This 'revelation' hit me hard tonight while riding in a mototaxi into town and I had no idea why at first. Fortunately, I was able to seriously think about it over dinner alone (yes, I know that's slightly pathetic... haha). As I began analyzing the statement, I realized that it was brought into my consciousness by the Holy Spirit. Because to be honest, I have not been trying to take anything BUT the easy path lately, and the HS convicted me strongly about it tonight. I don't know why tonight, but what I do know is that I can start figuring out how I can change my life to do more than just glide through each day. Let's take an honest look at ourselves (and I'll be the first to admit that I do this)... how many of us just try to get though each day with the least effort possible? It's amazing the number of posts I see on Facebook every single day that just beg for the weekend to get here already; why is that? Our path was never meant to be an easy one... In fact, ours should be the hardest path there is. Unfortunately - myself at the front of the line - we've lost sight of that, and we expect everything to be hunky-dorey, easy-breezy. God has given us this day - today! - to make something of it! Not to just be wishing that it was the weekend so we can 'officially' slack off. We need to be proclaiming God's glory with every word, act, and thought every day. We are called to be authentic with each other, and even love our enemies. Now, those two things are most definitely NOT the easy path! But we must do them, brothers and sisters, for they are what sets us apart from the world. They are what call the lost to us, and makes them realize that we are different from them, and then they desire to have what we have. Instead, most of the time, the lost see us no differently from them because we too try to slip into the Easy path, and we get stuck in 'survival mode.' The Lord gave us strength enough for each day, and He renews that strength every day, but He gave it to us to fulfill His Will for us, not to beg the weekend to get here faster.
For me, the Right path would be to spend time in God's Word every day, instead of watching 'Heroes' and 'Bones'; for me, the Right path would be to be a better steward of my time, focusing every action for His glory, instead of mindlessly stalking my friends on Facebook; for me, the Right path would be to become a better steward of God's money He gave me, instead of carelessly spending what I have so that I become reliant on my parents to help me out each month; for me, the Right path would be to develop deeper relationships with the people next door and back home, instead of closing myself off emotionally to make it easier for me. I can't do this alone; I would fail within the first 10 minutes! But with Him, and the strength He provides, I stand a chance to walk the Right path. How would the Right path look for you?? It's not going to be easy, and we may not always 'win' each day.... but it's going to be Right.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Family
It seems to me that I start out way too many of these with an apology for not writing a blog sooner; and this blog will keep the tradition behind those. I apologize for the amount of time between this blog and the last; almost two months if I'm not mistaken. Yikes...
Well, the topic for this blog has been on my mind since my birthday, the 18th of August. I got to talk to my family back in Falls town, and it was really good hearing them wish me a good birthday. Before you think me a bad son, or out in the boonies of the Amazon rainforest, that is common for me. I try to talk to my family at least once a week to catch up with them. I love them dearly, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that without my parents' influence on my life, I wouldn't be here serving the Lord. And my brother.... what can I say about him besides I'm proud of the man I see him growing into, and that the hardest decision of my life was to extend a year down here; the main reason for it being hard was that I would miss being there for his senior year. But.... this blog isn't about them, as much as I love them. No, my intention in this blog is not to confuse you. Yes, I know the title is "Family." So how can this blog not be about my family in Wichita Falls??
You see, the profound event that happened on my birthday was not a phone call, but a toast from one of my Latin partners working with us down here, Isaac. His toast touched me greatly because in it he talked about how even though we're from different countries, different continents, different hemispheres, we are brothers. He went on to say that he felt like I was his brother because of the times we hung out, and once when I gave him some advice when he needed a different perspective on an issue. I remember those times, but not with the vividness apparent in his eyes as he shared them; moments that I took for granted affected him greatly. He ended with saying that Jesus showed us how we ought to live with other Christians: Mark 3:31-35 "And his [Jesus'] mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting aorund him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.' And he answered them, 'Who are my mother and brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoeever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.'" We spent a lot of time together, but every person who does the will of the Almighty is my family, and should be treated as a very close, and loved, family member. I sometimes forget this, and then God has to smack me upside the head again, like He did on the night on my birthday. I need to apologize to some of my brothers and sisters for not treating them the way I should be treating them, like my family. I have a lot of people down here who are like family to me, and have been big parts of my life: J and Susan, Trent and Kay, Doug, Jose, Isaac, Linzi, Nadia, Enoc, Misty, Amy, Johnathan, and so many more that I'm sorry I don't have the room to list. It's so easy in today's culture to just avoid someone that rubs us the wrong way when we should be loving them and hanging out with them because that's what family does. We admit that there might be a few nuts in the family fudge, but they make it a better family for it. :)
Well, thank you for letting me share this thought that's been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks. A little update for y'all: on Monday, I'm flying to Lima, the capital of Peru, and from there I'm taking a bus to Quito, Ecuador, Thursday the 10th. We are going to be starting a two month training there in the jungle southeast of Quito for a group of indigenous tribes who want to reach some of their lost cousins farther up the river from them. It should be a good time!! But please be praying that everything goes well logistics wise, as well as the training itself. Oh yeah, one big praise that happened this last couple of weeks. The man of peace from the village where we work in Bolivia (I passed through the village once or twice) asked to get baptized!!! It's amazing what He does!
Well, the topic for this blog has been on my mind since my birthday, the 18th of August. I got to talk to my family back in Falls town, and it was really good hearing them wish me a good birthday. Before you think me a bad son, or out in the boonies of the Amazon rainforest, that is common for me. I try to talk to my family at least once a week to catch up with them. I love them dearly, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that without my parents' influence on my life, I wouldn't be here serving the Lord. And my brother.... what can I say about him besides I'm proud of the man I see him growing into, and that the hardest decision of my life was to extend a year down here; the main reason for it being hard was that I would miss being there for his senior year. But.... this blog isn't about them, as much as I love them. No, my intention in this blog is not to confuse you. Yes, I know the title is "Family." So how can this blog not be about my family in Wichita Falls??
