Counting Luggage

I think that it was on one of our family vacations where I first noticed it.... as we are traveling, I was continually counting people and bags. Actually it was brought to my attention rather pointedly and mockingly by my wife and 3 daughters.

I don't just give a cursory glance... I do a complete count at everything even resembling a stop. This has also been confirmed by anyone who has traveled with me on a mission trip to Africa. I have also observed that once I actually arrive at my destination, I can absolutely relax and not experience the slightest concern. Some would call it obsessive, others endearing.... but it is part of how I am "hard wired".

I was also recently watching a docudrama, "Band of Brothers" about one of the most highly honored fighting units in WW II. There was a poignant scene in which a highly respected lieutenant is seriously wounded in the leg and is unable to walk, just as the enemy is about to overtake their position. The Lt. is ordering his men to leave him behind in order to not put themselves in any further jeopardy. His men defy his orders, dismantle a door from a nearby farm house, and use the door as a litter to drag him to safety while all the while bullets are flying all around them.

"No one was left behind!"

It wasn't the men who carried the lieutenant out of danger, but love and commitment.

I really believe that this accurately represents Jesus' attitude in leaving His exalted position in order to pursue every man. He is no respecter of person, position, or title. Love brought Him to Earth, love sent Him to the Cross, and love raised Him from the dead. All this so that it was possible for "no man to be left behind".

But Jesus' mission did not end at His ascension 2000 years ago. Rather the mission was extended to his team... His "Band of Brothers (and Sisters)". His mission is now our mission... that no one is left behind. You and I are part of God's great mission to see that no one gets left behind.

It's a lot more beneficial than counting luggage..... though come next trip, I am certain that I will again be counting.

What needs to change?

Psalm 136 is a strange looking psalm at first glance. Every one of its 26 verses ends with the phrase, "For His lovingkindness is everlasting." According to one Bible commentary, this song of thanksgiving had a prominent place in Jewish worsip. The repeated phrase was probably sung by the entire congretation, while the leader of the congregation or the choir sang the beginning phrase of the verse.

As we read it in English, though, it may seem clumsy or tedious. But think for a moment - we all have used the method of repetition throughout our lives as an aid to memorize things. Remember learning the times tables in grade school? Or have you ever repeated in your mind someone's name you just met so you won't forget it 2 minutes later? How about saying over and over again, "Don't forget to stop at the store for milk"? It doesn't take a great leap to suggest that the psalmist intentionally repeats this phrase because he knows how important it is to remember this truth - "For His lovingkindness is everlasting." And that's something that doesn't change!

Two other phrases stick out in this Psalm. Verse 14 says that God "made Israel pass through the midst of it," meaning the midst of the Red Sea. We think of the parting of the Red Sea as a wonderful miracle, which is was. But think of the Israelites whom God "made" to walk on either side of those huge walls of water. Those walls were just being held there by...what??!?!? Don't you think they may have been just a tad nervous? Don't you think they were scared to death that the situation could change and that those walls of water could come crashing down on them at any second?

Then, only two verses later, we are told to give thanks "to Him who led His people through the wilderness." I don't know about you, but a wilderness is not exactly a place I would want to be led into - even if God is doing the leading. "Lions and tigers and bears, O MY" comes to mind. I would probably have to be led kicking and screaming!

But God did make Israel pass through the midst of the Red Sea, and He did lead His people through the wilderness. And the Israelites were called upon in this psalm to thank Him for it - more precisely, to thank Him "for His lovingkindness is everlasting." I don't know about you, but I don't immediately associate walking through the Red Sea and then the wilderness with God's everlasting lovingkindness.

What about you? Are you feeling like the walls are about to crash down on you? Are you in the wilderness? Are you crying out, "God, something needs to change!"? Right now, you may not see it, you may not believe it, but "His lovingkindness is everlasting." That means that His love for you doesn't change! He loves you in the middle of the sea, and in the middle of the wilderness. Do you want to believe that? Then try repeating it as a sacrifice of praise, just like the psalmist encouraged his listeners to do. Repeat it in your mind over and over until it becomes a part of you. You may find that the sea and the wilderness don't immediately change... but you attitude toward them might. Your situation may not change...but your thinking might. Your focus may not change...but your state of mind might. And those changes are the ones that most concerns God - your thinking, your attitude, your heart. That's the lasting change in which He is most interested.

Let Him change your thinking, your attitude, your heart. Then watch to see how the situaton will change!

Punctuation

I heard a speaker say something on the radio yesterday that caught my ear - "Don't put a period where God has put a comma," she said. When I heard that, it was if the Holy Spirit put His hand up and said, "STOP. I have something here for you. Listen." Then He brought to the forefront of my mind memories when I had put a period at certain points of my life - times when I felt stuck in the mire of my sin or stuck in the pain of a situation, times when I would become discouraged and convinced that nothing would ever change. Those were the times I had tried to take the pen out of the Author's hand and blotched my life's journal with a big black circle that signified the end. PERIOD.

