The Names We Ignore

Happy-New-Year-twelve-days-late-and-first-post-in-like-two-months

Winter break in a college town is not as sparkly and glamorous as one might think. It's actually rather dull and mundane and repetitive. Which isn't a horrible thing when one is able to sleep in until 11 every day. As a result of this boredom I've been doing some reading and stuff, and I figured the 2-7 people that read the things I randomly post would be thrilled to hear about it haha.

I've been hanging out in Romans this last week, and when I got to the end where Paul is listing all the people that he wants to give a shout out to, I was tempted to skip it, just like I'm tempted to skip every list of names in the Bible. I know, I know...but you do it too. Something about those lists just isn't appealing, unless you're trying to come up with the funniest possible name for someone's baby, then they're like a gold mine!

I digress.

I thought to myself, "Self, you are stuck here with nothing to do. You have no real reason not to read this list. Read the list." Yes, that is a summary of my basic thought pattern, except that I think it a lot faster. So I read the list. I don't know that every list is like this, but the list in Romans 16 is actually quite neat. Yes it's a bunch of names that I'll never be able to recite to you, but for every name Paul lists, he gives a reason, a characteristic of this person that made them worthy in his eyes. The following phrases are used:

"my fellow workers in Christ Jesus"

"who labored much for us"

"my beloved in the Lord"

"approved in Christ" (possibly my favorite)

"chosen in the Lord" (!!!)

I could be way off here, but if you only get one verse in the entire Bible, I think that's a pretty good way to go down. I know nothing else of Amplias, Tryphosa, or Patrobas, but that they loved and served the Lord in such a way that Paul gave them the shout out of a lifetime. Thousands of years later they are known only for the very best choice they made. We don't get anything about how they messed things up, their doubts, their insecurities, their weaknesses. They are known forever for the one important factor in their otherwise unknown lives.

Jesus Christ.

May we-and I-strive to be known for one thing only.

They followed Christ.

Are we good enough for each other?

(yay for the first post of 2012 finally making an appearance!)

Why can we never be good enough for one another?

We can't play the right sports, wear the right clothes, sit at the right table, live in the same dorm, have the right major, have the right job, etc.

I don't get it. I really don't. All I know is that the Lord called us to love one another, and stereotyping and discriminating are not ways to accomplish this. I am by no means saying that I'm great at loving other. I'm just really tired of having to constantly defend one friend to another. I understand that no everyone gets along. I just wish people would stop assuming that where someone lives, how they dress, or if they like videos games defines them.

I go to a Christian college. One would think that everyone here is friends with everyone. That we all love one another. That we are all seeking to grow together as a Body. But the more people I meet, and the more friends I make, the more I realize this isn't true. Christians have just as many cliques as everyone else. Maybe more. Why is it that we can't see past the surface, or even the rumored stereotypes, and love people for who they are? The Lord has created each and everyone of them-and us-as unique and valuable individuals. We weren't meant to be defined by our lunch tables, our jobs, or our dorms. We were meant to be defined by who we are in Christ, and we were meant to show that value and that love to the rest of the world. Why should anyone consider following Christ if those who already do are just as mean, catty, and rude as everyone else? Why aren't we different?

Jesus didn't hang out with the cool crowd. Jesus hung out with sinners, taxcollectors, orphans, and widows. The social rejects. So maybe it's time we stopped rejecting them and started befriending them and getting to know them. It's time we stopped forcing people to try and be good enough for us.


It's time to love.

I don't know what I'm doing

I have a confession to make.

I am not perfect. I do not have it all together. As a matter of fact, I don't have anything together.

I know, shocking, right?

At this point I'm pretty sure if anyone is actually reading this they are rolling their eyes. I have that effect on people. Just kidding. But seriously. Feel free to quit reading my ramblings at any moment. I'll never know, I promise.

*disclaimer* I am in no way saying not to talk to me. I am always available and willing to spend time with and invest in you. I just think that sometimes you're looking for answers in the wrong place.

A friend told someone the other day that I'm always in an awesome mood and never have any problems to talk about. Another friend told me I can have any guy I want on campus. People (sometimes) seem to think I'm awesome. I don't really know where they get this idea from. In my mind, I am the frazzled, tired, super busy girl who may or may not be wearing makeup/have done something with the hair/have matching socks. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even know where I'm going half the time (thank goodness my mind sends me to the right buildings out of habit!). There are plenty of days when I feel awesome, on top of things, and attractive. And then there are days when all I hope is that no one will talk to me, nothing will come up, and I can hide in 203 for hours. However, the Lord hasn't called me to be a hermit (big shocker, huh?). I thrive on people, and I want each and every one of you to know just how absolutely wonderful and worth it you are. I'm in a great mood most of the time because I'm surrounded by the awesome creations of the Lord, and it honestly blows my mind. Sometimes I feel like I have to hold it together for the sake of all those around me, and at the same time I feel like everyone can that that is all I am trying to do. I love you all dearly, believe me, but I cannot be what you think you need me to be. You all don't need me. I can't hold it together for you. If you look up to me, I promise you'll be disappointed. The Lord created you, and He loves you more than you can even begin to imagine. He is singing over you in the stars, in the wind, in the leaves changing colors. He wants to be the One you depend one, and He wants you to realize that you are valuable and adored. There is nothing more satisfying that coming to that awesome realization. I wish this for each and every one of you, which is why I try to convey my love for you continually, but again, I can't do it all, I can't be it all for you.