You see, the profound event that happened on my birthday was not a phone call, but a toast from one of my Latin partners working with us down here, Isaac. His toast touched me greatly because in it he talked about how even though we're from different countries, different continents, different hemispheres, we are brothers. He went on to say that he felt like I was his brother because of the times we hung out, and once when I gave him some advice when he needed a different perspective on an issue. I remember those times, but not with the vividness apparent in his eyes as he shared them; moments that I took for granted affected him greatly. He ended with saying that Jesus showed us how we ought to live with other Christians: Mark 3:31-35 "And his [Jesus'] mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting aorund him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.' And he answered them, 'Who are my mother and brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoeever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.'" We spent a lot of time together, but every person who does the will of the Almighty is my family, and should be treated as a very close, and loved, family member. I sometimes forget this, and then God has to smack me upside the head again, like He did on the night on my birthday. I need to apologize to some of my brothers and sisters for not treating them the way I should be treating them, like my family. I have a lot of people down here who are like family to me, and have been big parts of my life: J and Susan, Trent and Kay, Doug, Jose, Isaac, Linzi, Nadia, Enoc, Misty, Amy, Johnathan, and so many more that I'm sorry I don't have the room to list. It's so easy in today's culture to just avoid someone that rubs us the wrong way when we should be loving them and hanging out with them because that's what family does. We admit that there might be a few nuts in the family fudge, but they make it a better family for it. :)
Well, thank you for letting me share this thought that's been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks. A little update for y'all: on Monday, I'm flying to Lima, the capital of Peru, and from there I'm taking a bus to Quito, Ecuador, Thursday the 10th. We are going to be starting a two month training there in the jungle southeast of Quito for a group of indigenous tribes who want to reach some of their lost cousins farther up the river from them. It should be a good time!! But please be praying that everything goes well logistics wise, as well as the training itself. Oh yeah, one big praise that happened this last couple of weeks. The man of peace from the village where we work in Bolivia (I passed through the village once or twice) asked to get baptized!!! It's amazing what He does!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A Clarification
It has been brought to my attention that my previous blog might have caused some confusion among my home church with regards to a certain situation there.... That was not my intention at all, and I apologize to anyone that may have been confused by my blog.
I mentioned that we had asked two Latins to leave the church, and currently there is a similar situation that occurred in my home church. There are two differences in the situations that should be made aware to those reading my blog. First, is that those two young men were bringing major division to the church by their attitudes, and were completely unrepentant. They were given chance after chance to redeem their ways; sadly that is not the case of the situation in my home church.... Secondly, and most importantly, our ENTIRE church was in agreement with the decision we made; it was not a few people making a decision for "the greater good" of the people. I know for a fact that my home church (which means every member according to the Bible!) has not been in unanimous agreement with this decision, and that is the biggest difference between the two situations. Please also keep in mind that I am still a member of my home church, even though I am serving here in Peru for God's glory. It is not my intention to cause division in the church, only to bring the bride of Christ back to it's Biblical roots.
Again, I apologize to everyone that I may have confused, and I hope this has clarified it. If anyone wishes to talk to me, please feel free to email me at redhusky03@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
I mentioned that we had asked two Latins to leave the church, and currently there is a similar situation that occurred in my home church. There are two differences in the situations that should be made aware to those reading my blog. First, is that those two young men were bringing major division to the church by their attitudes, and were completely unrepentant. They were given chance after chance to redeem their ways; sadly that is not the case of the situation in my home church.... Secondly, and most importantly, our ENTIRE church was in agreement with the decision we made; it was not a few people making a decision for "the greater good" of the people. I know for a fact that my home church (which means every member according to the Bible!) has not been in unanimous agreement with this decision, and that is the biggest difference between the two situations. Please also keep in mind that I am still a member of my home church, even though I am serving here in Peru for God's glory. It is not my intention to cause division in the church, only to bring the bride of Christ back to it's Biblical roots.
Again, I apologize to everyone that I may have confused, and I hope this has clarified it. If anyone wishes to talk to me, please feel free to email me at redhusky03@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Being the Church Is Not Easy (a.k.a. It's Hard!!)
I would like to share with y'all what's been going on the past few days down here in Iquitos... Where to start, where to start?? Well, I'll start at the end, and work my way backwards. Yesterday, as the church, we asked two believers to leave the training, and return to their home town. Some sins came to light about a trip they had recently made while going through the training here. We asked them about it, and they were completely unrepentant so we had to do what the Bible calls us to do in the situation (Matt 18:15-17): we had to, in loving kindness, ask them to leave because of the harm they were causing to the church. Through their attitude they were destroying the other believers' focus on God, and refocusing it on immature things of this world. I'm not going to lie; the last two days have been extremely hard on me because this is not the first time I've done this. I've done it before, last December in Bolivia; same situation... A missionary was in sin and was unrepentant, so we decided as the church to send him back home. I thought to myself; "When have I ever heard of a 'church' in the States asking someone to leave?! What in the world?! How can I have partaken two times in the last seven months asking people to leave and there are 'churches' in the States who have never done it in their entire history??"
The answer is simple enough: being the church is not easy! Yes, I know that pretty much everyone will agree with their mouths "we are the church all the time, Jeff" but the majority are not practicing that in any way. They've learned to parrot it whenever someone says that so as to feel Biblical in some small way, but to look at their lives speaks something completely different. Easiest example of this: where do Christians go Sunday mornings? To church, of course! Well, that seems to me like the underlying feeling then is that people aren't the church, and a place is. As a result, people revere the building because "it's God's house." I can't remember how many times I've heard that phrase from pastors talking about the building. That is nowhere in the Bible! Every time the New Testament speaks of church, "εκκλησία" in the Greek, it speaks of people. The word literally means "congregation." Hmm, that's interesting... Just crack open Hebrews and start reading; that letter just tears to pieces the idea of a building as 'the church.' Just listen to this (Heb 3:5-6): Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." So we are his house....
