Heroes and Villains

I've recently been reading a book entitled The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. Okay, pause for explanation. I belong to a couple of book websites that occasionally send me ARC's...I lost you again, didn't I? Sorry, I'm such a book nerd. ARCs or Advance Reader Copies (or, if you want to get really technical, Advance Uncorrected Proofs) are books they send out to a select few readers before they are released to the general public. In exchange for getting free books before the rest of the world has the privilege of paying for them, you agree to read and write a review of the book. This way, by the time the book goes on sale, there are already a dozen reviews for people to peruse. They are usually not fully edited and the binding is not all nice and pretty...but it's a free book so who really cares. (Side note: in January, not only did I score the above mentioned book but I also received the newest John Piper book - TOTALLY FREE - Bonus!!!)

Okay, let's try this again.

I've recently been reading a book entitled The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. (For those of you that are still concerned, it's a book of short science fiction stories...and admit it, if you saw this book on the shelf you'd at least pick it up and read the dust jacket...but you'll have to wait a few weeks because it hasn't been released yet...)

Okay, third time's the charm...

I've recently been reading a book entitled The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. I wanted to share with you a brief quote from the foreword:
          "In most adventure fiction, be it drama or melodrama, the hero is defined very much by his (or her) adversary. The hero, sadly, is the more passive figure, forever waiting for the villain to set the plot in motion, so that he can then take whatever actions are necessary to forestall it."

Maybe this doesn't immediately strike you as it did me. But think about it for a minute. We live in a society that attempts to cure the result rather than prevent the problem. Look at our health - we focus on treating the disease instead of living in a way that will prevent us from getting it. Look at our finances - we rack up thousands of dollars in debt and then look for a way to pay for it instead of not spending it in the first place. And I'm afraid we live our Christian lives in the same way. We wait for some terrible evil to happen in our world and then we jump on the bandwagon with all the other 'good people' and attempt to fight it. And that is exactly what this quote is talking about. We live passively. We wait for evil to do it's work and then we go to war. We forget that we are always at war. 

What would happen if we focused on prevention of evil? What if those villains the quote talks about had had someone who had given of their own time and resources to show them that they were unconditionally loved? What if we loved people before they hit rock bottom, instead of trying to help them heal afterward? What if we took the time to make that phone call or send that encouragement card? What if we made time for that lunch date instead of simply saying, "We should get together sometime." What if we stopped saying, "I'm too busy." What do we say when we stand before God and He says, "I put so-and-so directly in your path so that you could show them my love and help them through their struggles." I'm pretty sure "I was busy" isn't going to cut it.

Satan is always at work but much of the time we miss it. We're waiting for the really big, dramatic, obvious evil so we can see a big, dramatic, obvious result. And don't get me wrong - there's definitely massive evil out there that we need to be fighting. But Satan is much more subtle than we give him credit for. Maybe a little of our time spent in prevention now will circumvent some of the more obvious evil 20 years down the road. Maybe that word of encouragement today will bring a smile, which will prevent hopelessness, which will save a life, which will change the world.

What are you waiting for? Don't wait for the villain to do his work. Don't live passively.  

When God Clearly Speaks

It's time for an update...and do I ever have a story to tell...

I love it when God speaks so clearly that even I can't miss it. I tend to be either very indecisive or just downright stubborn so sometimes God giving me a good solid kick is the only way to get me moving and that is what He has done for me in the last two weeks.

Two weeks ago I had no plans. My future was looming before me and, in all honesty, it just looked long and empty and boring and pretty pointless. I was desperate for something - but I didn't know what and I didn't know how to go after what I didn't know I wanted. (Yes, I'll wait while you go back and read that sentence again...okay, ready?)

Last February (2012) I went with a team from my church to spend a week at Foundation For His Ministry in Baja, Mexico. (Check out their website at ffhm.org or their facebook page for more info.) I loved my time there and was interested in going back, but when another opportunity came to return for a week this coming April I decided that this wasn't the trip for me and I said no.

And I was perfectly content with not going...until a couple days before the deadline to sign up.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to go but I chose to ignore it, deciding that I was being emotional and I just don't like being left out of things and I needed to suck it up and move on with life. So I said nothing. The deadline came and went and my feelings grew stronger and I finally said, "Okay, God, if you want me to go on this trip You're going to have to make it super obvious because I am not going to force my way in when we're already beyond the deadline. So if you want me to go, the team leaders are going to have to tell me that they have a spot left and they want me to take it."And I still said nothing...until 3 days later when I got this text message from the team leader: "We have a spot we are trying to fill for Mexico. Want to change your mind?" Funny that you should ask...yes, I actually do...thanks God, I'm a little dense sometimes.