But it wasn't the end. God had only put a comma there. He put it there because, in His mercy, He saw that I needed to rest, or that I wasn't ready for the next step, or that other things needed to fall into place as a part of His perfect plan for me. I had forgotten Phil. 1:6 - "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (That's Kate's favorite verse, by the way.)

What is true in my life is also true in our client's lives. There are times when it may seem that they have stopped growing, stopped changing. It's easy during those times for both them and us to only see a period there. But it's not a period, it's a comma, a comma that God, the Author and FINISHER of their faith, has written there. See, God is interested in LASTING CHANGE, not in a quick fix. That's a good thing, of course...but the "downside" of lasting change is that is usually takes a long time! He is an eternal God, so when we can get glimpses of His work through His eternal eyes, it makes perfect sense. But, oh, those eternal glimpses are so rare, and they pass by so quickly!

As you pray for our clients this week, please pray that they will begin to see some of the commas that God is writing in their lives, instead of the periods they think are there. Ask Him to give them the faith to believe that He makes NO mistakes when He uses punctuation!

GAG

GAG--no not in the literal sense, but in the "abbreviated" sense, as in "Give A Gift." If you haven't yet, you will quickly learn that NOH liberally uses our own shorthand, which we think everyone around us understands.

Give-A-Gift is an event we run annually at various sites--this year in 6 communities. We take donations of new toys and then set up "pseudo" stores so parents can come thru and choose gifts for each of their children. You can read more about this year's event at www.networkofhope.org

Now you may think GAG is just an NOH outreach to help families in need, which it is. But the part you don't know is, it's really an opportunity for me to dig out that mustard seed of faith I seem to keep losing in the corner of my pocket and "squeeze" it for dear life. I know in the larger sense, it's not about me (yes, I DO realize that). However, through this, and just about every event I've coordinated, God continues to build my faith. You'd think I'd at least have graduated to a lima-bean portion by now, but it doesn't always feel like it.

Why, you may ask, is it such a faith-building experience for me? Let me enlighten you to the plight of this "I-like-to-have-all-the-ducks-in-a-row-AHEAD-of-time" event planner. In the time preceding the event, a conversation could very well go something like this:

Q: So, how many toys do you need for this Give-A-Gift?
A: About 3-4 per kid, but I can't tell you exactly until we know how many kids will be shopped for.

Q: Oh. How many kids are registered?
A: Well, we won't really know that until about 4 hours (okay, I'm exaggerating) 4 days before the event, but at least 500.

Q: Okay....well, how many toys do you have so far?
A: Oh, we won't really have a count until about 2 hours (okay, I'm exaggerating) 2 days before the event.

......AND SO ON!

So I dig out that seed, having somehow pushed it into my pocket again, and I settle in for the battle of my mind against my spirit. Then I begin "preparing" with just some of what I DO know ahead of time:

• God is faithful
• He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (what's a few toys?)
• He tells us to give to those in need, so He'll make it possible
• God's timing is perfect (mine, ahem, is irrelevant)
• He is omniscient; He knows
• He is my source; my peace; my strength; my counselor; my ever-present help
• God feeds sparrows and clothes the fields; how much more will He do for His children?
• God does not rely on me, rather I on Him
• He is the lifter of my head
• Nothing is too difficult for God

And just when I think my lack of faith might want to make God really gag, I realize instead, that He is Giving A Gift to me--the gift of faith.

Maybe, just maybe, my mustard seed is enough. I can't imagine what a lima bean would bring!

The 3:20 Style of God

Ephesians 3:20 -- and God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

While I was at Harvard this phrase came to me as I was reflecting on all that God has given me. It really is His style -- to blow our minds with all that He wants and is able to do for us and through us. The longer I am alive, the more convinced I am of this truth of God. Because of this truth, my faith continues to increase.

What I love about Scripture is that even when I doubt or don't know how the next move is going to play out, I am confident that God knows and He never fails. In fact, he provides exceeding abudantly above all that I can ever ask or imagine.
Today as I was walking, I was thinking through the times in my life whenI was struggling or when I needed supernatural provision, and without fail God has come through in his 3:20 style. He blows me away!

Here are just a few times I have seen God move in the 3:20 style in my life:

-- My second year of college, I needed $2,000 to go back. A week before the bill was due, I received a call from a local organization saying that I had won a scholarship my senior year of highschool and somehow the check was never sent. Guess how much it was for? - Yep, $2,000!

