Sacred Mundane: The Blog

I don’t even know where to start; God is SO amazing.  Of course this story doesn’t start with me, it starts with God, but how fun is it when He decides to write us into His story in just a tiny little way!  As you know, God has been rocking my world through several things–mostly through reading The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns the president of World Vision (now available on paperback here). And also, in a related way, through a couple documentaries which revolutionized the way I see food production, genetic engineering, and its impact on developing countries. It’s amazing how everything is related. Now, I certainly do not claim to be an expert on poverty, food production, or on anything for that matter other than my own selfishness–I’m pretty much the expert on that.  But I feel like God has opened my eyes to a world of hurt and need and pain and sorrow that, I am ashamed to admit, I simply did not see.

Tonight at church we watched a video, and in the background Brooke Fraser’s song about Rwanda, “Now that I have seen, I am responsible.”  And here is the cool thing about God–He only reveals to us what we can handle, and He only calls us to what we’re capable of doing.  He doesn’t ask us to give what we don’t have, just what we have. He doesn’t call us to change the world, He just calls us to obey when we hear His voice.  Just to obey when we hear His voice.

So we heard His voice.

All week, for whatever reason, Jeff and I just felt discouraged.  The kids were both sick, Jeff was swamped with work to do, I had a 3-day migraine that just wouldn’t leave me alone–it was just one of those weeks. Friday came and it rained, so Jeff and Dutch spent the afternoon playing trains, and I ignored the dirty house and curled up with The Hole in our Gospel. Well, thankfully I have a wonderful husband who took the initiative to bathe our children and put them to bed, because I didn’t put it down until 8pm that night when I read the final page.  Jeff came into our room. “Have you been crying?” He asked.  “Of course I have,” I responded.  I held up the book, closed my eyes and shook my head.  Of course I had been crying.  How can we read the horrors of poverty, disease, exploitation, and not weep? I know you all have been there. When the reality of the sorrow in this world is revealed, for what it really is, all we can do sometimes is grieve.

“What are we doing?”

I took some time to pray and think and Jeff went ahead (he wasn’t quite finished with the book), and read some more.  Then we met back up to talk about what we would do. Now that we have seen we are responsible.

Here’s what shook me. Really shook me.   I’ve always thought of myself as a faithful giver.  I mean, I’ve been tithing since I was old enough to hold a quarter in my hand (thanks to my parents who put the quarter there!).  We do sponsor children, we do support missionaries, we do make special gifts for different causes.  But what Richard Stearns points out from Scripture, from David’s example and the widow’s two mites, is that it doesn’t matter how much we give, what matters is what it costs.  What matters is our faith.

Our current giving costs us nothing.  The bottom line is our current giving does not require us to live by faith. Now, please hear me that God calls all of us to different things.  This is why we CANNOT COMPARE our giving with someone else’s. All we can do is look at ourselves and ask, Does my current giving cost me anything? Does my current giving require me to life by faith? And, it’s worth noting, that this is true of all giving–our time, our talents, and our treasure.  It’s so much bigger than money, but where our treasure is there our heart will be too.

So here I am, sitting in bed, praying, thinking of our budget and our life and I just don’t know what to do.  I’ve laid everything out before the Lord and basically said, “Take it, whatever you want, show us what needs to go. We’ll move to Zambia, we’ll sell our house, we’ll sell a car.  Just show us your will.”  And very clearly I know that we are right where God wants us to be.  We know He’s called us to West Linn.    We know He’s called us to Willamette Christian Church.  We know He’s called us even to our specific house in our specific neighborhood, in the middle of this specific community.  We clearly felt that to leave any portion of that was outside His will. We even clearly sensed to keep our cars and the belongings that we have–as all of it is used for the work that God wants us to do here.  Ok, so, we’re talking and I just keep saying how hard it is to live within this specific culture that God has called us to, without it costing so much that there’s nothing left to give!  We can’t just not have utilities and not buy car insurance–that’s just life in the United States!  And I kept thinking what’s the biggest expense/priority in our life.  By a landslide it’s our house.  In comparison to the rest of our spending, we spend a large portion on our house. More than any other single item.  In fact, it’s 41% of our take home pay (30% of our gross income).  So we’re sitting there and in a moment of silence Jeff says, “What if we determined to give away the same amount we spend on our home? You know, if giving was, even by a penny, the single largest portion of our income.” For a moment I felt like everything stood still.  Then I laughed, “Yeah, that would cost us! That would require faith.  We’d basically be living on less than 18% of a single income.” I calculated the number and laughed some more. It was impossible.  Then shrugged my shoulders, “Well we can work toward it. That really would be cool.”   Jeff rolled over and went to sleep.

