the girls in our group last night made a great point that really echoes into the heart of the power we have to transform this world. Jesus left the whole "blueprint" if you will, of the church up to 12 disciples, only 12! So basically, 12 men got this thing going (with a little help from JC of course). So just what kind of power do we have as an even greater body of believers?
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Jesus has a gang?
What strikes me so much about his story is how we're taught to stand on the other side of the street to a man like William. Like he's scary or something. There was nothing scary about a 25 year old man who is trying to seek after a better life, as well as Christ, yet can't help but get caught in the crossfire of the American Dream. Can some of these people go and get jobs, yes. Are some of them content sleeping in shelters for the rest of their lives, yes. But the majority are hungry for more than a meal, they just don't know how to stand in line for an open heart to listen. Is there even a line for such a thing? Look into the eyes of a man like William and just tell him to "go get a job," something tells me you couldn't do it, your heart wouldn't let you.
Friday, June 1, 2007
So Encouraged
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A year of transparencies
I almost died, literally. I won't go into detail but basically I sat on a ruptured appendix for 5 days, thinking I had the flu, ha! My surgeon told me it was the worst case he had ever seen and said I was a lucky girl. Lucky, ehhh maybe, blessed, yeah that seems a little more appropriate. Two things came from that: 1) Listen to Bria Bolton when she tells you to go to the doctor and 2) God must really want me to stick around for a little while, and I'm ok with that :)
I developed the most incredible relationships with people. And I don't mean the OMG, my BFF's for life!! type of friendships, I mean truly pursuing people and being pursued. One of the greatest lessons I learned was about being transparent with people (thank you Maggie Clark!), being bold with them and with the gospel. You want to be a living image of Christ? Go after someone's heart and see what it does to their soul, it might just change yours in the process...
I fell in love, and fell HARD. Most of you who knew me before this were as shocked as I was when this came about. I've never been one to date, kind of prided myself on that whole "independence" thing for a while. But things always happen when you least expect it and that part of my life has definately impacted me in so many ways. What I've learned from it and how I've grown could fill these pages forever. I do know that it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever felt and I look forward to the day when I can become intertwined in it's intricacies once again. My heart has some high standards to live up to and to think that the joy a human being can fill me with is just a fraction of the joy Christ has in store for me when I pursue him First and Foremost. Christ is my first love, and my last love, and I will take everyone in between as a blessing.
This will probably be the only shpeal on the subject but guys, know that there are good women out there who will love you, support you, and treasure you. Not all girls are...you know the word...and not all need drama to keep their lives going. Girls, there are incredible guys out there that aren't jerks, I know many of them (ask me and I might set you up :). They may not be perfect, but neither are you. I will say this, a love with each other is nothing without the love of Christ first. I'll never forget Matt Carter telling us to "run towards Christ as fast and as hard as you can, then look around you and see who's running with you." He is your first love, and don't let the ways of the world let you be jealous of the fact that your partner's heart truly belongs to another. Always let them pursue him first and foremost, and when your time comes, God will bless you with something so incredible you'll wonder how you could of ever been so impatient...
Ok enough of that stuff...I also cry now, apparently a lot. What cracks me up about this is that I DON'T cry, or didn't. I cry out of sympathy, happiness, sadness, frustration, etc., and sometimes for no reason at all (which usually turns into me laughing at myself). But I learned it's actually ok to do this. Learn to cry out of love, love for another person, and love for yourself. Love something so hard that it breaks your heart in two. I've done this a lot with people lately, but particularly I've begun to do this with my faith, thinking of the day when I'll stand before the throne and lay my crowns down as a beggar before my King's feet...ugh here it comes again!! I really got tired of spontaneously combusting if you will, but then I learned to embrace it, for it's a sign my heart truly believes the things I think it does...
I took a class that rocked my world. It was called "Rhetoric of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus." The reviews said it was not an easy class for many Christians to take, but needing a challenge in that department, I took it. Actually, I got on a long waitlist for it, couldn't get it off my mind, emailed the professor the night before and miraculously got in the class. Seriously, I know it was totally driven by the Spirit because my professor told me at the end of the year he never let people in the class and didn't really know why he let me do it other than it was last minute, I was definately an exception... But this class showed me the most truly raw, genuine portrait of Jesus. Not the one we gloss over in church on Sundays, but the one that calls us to be radical, the way Christ was radical. Ask me about this class and I could talk to you abou it forever...
I've come to realize that our faith must not just be personal, it must illuminate the people and things in our lives everyday. We have to share it, and let others share theirs with us. We seem to highlight the personal relationship with Christ so much these days, yet I can't help but think, what if Christ decided to keep his relationship personal, well dang, we'd all be in big trouble then! All I know is that there are people and places in this world that don't have the strength right now that we do. While we sit here and think about how we can continue to improve ourselves (self-help if you will) we let so many who hunger for food, for water, for peace, for understanding, for respect, and just simply for love, to slip through the cracks because of our own selfishness. It's not about giving your time or your money, it's about giving your heart, and all of it, even when you don't think you have anything left to give, then you know it's time to give some more.
Finally, I'm about to embark on a journey this summer that will transform my life, it already has begun. That's why I'm writing this, to let you all know about it. I'm a pretty private person so the idea of putting my deepest thoughts, fears, emotions, and struggles out for people to see is really freaking me out right now, but I'll try to keep that at a minimum for a while