So I found myself planning to spend the last week of April in Baja. And I was THRILLED to say the least. I spent the next 4 days bouncing off the walls with the excitement of a trip back to Mexico. On the fifth day I was...um...moody is a polite way to put it I guess. I was having a conversation with myself about a variety of things and I said in frustration, "Why even come home? I should just stay in Mexico." And then I  froze in the middle of the room. "Wait...I should just...stay...in...Mexico...why not? I have no reason why I can't stay for longer. I'm already paying to get down there and back. It's not going to cost that much more to extend my time there." I sat there for about 15 minutes thinking this through and I knew without a doubt, with complete and utter confidence that this was what I was supposed to do. I would leave for Mexico at the end of April and not return home for 10 weeks.

Now, obviously, there are still a few details to be worked out. My application just went in the mail this morning. And I would very much appreciate and covet your prayers over the next few months. But, Lord willing, I leave in less than 12 weeks for Mexico!

2013

This year will be a good year.

I will choose hope over despair and trust over fear. I will choose to see the emptiness in front of me as a valley of possibility instead of a desert of loneliness. I will choose to love when I feel unloved. I will choose to smile instead of cry. I will choose to hold my tongue when the urge to defend or make excuses for myself arises. I will choose to be silent instead of lashing out in anger. I will choose to walk in obedience to God no matter the cost to myself or my pride. 

I will choose hope...

     I will choose trust...
  
          I will choose love...

               I will choose to make 2013 a good year. 


"Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book - write a good one."

Pure Charity

 Okay, everyone, I command you to go check out this link. It's for an organization called Pure Charity. Watch the video and then check out their website. Most places you shop send money to charities. This website allows you to choose specifically what charities your purchases support and then to follow and receive updates on the projects you are supporting. The video explains it much better...just go watch it...

Pure Charity

Parable in a Car Wash

Elizsabeth Elliot is my current author of choice. I've been going through her books again and again and seeking out any new ones I haven't yet read. I wanted to share with you the chapter I read this morning.

Parable in a Car Wash    My eighteen-month-old grandson Walter, his father, and I were out for a drive when his father decided it was time to have the car washed. Those automatic car washes can be a bit scary on the first run-through, even for an adult. I watched Walter's face as the car was drawn into the dark tunnel. The water suddenly began to roar down over all four sides of the car, and his big blue eyes got bigger--but went immediately from the windows to the face of his father. He was too small to understand what it was all about, and he'd had no explanation beforehand. What he did know was that Daddy would take care of him. Then the giant brushes began to close in around us, whirling and sloshing and making a tremendous racket. It grew even darker inside the car. The boy had no way of knowing whether we'd get out of this alive. His eyes darted again from the brushes to the face of his father. I could see he was afraid, but he didn't cry. Then the rubber wheel came banging down on the windshield, and hot air began to blast us. It must have seemed to the child that this tunnel had no end. What further terrors awaited us? He clung to only one thing; he knew his father. His father had never given him any reason not to trust him, but still....    When the car finally broke out into sunshine, the little boy's face broke into a big smile. Everything was okay; Daddy knew what he was doing after all.    Like Walter, I have been through some dark tunnels. Although they were frightening, in the end I've found my Heavenly Father always knows the way out.    Thirty years ago I was standing beside a shortwave radio in a house on the Atun Yacu, one of the principal headwaters of the Amazon, when I learned that my husband, Jim Elliot, was one of the five missionaries missing. They had gone into the territory of the Auca Indians, a people who had never heard even the name of Jesus Christ. What did I do? I suppose I said out loud, "O Lord!"    And he answered me. Not with an audible voice (I've never heard him speak that way in my life). But God brought to mind an ancient promise from the Book of Isaiah: "I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned....For I am the Lord your God" (Isaiah 43:1, 2).    l am the Lord your God. Think of it! The One who engineered this incredible universe with such exquisite precision that astronomers can predict exactly where and when Halley's comet will appear--this God is my Lord.    Evelyn Underhill said, "If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped."    Can we imagine that God, who is concerned with so many stupendous things, can possibly be concerned about us? We do imagine it. We hope he is. That is why we turn to him in desperation and cry out, as I did, "O Lord!" Where else can we possibly turn when we have come to the end of our resources?    Does God love us? Karl Barth, the great theologian, was once asked if he could condense all the theology he had ever written into one simple sentence. "Yes," he said. "I can. 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'" Think about the account of the Crucifixion in Mark 15. Jesus was fastened to a cross. It was a man-made cross, and man-made nails were hammered through his hands--the hands that had formed the galaxies. Wicked men put him up there. Then they flung at him a bold and insolent challenge: "If you're the Son of God, come down! Then we'll believe."    Did he come down? No. He stayed there. He could have summoned an army of angels to rescue him, but he stayed there. Why? Because he loved us with a love that gives everything.    Because of the love of the father for us, he gave his son. Because of the love of the son for his father, he was willing to die, "so that by God's gracious will, in tasting death, he should stand for us all" (Hebrews 2:9).    When I heard Jim was missing, my first response was "O Lord!" God answered by giving me a promise: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you."    Was that enough for me? Was that all I wanted? No, I wanted Jim back alive. I didn't want to go through that deep river, that dark tunnel. Five days later I got another radio message: Jim was dead. All five of the men were dead.    God hadn't worked any magic. He is not a talisman, a magic charm to carry in our pocket and stroke to get whatever we want. He could have sent a rescue squad of angels to save Jim and the others, but he didn't. Why not? Didn't he love us?    Fourteen years later God brought another man into my life. I thought it was a miracle I'd gotten married the first time! Now, once again, I was a wife.    However, Addison Leitch and I had not yet reached our fourth anniversary when we learned he had cancer. O Lord, I thought, another dark tunnel. The medical verdict was grim, but we prayed for healing. We did not know positively what the outcome would be, but like little Walter, we knew our Father. We had to keep turning our eyes from the frightening things to him, knowing him to be utterly faithful.    Whatever dark tunnel we may be called upon to travel through, God has been there. Whatever deep waters seem about to drown us, he has traversed. Faith is not merely "feeling good about God" but a conscious choice, even in the utter absence of feelings or external encouragements, to obey his Word when he says, "Trust Me." This choice has nothing to do with mood but is a deliberate act of laying hold on the character of God whom circumstances never change.    Does he love us? No, no, no is what our circumstances seem to say. We cannot deduce the fact of his unchanging love from the evidence we see around us. Things are a mess. Yet to turn our eyes back to the Cross of Calvary is to see the irrefutable proof that has stood all the tests of the ages: "It is by this that we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us" (John 3:16 NEB).    We are all little Walters to God. He knows the necessity of the "car wash," the dark passages of every human life, but he is in the car! The outcome will be most glorious.   Copyright 1989, by Elisabeth Elliot all rights reserved.

