Category: Musings and Ponderings

Day Four: I’m Thankful For…My Talents.

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Preface: I thought it was fitting to express my thanks during the month of November for something new each day, as so many others have done before me. I’ve never taken the time to do this, and it will be a challenge to blog each day, but it’s so important to recognize the blessings God has given us! 🙂 These are in NO particular order…

I am so thankful for the talents with which the Lord has blessed me. They enrich my life greatly, bring immense joy, and they shape how I experience the world. I am thankful for the people the Lord has placed in my life to help me refine these talents and become even better in these areas. He gets all the credit!

I am especially thankful for my musical ability and my photography skills.

He blessed me with the ability to pick up any instrument and learn how to play it (often teaching myself)…I have nearly perfect pitch and that has proved to be a wonderful gift through the years. He has also given me a powerful voice to use for His glory…and that how I strive to use it. I love being able to lead others in the music portion of a worship service, knowing that I am pointing them to the Sovereign God who has created all things…truly, all of the glory and honor goes to Him. I can do nothing on my own!

I also love singing the National Anthem at sporting events–it is such a huge thrill and I love the feeling of having 10,000 people cheering 😉 (the link is from 3 years ago–it’s the most recent recording I have). This is my fourth season singing for the Hershey Bears and I am so honored to have the privilege of singing there.

God has given me an eye for photography that I am able to use to convey powerful messages and to inspire action (Haiti). He also has allowed me to use photography to capture His creation for others to enjoy. I love photography and I feel so alive when I’m able to capture events/places on “film” (saying “on a memory card” just doesn’t have the same ring ;)). He is such a great God and He can be seen in all of His creation…and I love bringing pieces of His creation back home for others to experience as well.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving me gifts through which you bless others.

Day One: I’m Thankful For…Jesus.

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Preface: I thought it was fitting to express my thanks during the month of November for something new each day, as so many others have done before me. I’ve never taken the time to do this, and it will be a challenge to blog each day, but it’s so important to recognize the blessings God has given us! 🙂 With the exception of this first post, the rest are in no particular order.

I am so unbelievably thankful for Jesus and His unconditional love. I am so thankful for His grace, His provision, His guidance, and His mercy. He is truly the source of my joy and my strength! He has never failed me and has kept every promise without fail. He sustains me when I am weak and guides me when I am clueless (which is SO often). He is faithful and His wonders never cease.

I could write for hours about all that He has done, but I will leave it at that for now. 🙂 He is the source of every other post that will follow because He has given me everything that I have and has made me everything that I am. And I am thankful.

Tomorrow is Never Guaranteed…

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A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a blog that has impacted me deeply. I found the blog because the author–Ryan–was nominated by someone for a “Love Bomb“–a weekly ministry of people from all over the world who leave hundreds of comments to encourage someone going through tough times. Each week, someone is nominated and we all read a few posts, comment, and pray for the person/family. It usually only takes 5-10 minutes of my time, but sometimes I just can’t stop reading these blogs. They sometimes end up being part of my “Google Reader” so that I can continue to read updates and pray. The blog in this post is one of them.

The blog that was nominated a few weeks ago was this one. Ryan is young (I think he’s my age or younger) and dying of cancer. The doctors have given him 3-6 months to live. He has a beautiful wife and two gorgeous children, and his blog discusses this strange and awful journey of preparing for what seems to be a certain death in a very short period of time. Of course, they are praying for a miracle (and I am, too!), but they are also preparing for “life without Ryan”. Most recently, this included buying a new car so that his wife would have reliable transportation if/when Ryan passes away. They also went as a family to Disneyland last month to create memories as a family that their kids will remember always. He loves his wife SO much and it is apparent in everything that he writes.

Unlike some blogs that discuss similar situations, this one is not depressing and morbid. Rather, it is realistic and somehow upbeat despite the subject matter. He is open about his faith and even wrote a great post about why he doesn’t blame God for his cancer. Ryan and his wife’s brave approach to all of this is inspiring and challenging. It has made me wonder which is worse: knowing approximately how long until you die, or having death come suddenly…I think knowing would be worse.

I will admit that I have shed tears over these blog posts. I cannot imagine being told that I had 3-6 months to live when I’m not even 30 years old yet. Even worse, knowing that I’d be leaving behind a spouse and children. It has caused me to think through what it would be like if Brennan were no longer here and what life would look like.  Or, what Brennan’s life would look like if I weren’t here.