Of course I could not sleep. Of course I couldn’t get Jeff’s words out of my head.  Of course I could not get Scripture out of my head, images of children out of my head, stories of people who had given up everything they owned to help people in the name of Christ–of course none of that would get out of my head! I flipped on the light and started writing numbers.  To my amazement I realized that if we only spent on life’s absolute essentials–food, gas (significantly limited amount), insurance, utilities (with some conservation), prescriptions and co-pays, and Jeff’s monthly haircut (please do not laugh, this is a necessity if you know how hard it is to cut his hair), then, to my astonishment, it actually was possible.  It would require some cost, and some faith, but I got that unmistakable feeling when you know God is up to something that will change your life.  Then, I crunched a few numbers to see what we could actually do with that money. If we continued to give the exact same amount to our church, without taking a dime away from the work God’s doing there, we’d be able to (are you ready?), sponsor THIRTY-FIVE children. THIRTY FIVE!!!  Through some programs, that’s two whole orphanages!  I about fell out of bed.  Now I don’t know for sure if that’s how God’s leading us, but that helped me to understand the amazing potential!  That is so exciting to me!  Seeing faces–real individual lives made in the image of God, helped me get this all in perspective.

So, then I wrote out a list of the things that didn’t make the cut–savings, house repairs, vacations, retirement, car repairs.  Obviously these things are truly wise and we would consider necessary expenditures.  However, this is so cool.  IF we gave in this way, and because of tax laws for clergy’s housing expenses, we would literally, at the end of the year have ZERO taxable income.  That means that, Lord willing, we would get a sizable tax refund. We could simply commit to tucking that  away for retirement and use for the year’s house repairs, car repairs, emergencies, etc.  Thankfully we already have a Dave Ramsey-inspired emergency savings account, so it’s not as if we were being foolish, failing to have a back-up plan in case of emergency. I don’t believe that’s faith as much as poor planning.

But here is where the story gets fun because it gets personal. We have such a personal God!  Three items I wrote down with question marks were–kids clothes (I certainly don’t need clothes but my kids actually grow out of theirs), toys (yes, I still want my children to have fun things to play with!), and learning/homeschooling materials/books for the kids.  Bottom line? God loves our children more than we do, right?  Well…

So today we talk about this plan, and though we’re 99% sure we want to do it, we commit to pray about it.  We’d start on the 15th, so we have a few weeks to really pray and find out for sure God’s will in this.  So today there’s a clean-up day scheduled and church so Jeff goes to that.  Just as he’s leaving, some people pull in from church and say, “Hey! We have something for you.” They hand him a big bin FULL of kids toy Geotrax (train set), and another FULL of hot wheels cars, trucks, race ramps.  Jeff and I are just laughing, “Um…there’s Christmas!”  Guess I don’t have to worry about toys for my kids.  God knows their favorite kind. Then, I got to church tonight, and as I’m leaving a friend says, “Hey, can you wait? I have something for you.” So I follow her out to the car and she hands me 2 HUGE boxes full of hand-me-down girl clothes from her daughter who is a year older than Heidi.  We’re talking a ton of clothes. So much that I had to call a friend and ask if she wanted to take half because there’s more than I can use.  Guess I don’t have to worry about clothes for my kids. 🙂  Then, this girl hands me a brand new set of books, shrink wrapped, and she says that they are the reading curriculum that her son uses at his Montessori school.  She knew I was “homeschooling” for preschool and bought me a set for Dutch.  WHAT?!!  Um, I guess I don’t have to worry about books and educational materials for my kids. God knows the best kind out there.