1 Corinthians 3:16- "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" 2 Corinthians 6:16- "What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, 'I will make my dwelling place among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.'" So we are his temple....
Read chapter 9 of Hebrews... Go on, this blog will still be here after you finish. What did you think?
"So why did Jeff go off on this rant against the 'church'?" you ask yourself. I haven't... I'm just trying to open eyes and hearts to see that we are called to be the church every day, not just one pitiful hour on Sunday morning; that is NOT the church as Christ imagined it, yearns for it to be. At home with our familes, we definitely need to be the church. At work with our co-workers (as much as we may loathe them), we must continue to be the church. Yes, even in that building sadly called "church," we need to be the church. Being the church is not being hunky-dory all the time; it's being real, raw, more than the "I'm doing good" (when you're not good) of Sunday morning answers. And that scares people. To see the church in great action, read Acts. They knew what it meant to truly be the church. They were human as well; sometimes we lose sight of that, and picture all the real people of the Bible as saints who found it easy to be the church. No!! They struggled just as much as we do today.
I pray that God may encourage you in some way, and that He can give you the love, strength, honesty, and patience to be the church all the time in your life.
The answer is simple enough: being the church is not easy! Yes, I know that pretty much everyone will agree with their mouths "we are the church all the time, Jeff" but the majority are not practicing that in any way. They've learned to parrot it whenever someone says that so as to feel Biblical in some small way, but to look at their lives speaks something completely different. Easiest example of this: where do Christians go Sunday mornings? To church, of course! Well, that seems to me like the underlying feeling then is that people aren't the church, and a place is. As a result, people revere the building because "it's God's house." I can't remember how many times I've heard that phrase from pastors talking about the building. That is nowhere in the Bible! Every time the New Testament speaks of church, "εκκλησία" in the Greek, it speaks of people. The word literally means "congregation." Hmm, that's interesting... Just crack open Hebrews and start reading; that letter just tears to pieces the idea of a building as 'the church.' Just listen to this (Heb 3:5-6): Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." So we are his house....
1 Corinthians 3:16- "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" 2 Corinthians 6:16- "What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, 'I will make my dwelling place among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.'" So we are his temple....
Read chapter 9 of Hebrews... Go on, this blog will still be here after you finish. What did you think?
"So why did Jeff go off on this rant against the 'church'?" you ask yourself. I haven't... I'm just trying to open eyes and hearts to see that we are called to be the church every day, not just one pitiful hour on Sunday morning; that is NOT the church as Christ imagined it, yearns for it to be. At home with our familes, we definitely need to be the church. At work with our co-workers (as much as we may loathe them), we must continue to be the church. Yes, even in that building sadly called "church," we need to be the church. Being the church is not being hunky-dory all the time; it's being real, raw, more than the "I'm doing good" (when you're not good) of Sunday morning answers. And that scares people. To see the church in great action, read Acts. They knew what it meant to truly be the church. They were human as well; sometimes we lose sight of that, and picture all the real people of the Bible as saints who found it easy to be the church. No!! They struggled just as much as we do today.
I pray that God may encourage you in some way, and that He can give you the love, strength, honesty, and patience to be the church all the time in your life.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Lightly Controlled Chaos
Sorry everyone for the lack of update on my blog... It's been quite the roller coaster ride since I last wrote. I was just planning on writing about the stuff going on now so y'all can know and be praying for everything that's happening.
Ummm, where to start, where to start? Well, I have finally settled in Iquitos, Peru located smack dab in the middle of the Amazon rain forest (we're three degrees from the equator). I finished all the necessary upgrades needed on my house like paint, furniture, and the like, and it wasn't a moment too soon because now I have three Latin roommates and it's all working out great for us. I'm now living with Jose, from Ecuador, Enoc, an indiginous from the jungle, and Isaac, from a small town on the river to Pucallpa from here.
The biggest news is that we are now neck deep in two trainings going on at the same time. We have a girls training that started about two week ago, and a guys training that started last week. There are five girls in their training, and there are seven guys and one couple in the guys training. Today has been our first real day of rest since the girls training has started so we can finally slow down and breathe a little. Please be praying that the people going through the trainings may find their strength in Him, and be able to complete the training so they may be effective missionaries wherever they may serve. A praise I have is that no one has voiced any thoughts about quitting the training thus far, and that is great news for us and them!
That's pretty much it for now; my life is revolving completely around these trainings until they are finished so please also be praying for Jeremy and I that we may be given sufficient patience and strength every day to keep going out there to teach. I have to constantly remind myself that I cannot do this on my own; I need your prayers, and the grace of my Lord to get me through these next three months.
On a great note, my family will be coming to visit me in just three days!! hey will be here for nine days, and I am going to show them Lima, and then we're headed here so they can see the training and get to know the people involved. Please pray for safe travel for them and us this next week.
Ummm, where to start, where to start? Well, I have finally settled in Iquitos, Peru located smack dab in the middle of the Amazon rain forest (we're three degrees from the equator). I finished all the necessary upgrades needed on my house like paint, furniture, and the like, and it wasn't a moment too soon because now I have three Latin roommates and it's all working out great for us. I'm now living with Jose, from Ecuador, Enoc, an indiginous from the jungle, and Isaac, from a small town on the river to Pucallpa from here.
The biggest news is that we are now neck deep in two trainings going on at the same time. We have a girls training that started about two week ago, and a guys training that started last week. There are five girls in their training, and there are seven guys and one couple in the guys training. Today has been our first real day of rest since the girls training has started so we can finally slow down and breathe a little. Please be praying that the people going through the trainings may find their strength in Him, and be able to complete the training so they may be effective missionaries wherever they may serve. A praise I have is that no one has voiced any thoughts about quitting the training thus far, and that is great news for us and them!
