Love

I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
~Ephesians 3:17-18 (The Message)

Here I am on day 9 of the 90 day challenge and I'm still keeping up. I find myself right now in the middle of Leviticus, where I'll stay for another day before moving on! :) I'm amazed at the words and stories that I'm reading every day. Stories of an unfaithful people and a faithful God. Day after day I'm incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of love shown by the Lord.

At first I was calling it patience. Saying that God was so patient in not giving up on the people He created. So patient in not walking away from them every time they just made a royal mess of things. So patient in not kicking them to the curb as they so rapidly sinned against Him or argued with Him or doubted Him. I thought of it as patience.

Then I realized that I was wrong. This wasn't just patience. This was LOVE. It wasn't the picture of someone who just forced Himself time and again not to just call it quits and succeeded in pressing on just because He had amazing self-control. No, it was instead the picture of love, a love so deep and abiding and persistent that out of it flowed a patience that I can't even fathom.

No, God is not just patient. God is in love. In love with me and you and all who have come before and all who will follow. God shows what love truly is and in so doing we see so many other things, things like compassion and patience and faithfulness and tenacity and mercy and grace. Yet it's not these things alone that drive God's actions. What defines every other characteristic is His love.

Oh that we may all understand what love He has for us. What love He has for all of His creation. For that's where everything else comes from.

This is a treasure I've found from these first nine days. I can hardly wait to see what else He will show me. Pretty sure though that this is a big one...in fact, the one that the whole thing hinges on. Such a great reminder to me and I see it ever so much more clearly by seeing the history of the saints in such rapid progression. Awesome!

Seek Him. Know Him. Be loved. By Him.

Show Me How

I'll run the course you lay out for me if you'll just show me how. God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me-my whole life one long, obedient response.
~Psalm 119:32-34 (The Message)

This morning as I read these verses I realized that for this to truly be the desire of my life and my heart then I need to be willing to actually seek out what God has to show me. I am quick to state that I desire to walk more closely with Him, that I want to love Him above all else, that I hope to stay only in His will but I'm not as quick to reorganize my life to figure out how to do that. These 90 days are just one way that I think that I can begin to structure my life even more closely to the challenge in these verses: to be shown how to run and to learn the lessons to run well. That's just one of my hopes for this process!

It's a day into this 90 day journey and I can already see that it's going to show me a lot about God and I'm quite certain that I'll also learn quite a bit about myself. In drinking deeply from His wisdom I have already found that there is much to see that I've not noticed when taking it in much more slowly. I'm seeing already how much His faithfulness is reflected towards His people and how much love and emotion is apparent in His relationships with them. I am impressed with how often God spoke to those He loved and how quickly they followed even when they had questions.

I also see sin and the ramifications of it: the desire to be like God, the desire to manipulate situations to solve for problems, a desire for attention and favor and honor, greed, lying, hiding. All leading to a deeply grieved God and death, whether immediate or eventually.

Amazing to realize that even though He knew we would break His heart in so many ways, He still looked at His creation of Adam and said that it was very good. Through all that was to happen, redemption was always part of His plan too. I'll never be able to grasp that.

1 day in. This is going to be amazing.

90 Days: A Challenge

When she first mentioned it my initial response was one of hesitancy and distance. Really? 90 days to accomplish this task? Doesn't that seem a little intense, a little too much, a little too hard, a bit unnecessary? I remember my first comments of how I couldn't take in that much information that quickly, that I had so much other stuff going on, that I was probably too busy.

Funny how God sometimes won't let a thing go.

Mere weeks later, I'm poised to begin the task, to tackle the challenge, to stop with the whining and excuses and complaints. Will it be hard? Certainly. Will it require me to give up some things that I'd rather do? Absolutely. These things are completely true but they're not the real questions I should be asking. These are the questions that have made me agree to the task:

Will it push my faith and reliance on God?
Will it refine my character and realign my priorities
to be a better reflection of what's important to Him?
Will it open up opportunities to more greatly
reflect on His character and understand who He really is and has been and will be?
Will it make me more like Jesus?

When I found myself answering yes to these questions, I knew that I needed to do it. Not because it's a requirement, not because I had to, not because I'd feel left out if I didn't join but because when you find something that has the potential to do everything in the questions above, you must at least give it more than a passing glance.

This is something that I want to do. Something that I probably need to do. Something that, with God's grace and my discipline, I will do.

So, 90 days. It's going to be quite the journey.

Thanks for the invitation, friend!
:)

A Call to Action: Haiti

The smallest, the weakest, the quietest: these are the children living in the aftermath of the tragedy in Haiti. Compassion International works with over 65,000 children and their families in Haiti and over a third of them live in the hardest hit areas. Think about that for a minute: 65,000 children. That's a LOT of children being ministered to, cared for, and loved by people around the world who give of their energy and finances every month to reach these smallest of miracles.

In the wake of this earthquake, many sponsors will have to wait for long days to hear the fate of the children that they loved. Devastatingly, many children likely perished and their dear sponsors will only be able to hear and mourn from a distance. Yet this is a reflection of the bonds that Compassion nurtures, the incredible fact that around the world, over 65,000 people know the names of a child and pray for them and support them. Yes, there will be mourning and sorrow but there will also come hope and rejoicing and miracles of a God who hears and responds to our prayers and our willingness to give. Without Compassion, this tragedy could have remained sterile for many but now there are names and faces and forces joined in prayer and hope. Compassion loves children and allows for many to love them too. This is what Compassion does day in and day out but today there is a larger need for this one small country and we should not turn away from it.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. Compassion has teams prepared to respond, and they are deeply committed to helping each child. Compassion needs your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.