So that was tonight.  I am now sitting in bed, overwhelmed at God’s goodness.  Tonight at church Joel preached the good news of the Gospel:

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Phil 2:1-10)

God. Has. Been. So. Good.  God’s grace is astounding. We who were dead in our transgressions He has made alive. He has saved us by grace, and that not of ourselves.  We have done nothing to do deserve His kindness, but He lavishes it on us be His kindness.  And He we are His, created for good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. That is the good news! We are loved beyond comprehension. And God has marvelous things in store for us.

I do not know all that God has in store, and I don’t share this story to claim to have the answers on giving or to say that anyone else needs to do the same, etc. etc. I am simply sharing one God story, of a gracious God and how He’s leading us right now.  I know that your lives are full of the adventures of following a missional God who is out to share the world His power and glory.  And, if this is all new to you, I invite you to embrace the truth of God’s grace, His finished work on the cross. We can add nothing to it. It is done. Now we simply can slip our hand in His and ask Him what He wants us to do.  I don’t know exactly what that will be, but we’ll do our best, by grace, to obey.

(From WCC Women’s Fall Bible Study)

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James 1:1-18: Personal Faith Challenge (PFC)

Trials:  James 1:1-4. We know we’re in for a challenging epistle when the very first sentence of the letter is this: Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds.

I’ll tell you, no matter how many times I’ve read these words I still find that this is never my automatic response to trials.  I know this verse, I can quote this verse, but the minute I’m slighted, or I hear bad news or all my plans are frustrated, I do not automatically think, Oh! God’s special favor is upon me!

And we’re going to camp here for a bit because I actually believe that getting this is the key to everything else.  How we respond to the difficulties in life is what divides our world into two.  People either get bitter or better, right? That’s why you can have two people who are abused as children—one goes on to become an advocate or counselor or social worker and changes lives for good. One sinks into themselves and ends up perpetuating a life of abuse or violence.  The difference? One’s response to trials. Have you ever know two people who go through virtually the same trial? One becomes stronger, reaches out to others more.  The other wallows in self-pity, is bitter, and becomes rendered useless for God’s kingdom.  So, please tell me how do we rejoice in trials?

First, to clear up the misconception that we are religious masochists, remember: Our response to trials.

1. 1. P: We rejoice in the process and the product, not the pain.

We do not rejoice in the pain.  When I go running, it is painful to some extent.  My legs burn.  But I keep running, and gladly and voluntarily running, because I know the process and the product.  The process is the tearing down of muscle tissue, and the rebuilding of new, stronger muscle tissue, so I rejoice in this process even though it involves pain.  I especially rejoice in the product, or results. The results are a healthy body, better endurance, more energy, and being able to eat dessert.  Now when we practice this process enough, we can actually find ourselves in some sense enjoying the pain of a long run because we’ve trained our minds to so connect the pain with the process and the product, that we no longer even think of the pain in a negative light.  I can’t say that I’m completely there yet, but I’m much closer than I once was!  But professional, Olympic, real athletes know this, don’t they? And I would say that they likely do not associate the pain of a good workout with negative feelings or suffering.

We looked at 1 Peter 4:12 in our homework… “Do not be surprised when you face trials…”

Now, can you imagine this. I go for a run, and I get home to Jeff and burst into tears and say, “I’m so depressed. You wouldn’t believe what happened to me out there!  I was running up this long hill and, I couldn’t believe it, my quads started burning.  Like, the hurt!  And my heart was racing and I felt short of breath and my face was flushed!  And it lasted all the way up the hill, and it was  long hill. And I can’t believe it.   I’m never doing that again.”  Of course that’s ridiculous, right? We expect those types of symptoms because we’re running up a hill. We’re training.