That's pretty much it for now; my life is revolving completely around these trainings until they are finished so please also be praying for Jeremy and I that we may be given sufficient patience and strength every day to keep going out there to teach. I have to constantly remind myself that I cannot do this on my own; I need your prayers, and the grace of my Lord to get me through these next three months.
On a great note, my family will be coming to visit me in just three days!! hey will be here for nine days, and I am going to show them Lima, and then we're headed here so they can see the training and get to know the people involved. Please pray for safe travel for them and us this next week.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Called to Suffer as Christ Suffered
Happy Easter fellow bond slaves of Christ! It’s been almost a month since my last blog, but the reasoning for this gap of time cannot be claimed by nothing happening. On the contrary, quite a lot has been going on down here in Peru.
We had our Xtreme Team annual reunion a couple of weeks ago now, and it was amazing! Renewing old friendships, starting new ones, and hearing from all of the people connected to our team from all over South America is remarkable! We also shared the Bible chronologically from Creation all the way to the new church in the group times. The four days we had all together wasn’t near enough I thought to get to know all of the forty-ish people that were there. Afterwards, I had a couple days of rest in Lima to hang out with some really good friends (at Starbucks a lot of the time…) before I headed to Iquitos, Peru. I went there with my boss, Jeremy Taliaferro, and two other Xtremers, Adam Huser and Jonathan Jackson. Our main goal was to find houses for our team that was going to be starting up there this month. Amazingly, within three days we found two houses that are perfect for our team. That was truly an answered prayer because we had heard from other missionaries in Lima that it would take us close to a month to find a suitable house. Once we got those houses squared away, Jonathan and I stayed behind for last week to search out good places to have training for the new recruits at the end of May.
I recovered quickly my loathing of the jungle… haha I had somehow forgotten how the jungle was; I guess from all my time in Bolivia in the mountains. When we first stepped off the plane, I felt like I had walked into a sauna. The sweat immediately began pouring from my body like a river, good times, good times. :) To be honest with y'all, this is the most I’ve suffered in a while; and it's still nothing near to the level of suffering of others in "closed countries." The last three months had been pretty laid back for me, but now I feel I’ll more than make up for it now in Iquitos (look it up on a map…) and Peru between the climate, being at Jeremy’s side now to work, and the travel related to my job. What’s been running through my mind for the past two weeks have been the countless times in the Bible that we are called to suffer for Christ. Many have lost sight that to truly follow Christ is to suffer; there is no other way, no "easy Christianity." As Paul says in Philippians “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” 1:29 Wow… we have been ‘granted’ the great gift of suffering for the name of Christ. How many of us, me included, count it something incredible to suffer? To Paul, there was no higher way to show allegiance to Christ than that of suffering. Why? What is so great about suffering? The obvious benefit of suffering is that those not really serious about the cause they follow would quickly ditch. How many examples of this have each of us seen? Or the number of people we can think about who would ditch if “things got hard?” The second benefit of suffering is that we grow exponentially from the trails we face. Here are just a few verses that talk about it in the Bible: James says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” 1:2-4, Peter says “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1:6-7 and again “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed… Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” 4:12-13, 16, and one more from Paul “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.” Romans 5:3-5. When we face the trials that life and this world throw at us, we have the opportunity to show them who we truly are, and that we are not just weaklings following a senseless religion that the world seems to believe we are. But that we are the real people (not perfect) whose strength comes from a source larger than anything we, or they, can imagine, Christ Jesus.
We had our Xtreme Team annual reunion a couple of weeks ago now, and it was amazing! Renewing old friendships, starting new ones, and hearing from all of the people connected to our team from all over South America is remarkable! We also shared the Bible chronologically from Creation all the way to the new church in the group times. The four days we had all together wasn’t near enough I thought to get to know all of the forty-ish people that were there. Afterwards, I had a couple days of rest in Lima to hang out with some really good friends (at Starbucks a lot of the time…) before I headed to Iquitos, Peru. I went there with my boss, Jeremy Taliaferro, and two other Xtremers, Adam Huser and Jonathan Jackson. Our main goal was to find houses for our team that was going to be starting up there this month. Amazingly, within three days we found two houses that are perfect for our team. That was truly an answered prayer because we had heard from other missionaries in Lima that it would take us close to a month to find a suitable house. Once we got those houses squared away, Jonathan and I stayed behind for last week to search out good places to have training for the new recruits at the end of May.