But I can always show you who can.

<3

Someone Worth Dying For

I don't really have anything to say, so check out the lyrics to the legit new song by Mike's Chair, and have a great day:)

You might be the wife, waiting up at night
You might be the man, struggling
to provide
Feeling like it's hopeless
Maybe you're the son who chose a
broken road
Maybe you're the girl thinking you'll end up alone
Praying
God can you hear me?
Oh God are you listening?

Am I more than flesh
and bone? Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah I wanna believe, I wanna
believe that
I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you
don't know
And I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone
worth dying for

I know you've heard the truth that God has set you free
But you think you're the one that grace could never reach
So you just
keep asking, oh what everybody's asking

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah I wanna believe, I wanna believe that
I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you don't know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth
dying for
You're worth it, you can't earn it
Yeah the cross has proven
that you're sacred and blameless
Your life has purpose

And you are
more than flesh and bone,
Can't you see you're something beautiful
Yes
you gotta believe, you gotta believe
He wants you to see, He wants you to
see
That you're not just some wandering soul
That can't be seen and
can't be known
Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe that you are
Someone worth dying for, oho
You're someone worth dying for, oho
You're someone worth dying for.

Serve in the small

There was a monk in the 17th century named Brother Lawrence. From the little I know of him, he was an amazing man who came to an awesome realization about serving the Lord.

"It is enough for me to but pick up a straw from the ground for the love of God."


He grasped a concept that many of us don't.

We don't have to do huge things in order to serve God.


So many times we (...I) feel like if we aren't somewhere in Africa, living in a hut, slaving away in the heat everyday, that we aren't really serving God. We can't possibly do anything that He would approve over. Thankfully, this is so incorrect. It doesn't take turning the world upside-down 24/7 in hyper mode to serve the Lord. We can do it each and everyday. Correction: we SHOULD. In all the small things. In washing the dishes. In driving to work. In scubbing floors or painting walls for a neighbor. In giving someone a hug.


Our God is a personal God, and He loves hearing you whistle as you work just as much as He loves hearing you sing in church on Sunday.

Serve and worship Him in the small things. Because there are WAY more small things in life than there are big. Work it.

Different. Important.

2 Corinthians 12: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And the are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all...But one and the same Spirit works all these things..."

Different people are good at different things. Raise your hand if you knew that already. We look at people and want what they have. People look at us (some of us, anyway...) and want what we have. No of us are ever satisfied. For example, I know how to draw trees, and I can't sing. Just which one of those sounds like the better deal to you? I would rather kill a cat than give a speech, but I have friends who think it's the most fun thing in the entire world. My entire family has the gift of sarcasm, but I know some people who think I'm the most awkward person ever because they can't understand it.

What's the deal?

Well, I hope it's obvious, but the world wouldn't work very well if everyone had the same talents. We were created different. We need to be different. Different isn't weird. Different is needed.

Do what you're good at, and let everyone else do what they're good at. Be the awesome, valuable person God created you to be. You're special, you're needed, you're important.

Own it!

Weakness, fear, and trembling

...that's how you want to be described, right? Riiiight...that sounds like a GREAT way to make friends and influence enemies.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Paul wrote Corinthians, right? He was like one of the super Christians of history, and yet he claimed these characteristics. He knew that anything he did that happened to work wasn't because of him. It was all God.

We don't have to be good enough. We CAN'T be good enough. We simply have to trust in, and lean on, the power of Christ and let Him do the impossbile stuff.

It's not up to us!

Thank goodness.

P.S. If the format is all messed up, it's not my fault. I don't know what the deal with blogger is. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Embarrassed much? Nope.

What is the problem with today’s culture?

We don’t know what to be embarrassed about.

Yes, that sounds odd, but think about it.

What embarrasses people in general today? Car, clothes,
house, kids, salary, hair, family, feelings?

What should embarrass us more than anything?

Sin.

Ezra 9 discusses the intermarriage with pagans that was
apparently popular. Ezra says, “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to
lift up my face to You, my God; for out iniquities have risen higher than our
heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.” (9:6 NKJV)

That, my friends, is a LOT of embarrassment.

And it wasn’t even his fault! As far as I can tell,
Ezra had no part in this. It was all the Israelites. And yet he was
embarrassed. He felt ashamed. Why? Because God’s people disobeyed God’s laws.

Today we are taught to turn our back to sin. Pretend it
isn’t there, and don’t even think about actually confronting someone about
their sin. Don’t bother with your own sin, either. It’d not a problem, doesn’t
need to be taken care of, right?