--I needed a car (didn't even have my license - yeah I was a nerd, I was 19 without a license) but I began to pray. About 6 weeks later, my mom called me at school and said that they had received a package that day that had keys and a title to a car. They had met my dad once awhile back and God laid it on their heart to give him the car!

--When I was going to live oversees, I need $1800 for the plane ticket. I think $2500 came in. Do you know that the extra $700 lasted me through the first month before I received a paycheck. Go figure God was looking out for me because I didn't know I wasn't getting a paycheck for a month!

--Moving back to Pittsburgh and thinking that my dreams were forever lost, and yet God has allowed me the opportunity to create Network of Hope which is something far greater than my own dreams were.

--I struggled for almost a decade with the fact that I wasn't married. And yet God again came through in his 3:20 style by giving me the greatest gift in Jim. God knew what I needed and wanted more than I could have ever known and gave me this great gift! And not only did He give me Jim but He has blessed us with all that we need and more than I could have ever asked for....

--During the flood of '04 when all we wanted to do was help the people of Sharpsburg, God brought 800 families to our doors. We had no prior experience in disaster releif, we had never worked on this kind of scale. Yet God brought everything we needed for every family and we even had $40,000 left over that we were giving out to the families at the end of the work!!

--Just recently I was struggling because I do not have a business background and Network is growing. I remember crying out and asking God if it was time for a more experienced person to take the lead. When He told me that I was to stay, I asked if he would surround me with the business knowledge I needed for the next steps. Two weeks later, I received an email that I had been scholarshiped to Harvard for a non-profit business intensive. Craziest thing about this - I never applied and did not even know that this opportunity existed!!

I write these things to encourage everyone, especially me! I daily fight away doubt and insecurity with His reassurance of provision and purpose. Without Him, I am nothing. Without Him, I could never be experiencing this great adventure I'm on!! He does this for all His Children - He is no respector of persons!! So let's all start believing in the 3:20 style of God!!

the miracle of laughter

Although I'm not 'hip' to the world of blogging, myspaces, etc., i'm attempting to post this blog in hopes that it makes it!


There is a picture of "The Laughing Jesus" in my office and i love looking at this picture. In fact, i love looking at anyone who I see laughing and smiling. Sometimes i see people who i know are going through a hard time laughing and smiling. I wonder, how do they do that? I also wonder, how did Jesus do that? I think i wonder because i often feel as though i am in the midst of hard times (be it personal or what i witness in the lives of others) and want to be able to continue to laugh. I don't really have the answers, but as i see it, there must be something miraculous about laughter.

Given more thought, I think that to be able to laugh, as Jesus did, means that one has allowed the miracle of hope within them to outweigh the current circumstances of life. I think that being able to laugh means that one is 'one up on' their feelings and instead of allowing their feelings to rule them, they are in charge of how they feel. I think that being able to laugh, means that one has experienced the true meaning of forgiviness, and is able to give and recieve it in the throws of life. I think that being able to laugh means that one has allowed contentment in all things and thankfulness for all things to superceed their own agenda. I think that being able to laugh shows selflessness and strength; influencing others with a smile instead of a scowl. And finally, i think that being able to laugh shows an ability to trust God; for if one is in the throws of worry one cannot laugh, but for laughter to come forth one must let go of worry (if only for a moment) and trust.

I've found that often, in the midst of something to difficult for me, i am not strong enough to practice these things. In that case, i follow the wisdom of some very wise men who said "Fake it till you make it". So put on a smile today and see what happens.

Ta-da!

Finally, my “turn” to blog and share the myriad of profound, witty, insightful and never-to-be-called humble thoughts running through my mind, and….nothing. Well, not entirely nothing, but nothing as moving or influential as I’d like to think my entrance to the blogging world would bring. So you, dear reader, are left with the meager initial offering from this writer.

What I’m discovering this blog WILL do is give me the opportunity for deliberate reflection; a pause for consideration to find meaning in the day’s events, conversations, relationships. Because, let’s face it, as interested as you are in how you, too, can get a free lunch from Qdoba like I did today, you probably don’t want to read about my eating habits on a regular basis (or maybe you do…?).

Seriously, life carries the potential for fullness, abundance. But we must embrace it with our full selves—body, mind and spirit-to live out that potential. To do anything less does a disservice to the beings we have been created as. To attend to our bodily needs alone leaves our spirit yearning for a deeper connection to the creator; our mind longing to engage the truth. To live life through thought alone will reason us out of the hope of possibility; limit our service to only the rational; and so on.

So perhaps in some cyber-ficial way, blogging will allow this task-oriented, cerebral, practically-minded, what do you mean stop & reflect?—kind of girl to enter more fully into her life’s experiences and find meaning in the moments. And just think, YOU get to be the beneficiary of this wonderful adventure!

~Deana