I recovered quickly my loathing of the jungle… haha I had somehow forgotten how the jungle was; I guess from all my time in Bolivia in the mountains. When we first stepped off the plane, I felt like I had walked into a sauna. The sweat immediately began pouring from my body like a river, good times, good times. :) To be honest with y'all, this is the most I’ve suffered in a while; and it's still nothing near to the level of suffering of others in "closed countries." The last three months had been pretty laid back for me, but now I feel I’ll more than make up for it now in Iquitos (look it up on a map…) and Peru between the climate, being at Jeremy’s side now to work, and the travel related to my job. What’s been running through my mind for the past two weeks have been the countless times in the Bible that we are called to suffer for Christ. Many have lost sight that to truly follow Christ is to suffer; there is no other way, no "easy Christianity." As Paul says in Philippians “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” 1:29 Wow… we have been ‘granted’ the great gift of suffering for the name of Christ. How many of us, me included, count it something incredible to suffer? To Paul, there was no higher way to show allegiance to Christ than that of suffering. Why? What is so great about suffering? The obvious benefit of suffering is that those not really serious about the cause they follow would quickly ditch. How many examples of this have each of us seen? Or the number of people we can think about who would ditch if “things got hard?” The second benefit of suffering is that we grow exponentially from the trails we face. Here are just a few verses that talk about it in the Bible: James says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” 1:2-4, Peter says “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1:6-7 and again “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed… Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” 4:12-13, 16, and one more from Paul “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.” Romans 5:3-5. When we face the trials that life and this world throw at us, we have the opportunity to show them who we truly are, and that we are not just weaklings following a senseless religion that the world seems to believe we are. But that we are the real people (not perfect) whose strength comes from a source larger than anything we, or they, can imagine, Christ Jesus.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Moving
The last week has been really hectic for me because tonight I am leaving Sucre, Bolivia for good. I still don´t know how I´m feeling over the move, but I know it´s necessary for the good of the team (so I can be in the same city as our chief boss in Peru). I have a great thing going on for me here in Sucre with the three Latin teammates I share the house with. We meet every night after dinner and discuss a chapter of the Bible, and I feel like I will missing out on that side of relational living when I move to Iquitos, Peru because I think I will be living alone for the first few months at least. It´s going to be a big change but I know that God will see me through it, no matter what happens. I just wanted to let ya´ll know about the fact that I´m moving and also to ask for your prayers. We are going to be traveling over the course of the next three days to Lima, Peru, eventually. Please pray that we have safe travel, and that at the Bolivia/Peru border we don´t run into a lot of trouble from the border police. They like to act more important that they really are. Please lift up us during that situation so we can reflect the glory of Christ through all we do to the police.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Celebration
Sorry about the length of time between posts, my friends. Maybe before I start this blog I should explain how I go about writing these and when. Most of the time I will write a blog whenever something happens in my life or to our team down here, to update y´all on the things that are passing here. Other times I will write a blog whenever I feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do so; take the last one for example, and at least one of my entries from a while ago. This blog will mostly be the latter, but I will also throw in some of the things that are happening down here since it´s been a while since you have had much news.
The last few days have officially been Carnaval here in Bolivia. I say officially because for pretty much the last month, the youth have been celebrating it in one way or another (usually involving water thrown at someone). The celebrations I have seen the last few days are incredible compared to anything I have seen in the States: people dancing and singing in the streets with a band following them everywhere (traffic doesn´t matter to these people), families standing on their balconies with water balloons, water guns, and buckets filled with, yes, water waiting for the unsuspecting passer-by, and the all-out water balloon wars in the main plaza between the youth. It seems everyone gets caught up in the celebration of this holiday here: children dress up in costumes, young people enjoy their water, and even the parents and grandparents have been spotted throwing the occasional water balloon, and then playing it off like they are innocent! I have a confession to make… even I, the serious, hard-working Jeff :P, have been caught up in the celebration the last few days. I have no idea when this came to be, all I know is that I now find myself laughing trying to dodge water balloons and shaving cream (and even an egg once) aimed at this poor gringo while I am trying to pass through the plaza and streets downtown. A week ago I couldn´t stand the celebration but something in the air, something electric, almost palatable, has transformed me into someone who enjoys getting water balloons thrown at him!
This has led me to think about life back in the States: the mostly monotonous routine we live day-to-day, with a little variation on the weekends perhaps. We, as children of the Most High, as followers of the King, as citizens of the Eternal Kingdom, might be going through life with no celebration whatsoever—minus our singing on Sundays—that others can see. People notice no difference between the followers of Christ and other people with regards to joyfulness. In fact, some may say they notice that we are shockingly less joyful than others; the ¨typical Christian kill-joy.¨ How can that be?? How can we, who have the promise of eternal life, be any less joyful, celebrate any less than those we label ¨non-Christian¨ in this life we have?? Yes, we know this world is not for us; Jesus said as much (John 17:14). But that doesn´t mean that we aren´t allowed to be joyful! On the contrary my brothers and sisters; we are supposed to be the most joyful of all people because of our relationship with the Father through the Son! The Psalms are filled with expressions of the joy we should feel; 4:6, 5:11, 13:5, 21:6, 30:6, 92:5, 95:1, 100:1, 118:24. The Gospels preach joy from start to finish, from the angel visiting Mary in Luke 2:10 to Jesus himself speaking on it in John 15 and 16 to the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene in Matthew 28:8. The Apostles´ letters are also filled with joy: Romans 15:13, Philippians 2:2 and 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 2:20 and 5:16, James 1:2, 1 Peter 1:6, and 1 John 1:4. We should be exuding joy so that it becomes contagious, and the people around us are caused to wonder how and why we are so joyful. Joy is a vital, prevalent part of the Christian walk. Our situation should have no affect whatsoever on our joy, in fact we are advised to ¨rejoice¨ and to ¨have joy¨ when we do suffer! This wonderful oxymoron that we are called to follow is just one of many that the world says makes no sense, but we know the truth. ¨More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God´s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.¨ Romans 5:3-5. This is one of my favorite passages from the book of Romans; it is just so powerful and inspiring to me. My challenge to us as the body of Christ is one that may be hard for some. I challenge all of us to rediscover the true joy we have in Christ through His sacrifice on the cross for each and every one of us. Let your co-workers wonder and marvel at this joy you have, and when they ask about it curiously, you have the perfect opening to share the wellspring of your joy.
Right now, and actually for the last few months, I have shifted in the type of work I am doing for our team here in South America. I have moved from being a ¨front-line, mountain walking missionary¨ and have become the administrator of our team. My job has involved many different aspects of things in relation for our team: from producing promotional materials for our Latinos and for the churches in the States, to coordinating several features of our annual team meeting next month, to pretty much anything in between as my boss sees fit to assign me. Our Bolivia team is doing well; Roberto and I are here in Sucre after a month in Cochabamba for Roberto´s Quechua classes, Efrain and Javier are in Cochabamba right now taking Quechua classes, and Trent, Kay, and Jack are getting back from a three week trip into the communities tomorrow. Please be praying for all the travel that will be taking place next month from all over South America to Lima, Peru for our annual meeting. Thank all of you so much for all of your support and prayer thus far in my journey here; as of today I am sitting at my one year and four month anniversary and only eight months to go.