And because of that, it has changed how I view our marriage. Our marriage is healthy, happy, love-filled and relatively new, so it’s not that I suddenly had a 180 degree turn or anything like that; but it has caused me to treat each day as if it could be our last (which is true) and to be much more thankful for the gift that Brennan is in my life. It is SO easy to become comfortable and to take things for granted, and Ryan’s stories have really made me want to make an effort to NEVER do that. Tomorrow is never a guarantee, and I pray that I approach each day with that in mind.

I wanted to share Ryan’s story because he and his family really need prayer during this time. I also wanted to share because I think his story will have an impact on anyone who reads about him. Please check out his blog and pray for him.

Quote to Ponder…

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“We are called by God to live as our uniquely created selves–our temperament, our gene pool, our history. But to grow spiritually means to live increasingly as Jesus would in our unique place–to perceive what Jesus would perceive if he looked through our eyes, to think what he would think, to feel what he would feel, and therefore to do what he would do.” 

–John Ortberg

With Great Knowledge Comes Great Responsibility…

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This has been brewing inside for quite a while now, but certain conversations yesterday made me decide to finally write about it.

I’ve often heard people saying something to the effect of “that’s great that you care about those orphans in Africa/slavery in India/any injustice around the world, but I feel called to minister here in the U.S.” But most of those people NEVER actually do anything to fix the problems here. Or, people will say that we need to “take care of our own country first”. While that’s a great patriotic sentiment, I do not believe that it is biblical.

James 1:27 says this: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  

Isaiah 58:6 says:  “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.”

Isaiah 58:9-10: “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, 
and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”

These verses (and many, many others) do not say to focus on your country and ignore injustices around the world. Yes, we do need to care for our neighbors, but we ALSO need to be doing what we can to assist those around the world who need our help!  No, I am not talking about government intervention…I’m talking about Christians stepping up to the fight.

We live in the United States of America. While there are things to be fixed within our borders, we have it so good compared to almost every other country in the world. We don’t face genocide, child abductions by an army, horrendous (yet preventable) disease, or extreme poverty. Even the poorest in our country have far more than most of the world. We don’t have to worry about the government barging into our church services and arresting us. We don’t have to worry about being sold as a slave. We are one of the richest countries in the history of the world, and we have abundant resources that can set people free. Yet, we are mostly lazy and selfish and we squander these resources…

“With great knowledge comes great responsibility” is a quote that comes to mind. Thanks to the technology available to us today, we are very aware of the atrocities happening around the world on a daily basis. We see the pictures, we hear the stories, and we know the numbers. We cannot just ignore what is going on around the world as Christians.

I believe that, while you may feel “called” to minister here, you also have a global responsibility as a Christian to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth and to care for God’s children all around the world.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commands us to “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (emphasis added) The command doesn’t say “those of you who feel called”, it simply says “GO”…

I don’t believe that God cares about borders. What He cares about are the humans who live on this earth. We know from the Bible that He hears their cries and sees their suffering. He empowers us to make a difference and to rid the world of injustice. I feel that when we say things like “let’s focus on our own country” and then don’t actually do anything IN our own country, we are being incredibly selfish. It’s just an excuse to not have to be uncomfortable. We are being Pharisees, saying all the right things but having no intention of actually doing anything. We are being lazy. We are saying that other people don’t deserve our time, resources, energy, compassion. And I believe that is wrong.

This situation in Uganda/Central Africa may seem hopeless, but if we don’t try to stop Joseph Kony from abducting children and forcing them to be soldiers, who will? If Uganda had the resources to stop him, they would have stopped him 26 years ago. If Rwanda would have had assistance early on, 700,000 people may not have died. The examples go on and on…and more innocent people suffer injustices every day because we choose not to act or we aren’t aware of the situations.

If organizations like Invisible Children and International Justice Mission didn’t exist, who would fight for these innocent people? These organizations have made the invisible problems of the world visible, and that’s how change happens. When people become aware of these things, they begin to care, and they begin to fight. And they can no longer just sit comfortably with the knowledge that these terrible and evil things are happening.

This is an opportunity for the world to work together to make global change in how we handle injustices. This is a way to use the technology at our fingertips to forever change the world in a tangible way. Why not try? If we can win here, we can work on other similar situations and end more injustices around the world! It’s a truly exciting idea, and I think it can be very effective!

