How many times a day do I run into the need to decide? How many times do I deliberate on what to do? How many times do I ask God?
God is so good to not only give us what we need but to put us in places where we need it! I've lived that truth this week.
I'm plugging along with memorizing James, and (GASP!)I have to say that I'm actually enjoying it. Here's the passage that I've been working on:
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do." James 1:5-8
All week I've been running into walls and scratching my head:
Is this candidate "the one" for our church?
Am I called to get involved in this volunteer opportunity?
How in the world can I make the demands of this schedule work?
These are some of the places that I'm asking for wisdom.
Do you have some places you need wisdom too? Can we pray together? I'm asking for God to give me wisdom in these areas and countless others. If you'll leave your request, I'll ask with you. Will you do the same for me? Let's ask, seek and knock together!
Concern started with a conversation that I had with the boys this weekend about the prom. It seems that there's a lot of pressure put on high school boys these days to ask for a date to the prom just right. It has to be "cute" to even be worthy of a "yes". A girl in one of Anson's classes said that she'd turn even turn down a boy she liked if he didn't ask her in a very creative, cute way.
In my generation, a phone call to ask was the norm. It seems that prom requests have been elevated to the level of creative wedding proposals like banners behind planes or the question popped on a sports scoreboard.
My concern grew as we attended a movie this weekend. There was a lot of bad, rude behavior in the theater, and pretty much all of it was from girls. It wasn't pure meanness but rather the kind of inconsiderate, self-centered behavior that doesn't take account of those around you.
My concern reach red-alert this morning with the stats presented in this story on the Today show.
You all know that I'm a mom of 2 boys, so I hesitated to even write about the subject that's weighing on my heart this morning. I kept wondering if I really have the right.
But I decided that I do have the right to address the subject of girls in our American culture, because I am a woman (formerly a girl)and God has put a burden on my heart for the women of the next generation.
It's not so much the girls themselves that I'm worried about. Girls are still girls in all their complexity and wonderfulness. I'm worried about the messages that we're sending them and how that shapes them.
From being exposed to media myself and from the things I observed this weekend, here are some of the dangerous messages that I think we're sending:
Your physical appearance is paramount.
Your beauty is where your power lies.
You are created to be the center of your world.
Boys and men are lesser and must be trained to understand the above truths.
I reread these and hesitate again, because I know these sound harsh and critical. Let me hurriedly say that I know many wonderful girls, including many of my boys' friends as well as my nieces, that aren't living from this belief system. Here are some of the truths that I believe their parents are pouring into them:
You are valuable, because you are created by God.
Your inner and outer beauty are a gift from Him, and your continuous growth makes you increasingly beautiful in every way.
You were created for more than viewing yourself as the center of things. You were created with a high purpose that starts with serving others.
The men and boys around you are to be loved and respected in the same way that you would like to experience love and respect.
I'm so afraid that our girls are being taught to define themselves by their external beauty. I'm scared that they are defining freedom and power as promiscuity. I'm frightened that they'll miss out on mutually loving relationships, because they define love as adoration showered on them.
Moms of girls, I'd love to hear from you. I think it's important that I understand as I speak to women. What battles are you facing as you pour truth into your girls? How can concerned women around them help? I'm listening.
It's my usual response to withdraw...when I'm hurt, when I'm worried, when I'm struggling.
Last week was one of those weeks when the perfect storm hits, and I was dealing with all three because of a set of circumstances. The dark cloud descended, and I felt smothered, dampened and heavy.
That's tough for a girl with a wiring for sunny. I have some friends with sensitive souls and insightful hearts that wrestle with depression regularly. I'm more shallow and don't fight the fog as often :), and I'm usually annoyingly glass half full.
But even though I was hiding out from my bloggy friends (sunny dispositions hate to bring others down more than just about anything---yes, I recognize the pride), I was drawing close to Jesus, and that's a huge step for me. I tend towards withdrawing from the very One who's beside me in the fog.
He's been saying things like: "I've got this." "Listen with compassion." "Speak with grace." "Worship to dispense the fog." "Focus on others."
Those are the lessons that I was learning last week as I dealt with some hard things, some personal failure and the fear of the unknown.
And in the midst of the dark cloud, I did reach out my arm to ask for some help. Jesus met me in the sweetest ways. He prompted hearts to pray. He gave words of encouragement in the mouths of the unaware. He gave me an amazing answer to prayer.