"But God..."

"God, what do You want from me? Are You asking me to give up this dream? But God, it's been in my heart for so long - a piece of me will die with this dream."

"I want all of you to die so that I can live in you. Will you give up your dreams so that my dreams for you will have the freedom to grow?" 

"But God, I like my dreams. I don't need big dreams. I am content with my small ones. Don't You want me to be content?"

"You are content only because you cannot see the bigger picture. Your imagination is too small."

"So show me the bigger picture."

"In order to see the big picture you must take your eyes off the small one."

"But God, You gave me that dream."

"No. I gave you pieces of a dream. You neglected to ask for my help and have put them together wrongly."

"But God, it hurts to die."

"I know."

"How do I let go?"

"By holding so tightly to me that it is not possible for you to hold onto anything else. Trust me as a small child trusts her human father. Crawl onto my lap, close your eyes, and fall asleep in my arms. Rest there, oblivious to the world around you. And as you sleep I will plant new dreams in your heart and they will grow, and when they are mature enough to bear fruit I will awaken you and show you the bigger picture."

"But God...but...but...but...God?"

"Yes?"

"I'm scared."

"I know."

"Daddy, please hold me!"

"I will."

"Don't let go."

"I won't."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

  

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"Father I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name. Amen."   -   Excerpt from "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer

Lessons (being) Learned

It's easy for me to get stuck where I am, to feel like it's the place I always have been and always will be. So I have to remind myself to look back and speak of God's faithfulness in my life. How He has proven again and again how strong He is, how much He loves me, and how much better His plans are than my own, and yet it is so easy for me to forget all those things. In the last few days I took some time to reflect on the past several months. (In our circle we call it "retro-introspection".) I set out this year with the goal of laying aside everything I thought I knew about myself. I wanted to try new things and make new discoveries. I wanted to know the unique place God had designed me to fill. I wanted to live up to God's creation and not people's expectations.

Plain and simple, this year has been hard, harder than I thought possible. I have never in my life felt more alone and lost and worthless than I have this year. I have discovered depths of my own humanity and depravity that I didn't know existed. I have hurt others. I have hurt myself. I have isolated myself and rejected those who tried to love me. I have spent months longing to remember what hope felt like. God has brought things to the surface that I had never allowed Him to deal with before, things I just kept burying deeper and deeper. The Bible says that whatever you obey becomes your master. I have learned the reality of this. My "little" sins and the insecurities that I try to hide have haunted me and taken me to places I didn't want to go, but I had become their slave.

But even in my refusal to learn, God still taught me, even when He had to do it the hard way. And for the first time I can say with complete honesty, that I'm thankful for this year. I'm thankful that God has not given up on me yet. He is still refining me and getting rid of the dross so that He, the Master Potter, can make something beautiful out of this worthless piece of clay.

God gave me a beautiful gift this past week. He gave me hope. And with hope came joy and peace and contentment - things I have not experienced in a long time and things I will never take for granted again. I don't know what the next year holds. It doesn't matter. Today is a new day, and today I'm learning to do the most simple tasks wholeheartedly as unto the Lord and I am loving every minute of it!!!