“Knowledge is power” and “with great knowledge comes great responsibility”…what are you going to choose to do with the knowledge that you have about atrocities happening around the world? I’m going to choose to fight.

Lessons Learned From Not Speeding…

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A few months ago I made the decision to no longer intentionally drive above the speed limit (note: this only applies while driving in town…I know, I know…for some reason, the interstates are a separate thing in my mind which isn’t right, but that’s how it is right now… 🙂 ) because I realized that it is a sin. It’s become quite the “respectable sin” in our society, and I’ve become increasingly aware of it in my own life.

I’m a California girl. Everyone speeds there. I lived in Southern California for seven years prior to moving to Pennsylvania, and there, if you don’t speed you get run over (on the interstates, at least). It became a way of life…but that is all changing now.

Believe it or not, this didn’t start because of a speeding ticket (I’ve only had two in my entire life, and neither of them were recent).

This started because we live on a road where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. And there are great reasons for that speed limit: the road is narrow, it’s a neighborhood, there are children, and there are many hidden driveways all along our road. However, because people often use our road to bypass part of Hersheypark Drive, they are always flying down our road.

Having lived here for six months now, it has come to irritate me greatly. It took me awhile to put words to my irritation, but here’s what it comes down to: disrespect. I felt disrespected by the non-residents flying down my road.

This led me to realize that whenever we speed, we are being disrespectful both to the residents of that area AND to the local law enforcement officials…and to God. So, I decided to stop.

It has been a process, and I’ve learned a few things along the way:

1–I care FAR too much about what strangers think of me… 

It is amazing how much I’ve been tempted to speed because someone gets really close to my tail and I get anxious–not because of safety, but because I don’t want them to (1) think I’m a bad driver or (2) get angry and call me names that I can’t hear anyway. It sounds ridiculous written out, but it’s true! Why on earth do I/we care so much about strangers being upset with us because we are obeying the law? (Working on this…)

2–It is AMAZING how many people speed…

I can honestly say that I’ve felt very isolated in my quest to obey the law. Related to number one, it is amazing how many times I’ve been passed in recent months…and it has been humbling. And it has surprised me, because the local police here in Harrisburg/Hershey are ALWAYS looking to catch speeders. Always. I think they’re bored 😉  But seriously, I didn’t realize before just how many people choose to disobey the speed limits continually.

3–Speeding doesn’t really save that much time…

That’s an argument I hear quite a bit from those who choose to speed–that it saves them time. From my observations lately, unless you’re doing 100 mph, you will likely not save more than a couple of minutes. Yesterday I was passed by someone on a two lane highway who was in SUCH a hurry…we got to our destination at the exact same time due to lights and other cars ahead of him doing the speed limit. 🙂 And yes, that made me happy inside. Working on that, too.

I’m sure there will be more lessons learned as I continue my quest to not speed…but this is what I’ve learned thus far.

Sacrificing the Good for the Great…

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When I read the book “Radical Together” by David Platt, among the MANY awesome quotes that I wrote down, there was one quote that really resonated with me:

“We must be willing to sacrifice good things in the church in order to experience the great things of God.” (page 9)

What a profound statement that encapsulates so many of the issues I see in the Church in America today…we are so focused on programs and entertainment rather than being missional and building the Church like Jesus did, and it is detrimental in so many ways. Simple is the way to go. We have to be willing to let go of “good things” to make room for what God wants to do.

I also think we can rephrase this slightly to apply more broadly to our lives:
 
“We must be willing to sacrifice good things in life in order to experience the great things of God.”

“Sacrificing the good for the great” is a phrase you will hear in our home quite often these days, because it has really challenged how we approach life and it’s helping us to learn to say “no” much more. It has helped us to look at our lives with a long-term perspective rather than focusing on the “instant gratification” that is so pervasive in our society.

What does this currently look like in our daily lives?

  • Sacrificing (insert item/activity here) for the “great” of being debt free in a year. Financial freedom will allow us to more freely serve God wherever He leads, so we’re running with “gazelle intensity” toward that goal.
  • Sacrificing that piece of cake/junk food for the “great” of losing weight and being healthy.
  • Sacrificing (insert activity here) for the “great” of having a strong and healthy marriage due to time invested in each other.
  • “Sacrificing” every other weekend to be relief houseparents at the Milton Hershey School for the “great” of investing in the lives of these precious children.