Was it all wrapped up in a neat, beautiful bow? No. Was He the faithful Counselor? Yes. Did He continue to teach, mold and shape me? Oh, definitely yes. And in the end I'm thankful for a week spent in the fog.
In continuing to think about how I use words to express my love for Jesus (see yesterday's post), my role on our church's pastor search committee and the body of Christ in general, Beth Moore's words in my study of James resonated and hit hard this morning.
Beth says, "God only know how many effective ministries have disintegrated into irrelevance over addiction to comparison. We talk as those who believe God is omnipotent and omnipresent, but we often act as if He can only work through one person, one method, or one kind of ministry at a time. If we don't refuse ourselves the indulgence, we can lapse into the mentality of a spoiled child who things that, if God shows you favor, he must hate me."
I told you in this post that I've been reading Les Miserables and soaking it in. Here's a little excerpt in my reading this morning:
"It is like their Sieyes! A regicide ending in a senator; for that is the way they always end. They give themselves a scar with the address of thou as citizens, in order to get themselves called, eventually, Monsieur le Comte. Monsieur le Comte as big as my arm, assassins of September the PhilospherSieyes? I will do myself the justice to say, that I have never had any better opinion of the philosophies of all those philosophers, than of the spectacles of the grimacer of Tivoli!"
Am I totally dense? Do ya'llunderstand that? If you say "yes", maybe you majored in French history in college. I'm in awe!
I consider myself a woman with a fairly well-rounded education, but there are huge chunks of Les Miserables that leave me completely lost. I have the big picture of French history, but the details are lacking. I don't know the terms. The unexplained vocabulary leaves me scratching my head and cross-eyed. I have a gap when it comes to the people, the history and the places.
I've decided that I love the main story-line enough that I'll wade and skim through the detailed descriptions of the battle of Waterloo, the geography of Paris and the philosophies embrace by Frenchmen in the 1800s. I'm going to stick it out.
But what if I wasn't that determined? What then?
Then I'd put the book down and go looking for something else to read. I'd look for another story.
I've been thinking about that in the terms of the way we Christians often communicate with the unchurched world around us--neighbors, co-workers, family members...
I'm a church girl through and through. I've been in church since I was in my mama's womb. I know the lingo, and I can hang with the best of my church peeps. I love the rich vocabulary of the Bible. Words like righteousness, justification, and holiness pump through my veins.
But I want to be very careful to really know how to express those rich terms in the verbiage of the world that I live in. Sometimes when I talk about God to new Christians or unchurched people, I probably come across like a complicated passage in Les Miserables. I don't ever want people to walk away and look for something else besides Jesus just because they can't wade through my "Christian-eze". I don't ever want to be so steeped in my own church culture that I refuse to speak differently simply because that language is what makes me look good to my church peeps.
I want people to stick with The Story, because there's redemption at the end.
Maybe you haven't noticed. It's ok if you haven't. I subscribe to several blogs, and I find myself catching up in "chunks". You may do the same thing and not have noticed that I haven't been writing my self-determined 3 times a week.
I've been dry and in the unusual place of not having much to say. Ha!
But I'm feeling revved up this morning, and it's all because of a new Bible study. For years I was involved in BSF which kept me in a structured Bible study mode. And then God gave me a break from structure which was actually important for me. As a rebel-rule follower, I sometimes mistake structure for true intimacy. God was using lack of structure to pour love and grace into me. He was forcing me to seek His face minus the external structure, and it was good.
But recently I've been missing the "digging in" that a guided Bible study provides, and God has provided just the right thing at just the right time.
My women's Life Group at church is starting Beth Moore's study of James. I couldn't be more thrilled! I haven't done one of Beth's studies in years, and her passion reignited mine this morning.
So my confession is that I've let my passion wane, but I also want to confess that I'm afraid. There's this huge part of me that wants to go all the way with this study and memorize the book of James. However, memorization is the big missing piece in my spiritual walk. Memorizing is very difficult for me, and I haven't invested the hard work required to do it. There's this yearning in me, though, to leap over the hurdle.
Here's the plea part of the post...Have any of you been memorizing James? Please, please share what works for you. I'd love to hear all your methods and hints!
Posts