Here is a link that will allow you to donate to Compassion for their critical ministry following the Haiti earthquake. Read on for more information about your gift but please consider giving, it really will change a life.
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz


HOW DONATIONS WILL BE USED: All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.
You can provide immediate relief today.
• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families' needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families' needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.
Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.

WHY GIVE TO COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL

FINANCIAL INTEGRITY:
The FBI is warning of several Haiti charity scams that have popped up in the wake of this earthquake. They are suggesting that donations only be made to organizations monitored and rated by CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy. Both organizations have given Compassion International their highest approval ranking. Compassion International is the only non-profit in it's category to receive eight consecutive years of four star rating from CharityNavigator.org.
Links regarding Compassion International's financial integrity:
http://www.compassion.com/about/financial/default.htm
FIRST RESPONDER:
In this disaster it is crucial that first responders receive support quickly. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church's neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it's sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of our church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.
IN JESUS' NAME:
Compassion International does not accept government funds which could at times restrict our ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children in Jesus' name. Because of this Compassion International's primary financial support comes from individual donors.

For ongoing information:
Compassion on Facebook and the Crisis Update Page.

Where It Goes, Only God Knows

I don't know what the remainder of my days will look like. I don't know where I'll live or if I'll marry or if I'll have a family of my own. These things are yet unknown. However, in the midst of my life right now, God is working on some dreams, some dreams that right now seem impossible to me and yet I know they are reflections of His heart.

I don't know what happens down the road but God does. These ponderings may be the seeds of something that changes the world or maybe just the seeds of something that changes me. Either way, this video speaks a great deal to where God is working on me right now and perhaps, He's working on you there too!

Go!

So perhaps I decided to take a couple days off and start the new year up when I returned to work. Perhaps! :)

It's here though, this brand new year. It's four days old and I'm already loving so many moments and also already wondering at various things that God is showing me and working on in me. Oddly enough, exactly the same things that were going on a week ago!

I do have some thoughts about what I hope this year will hold though, thoughts that I'm willing to put out here for my two readers to know! :) Some might call these goals or resolutions but I look at them more as areas of focus, things that I want to purposefully draw my attention towards in the days to come. None of these is some new, lofty pursuit but rather things that God has been working on in me for months, sometimes years already!

First, I want to work on being faithful in all of the things that God has placed in my life today. In relationships and jobs, in stewardship and time management, in all of the areas of my life where I've at times become lazy and inattentive. I want to live out Luke 16:10, which I am taking somewhat out of context but which I believe is applicable for all areas of life. It says, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." I want to reflect faithfulness in the smallest of areas so that I might be further refined for whatever God needs of me in the future. It is one of my desires for this year.

Second, I want to practice compassion towards all. I want my actions and attitude to be one of love towards all I encounter, not just the lovely or those who are dear to me. I want to be thoughtful of the way that I bear His light in this world and seek to live outside myself much more often.

Third, I desire that prayer would become an area of focus in my days. I have found myself guilty of not allotting much time to the spiritual disciplines and I desire for my life to be defined by my time with the Lord pursuing Him in prayer, study, fasting, and other disciplines. Prayer particularly is an area that I want to grow more diligent in but each of these disciplines deserves more of my time and effort so that God might show me His character and change me to better resemble it.

Fourth, I want to purposefully cultivate my artistic abilities and my imagination by spending time taking pictures, reading, pulling out my instruments, writing and other such things. I want to aim for depth in my thoughts and writings and I want to allow God to develop big dreams for my life and my days.

Fifth, I want to be very purposeful towards relationships in my life. I want to be intentional, diligent, and willing to invest my time and energy into those around me. I have become ever so aware that this life is not about me and that if I choose to live in solidarity I will one day have no one to turn to when I am in need of encouragement or help. Friendships are a huge blessing given by the Lord and I want to especially be faithful with those He has given.

Sixth, and probably the one I like the least, is that I want to practice living a life of risk. Not in stupid ways or dangerous ways but rather embracing the idea of learning to let go and allow control to be beyond my grasp in order to learn a greater dependence on the Lord. I don't like not being safe and even though I've grown in this in a lot of ways over the past couple of years, it is still something that I struggle with. I like things to be defined and calculated and safe and while I experience dependence on God, I feel as though I limit His capability to move in my life as I continue to hold on to what feels comfortable. In my head I know that risk is important to life but when it comes down to action, I am not always able to let go of the line and fall into His arms completely. I desire growth in this area even though the acknowledgment of the desire opens me up to the reality of having to truly embrace it and go in places that are hard.

These are six areas that I know I want to continue to focus on in the coming months and now seems like as good of a time as any to identify them and write about them. I'm certain that you'll see these concepts revisited in the days to come and I'd love for you to challenge me and call me out if you see that I'm falling short in these (or really any other area).

I also want to take just a moment to push you. Take some time and identify where you sense God challenging you and calling you to bigger things. Sit down and think about your life, look at those areas and see what you might be able to focus on in the months to come. In all reality, January 1st is just another day but sometimes it's good to sit down and seek out what God might be doing in your life that needs a bit more of your attention.

Finally, in closing what is a really long post here, I want you to know that this is my prayer for you this year:

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
~Jude 1:20-21

May we gather next year and recount what God has done in our lives as we passionately pursue Him and His heart and allow Him to daily refine us to be better bearers of His name!

Go in peace into 2010 and may God rule your every moment!