Taking the time to evaluate where we are spending our time and money has really changed our perspective…and I’m really excited to see what God does as we continue to seek to serve Him more fully with our resources.

Three Years…

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Just a few thoughts on this Monday morning…

Time seems to crawl so slowly as you are living day by day, but when you look back it is amazing how fast it seems to fly. This year marks ten years since high school graduation, nine years since my first summer in Williamsport, PA as a missionary, six years since college graduation, and three years of living in Pennsylvania.

Three years.

It truly feels like yesterday that I packed everything into my car and headed across the country with my mom, taking our time to enjoy the beauty of the United States. It doesn’t seem possible that it has been three years now.

In those three years, I have changed SO much. I am still trying to figure out what “career” fits me best, but determined two years ago that politics are not for me. That’s a huge change from who I used to be.

I traveled to Haiti last May and was forever changed by the realities there…I will never look at wealth/poverty the same way again. I traveled to Brazil last May and my church planting philosophy was forever changed…I want to plant churches the way that Jesus did: by being missional, not attractional. 

I’ve had one full-time job, two part-time jobs (at the same time), have been a temp and have been unemployed.  I’ve moved three times already (not including the move to PA) and will move again in September.

I’ve grown in my photography skills and have learned what I like to photograph and what I don’t enjoy.

I’ve established incredible friendships with godly, supportive, encouraging women here, unlike any friendships I’ve ever known. They have blessed my life in countless ways and have helped me grow through challenges.

And, perhaps the most obvious change: I am married. Eight months after moving across the country, following God’s calling, I met my now husband. How amazing our God is–that when we follow His call and live according to His Will, He blesses us more richly than we could ever imagine! We have grown so much as a couple in the past nine months of marriage, and I am SO excited about the growth to come! Brennan is my greatest support, my best-friend, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Pennsylvania is my mission field. This is where God has called me to serve Him and to build His Kingdom. I came here with only that purpose in mind, a purpose from which I have strayed in the past year. I’ve allowed life to become “too busy” and realized recently that I need to constantly remind myself that I am here to help plant churches, to proclaim Jesus in every aspect of my life, and to bring glory to Him and Him alone through my actions/activities. Everything else needs to take second place to my mission here, now “our” mission here.

Three years…and what a fabulous journey these years have been.

Dignity…

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Today was my third “hair donation” in the past five years (January 2007, September 2008, January 2011). I donated 9.5 inches this time–the first time was 10 inches, and the second time was 9. It’s so strange to barely be able to get my hair into a ponytail after having such LONG hair for the past six months. But, I love doing this!

I started growing my hair out and donating it because of women in my family who had started to do it (including my mom and my cousin Melanie–I know there are more…). I realized that this was such an easy way to help restore a woman’s dignity during her chemotherapy treatments and the resultant hair loss…

For the first donation (2007), my cousin Kristin and my friend Dannylle did it with me. We road-tripped up to NorCal for the weekend and donated our hair.

The second time was two months after I moved to Pennsylvania…and I don’t have any pictures of that process because I did it impulsively one day (and should have waited a couple of months). This was taken a couple of days afterward (with my former roommate).

This time, I had hoped to wait until April so that it would be slightly longer, and slightly warmer outside. 🙂 But, I got to the point where it just “had to go”, and my wonderful friend was able to cut it for me today!

Brennan and I have a cousin with cancer, and she just got her wig a little while ago…we saw her yesterday, and it renewed within me my desire to do this as long as I am able.

I really don’t say any of this to sound like I’m bragging–because I’m not. Not at all. I am just deeply moved by these women who are fighting such a terrible disease and have to lose their hair (a source of dignity and self-worth for women). If I can do something as simple as grow out my hair, I want to do it! 🙂

It takes an average of six donated ponytails to make one wig.

Consider doing this–yes, it takes a while, but it’s SO worth it! 🙂

Benediction…

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I saw this posted recently, and thought it was worth repeating… 🙂

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live deep
Within your heart.
 
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice,
Freedom, and peace.
 
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your
Hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
 
And may God bless you with
Enough foolishness
To believe that you can make
A difference in the world,
So that you can do what others
Claim cannot be done,
And bring justice and kindness to
All our children and the poor.