The last few days have officially been Carnaval here in Bolivia. I say officially because for pretty much the last month, the youth have been celebrating it in one way or another (usually involving water thrown at someone). The celebrations I have seen the last few days are incredible compared to anything I have seen in the States: people dancing and singing in the streets with a band following them everywhere (traffic doesn´t matter to these people), families standing on their balconies with water balloons, water guns, and buckets filled with, yes, water waiting for the unsuspecting passer-by, and the all-out water balloon wars in the main plaza between the youth. It seems everyone gets caught up in the celebration of this holiday here: children dress up in costumes, young people enjoy their water, and even the parents and grandparents have been spotted throwing the occasional water balloon, and then playing it off like they are innocent! I have a confession to make… even I, the serious, hard-working Jeff :P, have been caught up in the celebration the last few days. I have no idea when this came to be, all I know is that I now find myself laughing trying to dodge water balloons and shaving cream (and even an egg once) aimed at this poor gringo while I am trying to pass through the plaza and streets downtown. A week ago I couldn´t stand the celebration but something in the air, something electric, almost palatable, has transformed me into someone who enjoys getting water balloons thrown at him!
This has led me to think about life back in the States: the mostly monotonous routine we live day-to-day, with a little variation on the weekends perhaps. We, as children of the Most High, as followers of the King, as citizens of the Eternal Kingdom, might be going through life with no celebration whatsoever—minus our singing on Sundays—that others can see. People notice no difference between the followers of Christ and other people with regards to joyfulness. In fact, some may say they notice that we are shockingly less joyful than others; the ¨typical Christian kill-joy.¨ How can that be?? How can we, who have the promise of eternal life, be any less joyful, celebrate any less than those we label ¨non-Christian¨ in this life we have?? Yes, we know this world is not for us; Jesus said as much (John 17:14). But that doesn´t mean that we aren´t allowed to be joyful! On the contrary my brothers and sisters; we are supposed to be the most joyful of all people because of our relationship with the Father through the Son! The Psalms are filled with expressions of the joy we should feel; 4:6, 5:11, 13:5, 21:6, 30:6, 92:5, 95:1, 100:1, 118:24. The Gospels preach joy from start to finish, from the angel visiting Mary in Luke 2:10 to Jesus himself speaking on it in John 15 and 16 to the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene in Matthew 28:8. The Apostles´ letters are also filled with joy: Romans 15:13, Philippians 2:2 and 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 2:20 and 5:16, James 1:2, 1 Peter 1:6, and 1 John 1:4. We should be exuding joy so that it becomes contagious, and the people around us are caused to wonder how and why we are so joyful. Joy is a vital, prevalent part of the Christian walk. Our situation should have no affect whatsoever on our joy, in fact we are advised to ¨rejoice¨ and to ¨have joy¨ when we do suffer! This wonderful oxymoron that we are called to follow is just one of many that the world says makes no sense, but we know the truth. ¨More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God´s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.¨ Romans 5:3-5. This is one of my favorite passages from the book of Romans; it is just so powerful and inspiring to me. My challenge to us as the body of Christ is one that may be hard for some. I challenge all of us to rediscover the true joy we have in Christ through His sacrifice on the cross for each and every one of us. Let your co-workers wonder and marvel at this joy you have, and when they ask about it curiously, you have the perfect opening to share the wellspring of your joy.
Right now, and actually for the last few months, I have shifted in the type of work I am doing for our team here in South America. I have moved from being a ¨front-line, mountain walking missionary¨ and have become the administrator of our team. My job has involved many different aspects of things in relation for our team: from producing promotional materials for our Latinos and for the churches in the States, to coordinating several features of our annual team meeting next month, to pretty much anything in between as my boss sees fit to assign me. Our Bolivia team is doing well; Roberto and I are here in Sucre after a month in Cochabamba for Roberto´s Quechua classes, Efrain and Javier are in Cochabamba right now taking Quechua classes, and Trent, Kay, and Jack are getting back from a three week trip into the communities tomorrow. Please be praying for all the travel that will be taking place next month from all over South America to Lima, Peru for our annual meeting. Thank all of you so much for all of your support and prayer thus far in my journey here; as of today I am sitting at my one year and four month anniversary and only eight months to go.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Fatal Flaw of the Traditional Church
Seeing how about 90-95% of my readers are currently in a traditional church setting, I´m betting the title does one of two things: it either makes you uncomfortable, or you´re already deciding to ignore this blog as a rave against the traditional church. Let me assure you, I love the traditional church and I plan on attending my home church once I return to the States. In fact, last night I hardly slept at all thinking about this blog and how I could write it lovingly. I really feel led to write this and even asked the counsel of one of my team members about doing it.
Last night, my mind began racing with thoughts about my home church as I tried to go to sleep. Recently, as most of you know by now (I´d be surprised if you hadn´t heard... but that´s another blog), the senior pastor of my home church has decided to follow God´s direction for his life and that direction is leading him away from my church. It really got me thinking about the traditional church culture as a whole. I was reminiscing about the past when our former senior pastor left and ¨coincidentally¨ a surprising amount of members left as well. I wonder if that will happen this time too. Of course, those people will use a plethora of different excuses as to why their leaving coincides with the pastor leaving, but the truth is, everyone knows. ¨For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.¨ 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV Wow, that sounds remarkably familiar... Research shows that about 15% of the church members leave whenever an able pastor leaves that church (Weese & Crabtree, Elephant in the Boardroom).
