Chossing to Serve...

I get a great devotional emailed to my in-box daily written by Jon Walker. It is titled, "Grace Creates" and he writes in a way that I get it. I am able to understand the application of God's word to my life.

Notice I said "application" - it doesn't mean it is a cure all panacea, but it is a sustaining truth and thought that keep me going, give me strength and often help re-shape my heart, tongue (I hope!) and actions. So the last sentence grabbed me fr om this morning's devotional:

From today's Grace Creates Devo: So be eager to serve. Pay attention to those around you so you can become sensitive to their needs. “Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, ‘How can I help?’” (Romans 15:2 MSG).

There is something cathartic about helping others. It is healing. But if we get so stuck in our own pain (or whatever) we can't see or respond to the needs of others. I love being aware of what would encourage others...it brings me joy and delight (and will also delight God). It goes along with my thoughts related to what a different place the world would be if we just became a bit more aware and went out of our way to bless someone else, the way the United agent blessed me by returning my book (and I still haven't written the thank you note, that's next!).

I have to admit, that all sounds great, but I have a problem with this. I seem to be much better able to do this with others, even complete strangers than with members of my own family. Matt is (IMHO) lollygagging about looking for the easiest way to make a buck...researching online survey taking offers...this makes me bristle, so where is my love? Or my bewilderment at how to support my mom during her frequent spells of sadness that are so laced with anger that I just don't know what to do...so I hug her.

Last night she started to cry again, saying, "I miss dad so much...I just want to hug him, I will never hug him again..." so I did what I could and gave her a hug...but I seem to be stuck in reactive mode with my family, rather than being sensitive to or searching for ways to serve ahead of time...one of my challenges, I suppose. I know I know how to be an encouraging servant, I just need to broaden my audience!

Anyway, today brings stuff to do, and lots of it...a desperately needed haircut (and color) for me I think I will have her do an auburn...I am getting tired of blond...and then schlepping out to Mifflinburg to deliver my mom's parakeets to a friend to babysit them while we are away. Can't depend on Howie or Tianna to feed the birds...the rest of our menagerie will present enough issues for them...and a story re-work in addition to delivering many of the remaining left over girl scout cookies...a bit of normalcy in the chaos that has been hurled my way.

Through this all I am carried; and I will serve.

Blessings to you this day.

C is for Church...

What is church? That question actually came up on another blog I have stumbled upon. Now, that must mean I have an over abundant amount of time, if I have time to wander and meander around in cyberspace linking to like minded blogs, which is why it is probably a good thing I went to work today...Now I know you are wondering, what blog is that? And since I am now brain dead and don't have the link at my fingertips, I am going to defer the answer till tomorrow. But in the meantime, I will pose that same question here. What is church?

This is what I wrote about church in my upcoming title contested Bible Study:

C is for CHURCH

Church is:

1. The place you drag your kids kicking and screaming on Sunday mornings because that is what “good” families do.
2. The really, really pretty building with stained glass windows that you go to twice a year (Christmas and Easter, in case you weren’t sure…) that is your ticket to heaven.
3. The place where the ladies with blue hair and too many pearls go on Sunday mornings so they can catch up on a week’s worth of gossip.
4. Those of us who serve as Christ’s hands and feet here on Earth. Through service we demonstrate that we are part of the body of Christ and His committed followers on Earth.

I remember vividly the day I went to church, for real, for the first time…the first time I sensed that church was more than four walls. It was a gathering place for the followers of Jesus, committed to serving him as part of his body. For the first time I experienced the true definition of church, a group of people who served as his hands and feet here on earth.

It was an A-Ha moment. And I was in my forties.

Peace.

An Outreach Kind of Day

I attended a lunch today sponsored by a community church interested in engaging in a cross denominational conversation about outreach and what different groups are doing, are trying and succeeding at, and also what we are trying and not succeeding at. It was a refreshing gathering of people who love Jesus (something I am having a much easier time saying and feel less attacked about than which presidential candidate I support...) The timing was perfect for the two of us representing the church I worship at, Community Mennonite Fellowship (do I look like a Mennonite? Blasts some preconceived notions now doesn't it...hmm...) because we are engaging in our Faith in Action service weekend coming up this Saturday and Sunday.

The local community newspaper did a great job covering this event, complete with photo which I am in. You can read the article by clicking on this link: http://www.standard-journal.com/. It is really cool stuff.

The basic premise is that instead of going to church on this Faith in Action Sunday, we actually serve as the church in our community, by putting our faith in action. I read about the original concept in Outreach Magazine, in an article titled, Church is Cancelled, Service Begins. Catchy, huh? So several churches have actually cancelled their services on Sunday and gone out to serve. After all Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and got blasted for it by the Pharisees (the rule keepers of the day). But Jesus asked, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" (Luke 5:17). In my way of thinking,what could be more life giving than sharing the love of Christ with those who have not yet been touched by that love by going out and serving in the community.

The Sabbath is still protected and revered by some, so for now some of our service will take place on Saturday and some on Sunday but I think what was the most confusing to me was the position taken of not working on the Sabbath so our manual work projects were shifted to Saturday. But then one of the individuals who had strong feelings about this is not participating because she ended up being scheduled to work on Sunday afternoon. There was just a disconnect there for me. I didn't get it and was a bit sad that we didn't embrace the campaign in its fullest sense. But strong traditions are hard to reconstruct, and I am thrilled that we are starting somewhere.

The lunch was a time of sharing and feeling unity amongst ourselves as "the church" and not a particular denomination.

And for that I was thankful.

Confessions of a Middle Aged Drama Queen

Oh, I had such fun! I was asked to present an impact moment at church today, and decided props were in order, and well, I just had a blast.

We are gearing up for our Faith in Action Campaign, where we will be going out and being church in our community. As a prelude to this weekend event, which will be held the last weekend of September, different members of the congregation have been presenting "impact moments" sharing different insights of faith they have had. Not one to miss an opportunity to share (did I miss my calling as a performer?) I volunteered. I have to admit, until I pull my thoughts together I do experience a little bit of stress over preparing, but it generally turns out fine.

So I gave three snapshots of moments or stories that had meaning to me in terms of teaching me a bit more about following Christ and how to and not to emulate him. My desire was to both encourage and challenge others.

My objective was to illustrate ways in which either we have an impact on others, or they have an impact on us, with the ultimate desire to impact God's kingdom.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD and not men." (Colossians 3:23). In other words, remember who your boss is.

Along with that, it is worth remembering to clothe ourselves in humility and to do nothing out of selfish ambition.

With that, I dramatized the story of the ugly American passenger on my flight to Honduras trying to stuff his overstuffed bag into the overhead compartment. I demonstrated complete with a pile of "carry on" luggage, pillow and computer case. I think my girls were both mortified and annoyed that I used their bags to illustrate my point.

My second snapshot was to talk about the incredible hospitality I experienced last weekend at the wedding. I made sure I wore the dress to church that I wore to the wedding...I commented about how I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but then again, isn't that just like God to invite us to those places out of our comfort zone; the question is,what will we do with that invitation?

And then I talked about giving God our best and the incredible junk for Jesus I saw in Honduras and wrapped up with a wonderful challenge issued by a pastor at a church in Colorado I read about in Rev! Magazine, where he invited the congregants to leave their coats that they wore that day, their best Sunday coats, not leftovers, for homeless people in their community. Beautiful...

I loved sharing and was even forgiven for exceeding my time limit. Now that's grace!