This is from Unstoppable Force, by Erwin McMannus:

“As with each individual, there is a difference between living and existing for the church. The life of the church is the heart of God. The heart of God is to serve a broken world. When Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist, he reminded us that only he could wash away our sin. The church cannot live when the heart of God is not beating within her. God’s heartbeat is to seek and save that which is lost. The church exists to serve as the body of Christ, and it is through this commitment to serve that we are forced to engage our culture.
The serving that we are called to requires direct contact. You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it. There is a sense of mystery to this, but it is in serving that the church finds her strength. When she ceases to serve the world around her, she begins to atrophy.”

I read that last week and I have not been able to get the image out of my head of the church, standing up to its waste in dirt and filth and just looking at each other with disgusted looks on their face, unwilling to be the vessels that clean up the mess.
I love the story in John 4 where Jesus goes up to the Samaritan woman and asks her for a drink. Jesus didn’t sit back and wait for this woman to come to Him, He initiated the conversation. The Pharisees and even His disciples sat back and saw this woman as “dirty” they marveled at the fact that Jesus was speaking with a woman...who was a Samaritan, who was an adulteress. But Jesus saw her need and gave her hope of a life filled with more then the every day monotony of the here and now.
Each day we have a choice...serve God or serve ourselves? Make choices that push us toward American “success” or make choices that push people into the arms of their loving Father. I don’t want to be afraid of touching this world...I want to wash their feet.

Lines Scribbled on an Envelope While Riding the 104 Broadway Bus

Lot's of thoughts stirring in my head right now...I will be posting (soon) about the amazing chain of events that happened this weekend that proves to me (yet again) that God is so big and he cares so much about each and every one of us. It amazes me how he weaves us into the fabric of each other's lives in order to touch each of our hearts in a special way and in order to use us to touch others.
My uncle has been reading poetry to us each night (what a guy, huh?) and he read this one a few nights ago that I keep replaying over and over in my head...it really touched me and I wanted to share it...

Lines Scribbled on an Envelope While Riding the 104 Broadway Bus
By Madeline L'Engle

There is too much pain
I cannot understand
I cannot pray
I cannot pray for all the little ones with bellies bloated by starvation in India;
for all the angry Africans striving to be separate in a world struggling for wholeness;
for all the young Chinese men and women taught that hatred and killing are good and compassion evil;
or even all the frightened people in my own city looking for truth in pot or acid.

Here I am
and the ugly man with beery breath beside me reminds me that it is not my prayers that waken your concern, my Lord;
my prayers, my intercessions are not to ask for your love
for all your lost and lonely ones,
your sick and sinning souls,
but mine, my love, my acceptance of your love.
Your love for the woman sticking her umbrella and her expensive parcels into my ribs and snarling, "Why don't you wants where you are going?"
Your love for the long-haired, gum chewing boy who shoves the old lady aside to grab a seat,
Your love for me, too, too tired to look with love,
to tired to look at Love, at you, in every person on the bus.
Expand my love, Lord, so I can help to bear the pain,
help your love move my love into the tired prostitute with false eyelashes and bunioned feet,
the corrupt policeman with his hand open for graft,
the addict, the derelict, the woman in the mink coat and discontented mouth,
the high school girl with heavy books and frightened eyes.

Help me through these scandalous particulars
to understand
your love.

Help me to pray.

I will go...