When did we lose our shame?

Sin is sin, and sin happens to be bad. Just FYI.

We
shouldn’t ignore sin, and we shouldn’t condone it.

We
should be embarrassed by it. And we should do what Israel was doing: confessing
and repenting.

Good
news!: “our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia to revive us…” (9:9)

You matter

"When the Creator of matter tells you you matter, THEN you have purpose!" -Brad Stine

(super funny Christian comedian. Check him out. No, seriously. Now.)

Today I was reading some book/pamphlet (Just what IS a pamphlet anyway? How does it vary from a brochure?) that the mom has on modesty, and something interesting stood out to me.

When Adam and Eve realized that they were naked, they made loinclothes out of fig leaves, which have the consistency of sand paper.

When God clothed them, he made tunics out of sheep skin, which does not have the consistency of sand paper.

Is this awesome to anyone else?

They had just disobeyed, deserted, and betrayed the Lord, and what does He do? He covers their shame and embarassment, and He does it in a way that blows their minds (Reading between the lines...).

They tried to make do with some dead leaves that only partially covered them. They tried to hide and run from the God who made and loved them, but nothing they did was successful.

Then God came along. He didn't zap them. He didn't yell. He called to them. And then he clothed them. He replaced their makeshift aprons with soft, covering tunics. They had just basically condemned the world, yet He was proving to them that He still loved them. He cared enough about them to take care of them even when they turned their backs on Him They still mattered.

So do we.

So do you.

We (I!) screw up. We ignore and forget about the Lord. We run away from Him on purpose. We give Him every reason in the world to cast us aside. But He doesn't.

He still loves us.

He takes us back.

Everytime.

And He replaces our homemade, scratchy solutions with His perfect soft ones.

You matter to the Creator of the universe. More than anything.

Habakkuk? Really?

In my mission team meetings we've been talking a lot about who we are, who we should be to the Lakota, and who we should be in Christ. Team Leader said that after the last trip he had a girl decide she wants to do teen suicide prevention. This girl is an English major. In the words of Team Leader, "English majors aren't supposed to do things like that! Redford majors are supposed to do things like that!" (Redford is the ministry majors here, FYI). Later he was talking about some things he was dealing with in his personal life and he said that God sent him a verse. In Habakkuk. Of all places. I think his mind was kind of blown, because he sounded incredulous. He said that he was headed for Romans, but God just cut him off and gave him something totally different. Which I think is totally cool.

The other day in small groups we were talking about how we tend to think that we don't need to give of our time and money NOW. We plan on it, just as soon as life slows down a little, or once (in our college student cases) we get jobs and steady paychecks.

I think both of these situations lead to an interesting place. So many times we think that someone need to do something, to change the world. Someone other than us. We can't do anything. We are ministry majors. We don't have high paying jobs and steady salaries. Someone else is going to have to do it for us. We'll stand on the side lines and cheer, we'll make a Facebook group/event to show our mediocre support, we may even casually mention it to a few friends. Just as long as we ourselves don't have to get in, get involved, and get messy.

Guess what? There are more non-ministry majors than there are ministry majors. Guess what else? The disciples were fishermen. Some of the prophets were farmers. Matthew worked for the IRS. Rahab was a prostitute. Every person God has ever used has been nothing but a human and a screw-up. Some of them were "ministry majors," and many of them weren't. Some of them were bigger than others.

Our majors, jobs, salaries (or lack thereof), familes, etc. should not determine our usefullness to God. It doesn't matter what stage of life you're in. You still have something to offer. You have something to give.

We expect great things out of people like Abraham and Paul.

Maybe it's time we started expecting great things out of people like Zephaniah and Habakkuk as well.

Maybe we should begin to expect it of ourselves.

Who am I?

Did I just referance a good-but-super-overplayed-several-year-old-song in the title? Well yes, but not on purpose. I don't know about you, but do you ever realize that a message/sermon/etc. is meant just for you? Probably, but do you then feel bad because God has to spend His time correcting you instead of helping all the other people that are much cooler and/or more messed up than you? I do. I'm terrible, I'll admit it. I feel horrible because I think "Man, I hope that I wasn't the only one needing to hear that, because if I am, then all of these other nice people just wasted a whole lot of their time just for me to learn a lesson..." You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Everything I've heard recently has been about identity. Church, chapel, hall Bible study, airplanes writing in the sky...ok, I made that last one up, but really. I feel bad that all these people have to spend all this time trying to teach me something I should already know. A few months ago I started to buy the lie that I have to prove myself to the world. I have to be good enough for everyone. I have to be good enough for God. Guess what? I can't! I know I wrote about this not too long ago, but it's an issue I'm still dealing with. I have friends that are prettier, more talented, and more athletic than I am. But that doesn't detract my value, especially in God's eyes. I just have to keep telling myself that. I don't even think that's proper grammar. I shouldn't be concerned about anyone's opinion of me but God's. And His opinion is filtered through the blood of Jesus. So who am I? I'm covered. And you can be, too.