This research alarms me because it points to a fatal flaw of the traditional church. I recently read something that struck me profoundly as true, ¨Members of the traditional church often mistake a leader´s charismatic personality for His Spirit.¨ So, when that charismatic pastor leaves, people feel free to leave as well. The flaw is that the vast majority of Christians in the traditional setting attend ¨their¨ church for one reason or another that has nothing Biblical about it... For example, ¨I go to so-and-so Church because I like the pastor (or the music, or the people, etc).¨ Fill in the blank with whatever the fad is at this current moment. It´s the ¨I/Me¨ focus that pains me; the point of church has become to please the attendee (i.e. hip music, impressive buildings, fancy stages and the ¨performances¨ of the worship leaders) and we have lost the point that church is to worship and praise our Creator. It doesn´t matter how we ¨feel¨ about it, but American culture has permeated and warped the meaning of the church from Him to ¨me.¨
So the point of this blog is to issue a challenge to all of my readers to examine, critically, the reason one attends your church. Please ask yourselves these questions, ¨Why do I go to ______ Church?¨¨Is it because I like the pastor, or the music pleases me, or the fancy stage presence?¨¨Or do I go because I can honestly feel a connection to the almighty presence of God while I´m there?¨ I earnestly pray that you can take the time to look deep inside yourself and, most importantly, ask God to show you the reasons you attend.
One disclaimer before I end this blog: this blog is not advocating that if you are unhappy with your church, you are free to ¨shop¨ other churches for one that fits you. Yet again, the focus of that kind of thought process is back to ¨me.¨ This blog is only asking that you find the right reasons for attending your church.
Last night, my mind began racing with thoughts about my home church as I tried to go to sleep. Recently, as most of you know by now (I´d be surprised if you hadn´t heard... but that´s another blog), the senior pastor of my home church has decided to follow God´s direction for his life and that direction is leading him away from my church. It really got me thinking about the traditional church culture as a whole. I was reminiscing about the past when our former senior pastor left and ¨coincidentally¨ a surprising amount of members left as well. I wonder if that will happen this time too. Of course, those people will use a plethora of different excuses as to why their leaving coincides with the pastor leaving, but the truth is, everyone knows. ¨For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.¨ 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV Wow, that sounds remarkably familiar... Research shows that about 15% of the church members leave whenever an able pastor leaves that church (Weese & Crabtree, Elephant in the Boardroom).
This research alarms me because it points to a fatal flaw of the traditional church. I recently read something that struck me profoundly as true, ¨Members of the traditional church often mistake a leader´s charismatic personality for His Spirit.¨ So, when that charismatic pastor leaves, people feel free to leave as well. The flaw is that the vast majority of Christians in the traditional setting attend ¨their¨ church for one reason or another that has nothing Biblical about it... For example, ¨I go to so-and-so Church because I like the pastor (or the music, or the people, etc).¨ Fill in the blank with whatever the fad is at this current moment. It´s the ¨I/Me¨ focus that pains me; the point of church has become to please the attendee (i.e. hip music, impressive buildings, fancy stages and the ¨performances¨ of the worship leaders) and we have lost the point that church is to worship and praise our Creator. It doesn´t matter how we ¨feel¨ about it, but American culture has permeated and warped the meaning of the church from Him to ¨me.¨
So the point of this blog is to issue a challenge to all of my readers to examine, critically, the reason one attends your church. Please ask yourselves these questions, ¨Why do I go to ______ Church?¨¨Is it because I like the pastor, or the music pleases me, or the fancy stage presence?¨¨Or do I go because I can honestly feel a connection to the almighty presence of God while I´m there?¨ I earnestly pray that you can take the time to look deep inside yourself and, most importantly, ask God to show you the reasons you attend.
One disclaimer before I end this blog: this blog is not advocating that if you are unhappy with your church, you are free to ¨shop¨ other churches for one that fits you. Yet again, the focus of that kind of thought process is back to ¨me.¨ This blog is only asking that you find the right reasons for attending your church.
Friday, January 2, 2009
An Organic Appetite
The following entry was an article in a magazine I read this morning as part of my quiet time. When I read it, I identified with everything the author said… I just felt like sharing it with y´all since it affected me so much. It was written by Margaret Feinberg, and is taken from her book, The Organic God. Enjoy.
¨All too often I find myself tempted to live a distracted life. You know the kind—the one where within the busyness of life you still manage to perform the stand-up, sit-down, clap, clap, clap of regular church attendance, hope for a new nugget of knowledge or insight from the weekly sermon and check off a random, albeit short, list of acts of kindness.
That´s when the hunger appears in my belly and overtakes my soul, grumbling that there must be more. More of God not only to understand but to discover.
Deep down inside, I still hunger for a true, pure relationship with the Organic God—the One True God.
While organic is usually associated with food grown without chemical-based fertilizers or pesticides, organic is also used to describe a lifestyle: simple, healthful, and close to nature. Those are all things I desire in my relationship with God. I hunger for simplicity. I want to approach God in childlike faith, wonder, and awe. I long for more than just spiritual life but spiritual health—whereby my soul is not just renewed and restored, but it becomes a source of refreshment for others.
I want to discover God again, anew, in a fresh way. I want my love for Him to come alive so that my heart dances at the very thought of Him. I want a real relationship with Him—a relationship that isn´t altered by perfumes, additives, chemicals, or artificial flavors that promise to make it sweeter, sourer, or tastier than it really is. I want to know a God who in all His fullness would allow me to know Him. I want a relationship that is real, authentic, and life-giving even when it hurts. I want to know God striped of as many false perceptions as possible. Such a journey risks exposure, honesty, and even pain, but I´m hungry and desperate enough to go there.
In some regards, the journey to know God isn´t too different from a first encounter with someone you´ve never met. I want to know what God looks like and what His interests are. I want to know His likes and dislikes. I want to know what makes Him tick and also what ticks Him off. I want to fall in love all over again. I want to know God.
I want to know the Organic God.¨
¨All too often I find myself tempted to live a distracted life. You know the kind—the one where within the busyness of life you still manage to perform the stand-up, sit-down, clap, clap, clap of regular church attendance, hope for a new nugget of knowledge or insight from the weekly sermon and check off a random, albeit short, list of acts of kindness.