Every time I read through the story of Rebekah I always pause and think about what an amazing woman she was. I was reading Genesis 24 yesterday and some things stood out to me that I kind of skimmed over in the past.
The reason I have always admired this woman was because she is just going through the daily grind...doing her daily chores, when all of a sudden a man shows up, tells her God sent him to bring her back to his master, she agrees to go...and off they ride into the sunset. Her willingness to follow this stranger so that she could meet and spend the rest of her life married to another stranger was no doubt a brave decision.
When Abraham’s servant came to the place where he was supposed to find this woman for Isaac, he asked God to give him a sign...have the woman offer a drink to his camels as well. Sure enough, Rebekah comes up, this man asks for a drink and she not only gives him a drink, but she draws enough water and gives water to his camels as well. Clearly, this woman had a servant’s heart. I do not think Rebekah thought she was doing anything extraordinary and I do not think she was trying to impress the man, she simply saw the need and extended herself to serve. It was because of her servant’s heart that she was chosen.
After the servant reveals his reason for coming he praises God and gives gifts to Rebeka. He then proceeds to ask her father if he can skip through the tradition of waiting around for ten days and bring her to his master immediately. The decision rests in Rebeka’s hands. “Will you go with this man?” they said. “I will go.”
I love that. “I will go.” I can only imagine what was going through her mind at this time. Fear, doubt, what about her family? They gave her an out...they left the decision up to her. No one would have blamed her for wanting to spend a week or so saying good bye to her family...but she recognized this man as a Godly man and went.
Rebeka did not know where she would be going, who she would be marying, what kind of world or life she was entering...she did not even “clearly” hear from God on the matter. She was given an opportunity and without weighing the risk, consequence, or personal loss—she left her family and followed this man.
She was willing to venture into the unknown—she saw something in this man and wanted to be a part of it. “I will go...”
Just like this servant bestowed gifts to Rebeka, God has laid out his treasure before us. He has clearly spoken to us about what directions are lives should constantly be heading. Are we up for the challenge, the adventure? Will we go? Or will we remain paralyzed in fear of the unknown? When I think of Rebeka I think of a woman who was willing to be completely open and vulnerable to a man and his family that she did not know. With that complete trust and total openness and a heart that lives to serve, God will take us through the unknown to do what our minds don’t even dream of.

Just a vessel...

Pastor Dan did an object lesson in church yesterday that really spoke to me. He was talking about “barriers” between people and God. As he was speaking my mind immediately began to race with all the people in my life that I love so much who do not know God. I was thinking of different barriers and reasons why they choose to reject the truth and I felt this overwhelming burden...like they were never going to “get it.”
My thoughts were interrupted by Dan pulling a sheet off of a table with bricks on it. He took a hammer and began hammering away at the brick talking about how we often, in our own strength, try to be the force behind the hammer...we don’t even make a dent in the lives of those around us. But when we let God be the force, and we simply just allow ourselves to be the tool—God works and works at the seemingly indestructible barrier and shatters all excuses people have to reject Him.
As I examine my life and the relationships I am in I see how often I try to be the one who “changes” the lives of those around me. I know full well that there is nothing extra special about me that has the power to do this, but for some reason (pride) I approach people trying to be the driving force to point them in the right direction, instead of just allowing God’s love to spill out of my life and consume all those around me.
I have been praying and thinking a lot about what living in Tanzania is going to be like next year and as I have done that I have gotten a little overwhelmed...the need is so huge, what can just one person do? But yesterday I was reminded (again) that it isn’t about what I can do or what I can say...I just need to follow the path that God has called me to and stay so close to God that His love becomes who I am and in doing that lives will be touched and changed.
I want to be a vessel. Just something plain and ordinary that God can pour out his love through so that the hurting, hopeless, and lost people of this world can find Him. When I stop worrying about if I am saying the right words to convince someone or doing the right thing to show someone, then I am free to just love them with no restrictions and trust and believe that God is constantly pursuing their hearts and will use me and other people in their lives to show them who He really is.

 

1 Corinthians 9: 19-13 (The Message)
“Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized - whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ - but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!”

I was in Boston last night/ today and as I walked the streets I tried very hard to look into the faces of as many people as possible. (I hope no one caught me staring :)) It is such a culturally diverse city...it seemed like every person we passed by was from a different ethnic background...every person we stopped to ask for directions (which, for those of you who know me, happened on more then one occasion) had a different accent. As I walked around the city I was just blown away with how many people from all over the world there are to reach in just one place...how many different opportunities we pass up on a daily bases to connect with someone because we don’t have a way to connect.
The more “languages” we can speak, the greater platform of influence we have. The more cultures I understand, the more I can speak to the heart of those who seemingly have nothing “in common” with me. I believe that every person we encounter, we should be able to find something to connect with them on. As I walked around the city yesterday I just had an increasing desire to start to dig into the lives of those around me and figure out what makes them who they are... I want to know where they are coming from and hopefully be able to learn their “language” and speak God’s message to their heart in a way they can understand.
There is this awesome group that just started up here in Rhode Island called Prodigy (check out the website for more info: www.prodigyspace.blogspot.com) and the first week we talked about “touch points.” Touch Points are things we experience that help us to connect with other people...I think it would be really neat to create touch points by getting to know committed followers of other religions...maybe that would help me understand what they believe, why they believe it, and give me more ways to know how to show them the truth?

Aiden with a bucket full of crab shells :)