That´s when the hunger appears in my belly and overtakes my soul, grumbling that there must be more. More of God not only to understand but to discover.
Deep down inside, I still hunger for a true, pure relationship with the Organic God—the One True God.
While organic is usually associated with food grown without chemical-based fertilizers or pesticides, organic is also used to describe a lifestyle: simple, healthful, and close to nature. Those are all things I desire in my relationship with God. I hunger for simplicity. I want to approach God in childlike faith, wonder, and awe. I long for more than just spiritual life but spiritual health—whereby my soul is not just renewed and restored, but it becomes a source of refreshment for others.
I want to discover God again, anew, in a fresh way. I want my love for Him to come alive so that my heart dances at the very thought of Him. I want a real relationship with Him—a relationship that isn´t altered by perfumes, additives, chemicals, or artificial flavors that promise to make it sweeter, sourer, or tastier than it really is. I want to know a God who in all His fullness would allow me to know Him. I want a relationship that is real, authentic, and life-giving even when it hurts. I want to know God striped of as many false perceptions as possible. Such a journey risks exposure, honesty, and even pain, but I´m hungry and desperate enough to go there.
In some regards, the journey to know God isn´t too different from a first encounter with someone you´ve never met. I want to know what God looks like and what His interests are. I want to know His likes and dislikes. I want to know what makes Him tick and also what ticks Him off. I want to fall in love all over again. I want to know God.
I want to know the Organic God.¨
The Desolate Places
Yesterday morning while I was having my quiet time, I came across a verse in Mark that really struck me. I stopped reading, and just had to try to wrap my mind around what the verse was saying… It is amazing what the Lord uses to speak to us because I am sure that I had read that same verse many, many times before without giving it a thought, but this time it hit me. The verse is as follows: ¨But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every corner (emphasis mine).¨ Mark 1:45 ESV
This phrase just made me stop and think for a while. It´s not a very striking verse, though. What I mean is that this verse hadn´t jumped out at me before yesterday; I would read it and just keep on going, but yesterday was different for some reason. I came to the conclusion that there was a reason Jesus was out in the `desolate places´ at that time. His fame had begun to spread as one who could heal people with a touch and cast out demons with a single word. I think he went to the desolate places because there, only the most desperate and believing people would come find him to be healed. Think about it: if Jesus were in the city, anyone with a cold or something slightly inconvenient could confront Jesus to be healed, and I´m sure He would (as time consuming as it would be). But if He´s out in the middle of nowhere, then people will think twice about going to see Him to be healed. The people with no hope (lepers, the blind, the lame, etc) would seek Him out no matter His location. I believe this is a test of their faith in His power to heal them. And the verse says that still people were coming to Him; I can picture the most broken and hopeless people being the ones to go to Him in that desolate place.
Many of us find ourselves in `desolate places´ at least once in our lives. It seems like nothing is going our way, we´re struck with a hopeless situation, everyone seems to desert us at a moment´s notice, or we just feel at our wit´s end. It is there that I believe that Jesus is waiting for us. He wants to help us at all times, but in those desolate places of our lives it seems to me that He jumps at the opportunity to comfort us with His presence. We sometimes forget that Jesus´ main goal while He was here on the earth was not to heal the physical infirmities He confronted, nor was it to cast out the demons He came across in His travels, and today it is not to make His church´s life easier; far from it. His main goal is to bring the lost and broken into His family, no matter the cost (His painful death being the ultimate one).
We, as followers of Christ, should be going to the `desolate places´ of others to reach them in the name of our Lord. All that this requires is our ability to be transparent with others and to be able to recognize when someone has reached that desolate place. It will take us looking beyond our own lives, and actively trying to empathize with our neighbors around us (neighbors being everyone…). My prayer is that I, for one, can look beyond my own selfish pity and be able to help a hurting human being out of their desolate place, or at the very least point them on the path to the One who can heal them of their woes.
This phrase just made me stop and think for a while. It´s not a very striking verse, though. What I mean is that this verse hadn´t jumped out at me before yesterday; I would read it and just keep on going, but yesterday was different for some reason. I came to the conclusion that there was a reason Jesus was out in the `desolate places´ at that time. His fame had begun to spread as one who could heal people with a touch and cast out demons with a single word. I think he went to the desolate places because there, only the most desperate and believing people would come find him to be healed. Think about it: if Jesus were in the city, anyone with a cold or something slightly inconvenient could confront Jesus to be healed, and I´m sure He would (as time consuming as it would be). But if He´s out in the middle of nowhere, then people will think twice about going to see Him to be healed. The people with no hope (lepers, the blind, the lame, etc) would seek Him out no matter His location. I believe this is a test of their faith in His power to heal them. And the verse says that still people were coming to Him; I can picture the most broken and hopeless people being the ones to go to Him in that desolate place.
Many of us find ourselves in `desolate places´ at least once in our lives. It seems like nothing is going our way, we´re struck with a hopeless situation, everyone seems to desert us at a moment´s notice, or we just feel at our wit´s end. It is there that I believe that Jesus is waiting for us. He wants to help us at all times, but in those desolate places of our lives it seems to me that He jumps at the opportunity to comfort us with His presence. We sometimes forget that Jesus´ main goal while He was here on the earth was not to heal the physical infirmities He confronted, nor was it to cast out the demons He came across in His travels, and today it is not to make His church´s life easier; far from it. His main goal is to bring the lost and broken into His family, no matter the cost (His painful death being the ultimate one).
We, as followers of Christ, should be going to the `desolate places´ of others to reach them in the name of our Lord. All that this requires is our ability to be transparent with others and to be able to recognize when someone has reached that desolate place. It will take us looking beyond our own lives, and actively trying to empathize with our neighbors around us (neighbors being everyone…). My prayer is that I, for one, can look beyond my own selfish pity and be able to help a hurting human being out of their desolate place, or at the very least point them on the path to the One who can heal them of their woes.
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