BUT, if I were sitting on the couch, resting, and i had those same symptoms–pain in legs, shortness of breath, racing heart. Then I’d have cause for concern, right?!  Of course! The reason that we are often so surprised by trials, by pain, is that we forget that we are running a race. We forget we’re running up a hill by faith. We forget that we are training. When we say yes to Jesus, we are put in a race whether we like it or not. As long as we are on this earth we are training. We must remember that. We’re not sitting on the couch.

But in the middle of the hill there is pain, right? Remember:

We rejoice in the process and the product, not the pain.

:: What is the process? You studied this in your homework, right?  Romans 5:3-4 spells it out for us, in almost a formulaic manner.  SufferingàEnduranceàCharacteràHope  (Like an oyster making a pearl)

::What is the product? The product, then, would be hope.  1 Peter 1:7 also told us the product is the proving our faith, which results in praise, glory, and honor. That sounds really neat, but those are pretty abstract words.  I don’t know about you but when I’m in the middle of a tangible trial, I often need a real tangible goal.

Glory: 2 Corinthians 4:17 (KJV) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  It works for us. It produces glory.

Good: Romans 8:28  In all things God works for the good of those who love Him. When we are in Christ, all things work for good. Suffering works for good. Pleasures can work for good. All things work for good.  All things are Father-Filtered.  So what is the “good” that is worked? V. 29 tells us “to be conformed to the image of His Son.”  The good that is worked is our patience, our endurance, our perseverance—this leads to godly character, wisdom, steadfastness, integrity, strength.  And this leads to hope.

So how do we endure?  How do we rejoice when the pain is real?  The same way Jesus did. The second key is to

1. 2. F: Focus on the Future.

In Hebrews 12: 1-2 we’re exhorted to run with endurance in this life of faith, verse 2 “Looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  What does Jesus show us here?

:: Jesus didn’t enjoy the cross.  He endured the cross.  He despised the shame. We endure the pain of suffering because we know the end result. We don’t have to enjoy the pain. We can still despise the humiliation, the hurt, the betrayal, the loss, the grieving.  Those are, indeed, bad things.  Things God will someday eradicate. We can endure the pain and despise the loss, but still rejoice because…

:: Jesus looked to the joy before Him. It was the joy that enabled Christ to endure. He knew He would be seated with the Father. He knew He would accomplish our salvation.  He had his eyes fixed on the future.  The good that would be accomplished.  This is what we must understand about Christianity. Our faith is founded on the reality that good is accomplished through suffering.  That is our faith.  We would not be here if were not for One person being willing to suffer for our good.  Without suffering there is no Christianity.  Without this key concept it is pointless for us to be here. If we really believe this, it will change the way we live. If we don’t believe it, then we cannot call ourselves Christians—or literally “little Christs”.  If we are Christians, then we must be little representations of what He did. Thus, if He suffered and died on a cross so that others might benefit, we must choose to, for the joy set before us, endure our little tiny crosses that we are called to endure each and every day of our lives.

Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

:: Trials/Suffering/Discipline is painful. Again, you don’t have to rejoice in the pain. Pain is the result of a fall. The two curses of the fall: To the woman pain in childbearing/rearing, to the man pain in work.  Pain is part of the curse.  Pain itself is not good. So we are not to rejoice in the pain but in the future result of pain, which is the yielding of fruit of righteousness.

:: Training is not a one-time thing. If you’ve ever trained for something, answer this.  Do you do one workout and call it quits? By very nature, to train means to do something over and over and over and over and over.  When we train our children, we don’t just tell them one thing and be done with it. We must be trained by trials.  Just as 1 Peter 4:12 tells us not to be surprised by trials, don’t be surprised when they continue!  It’s not a one-time event. Trials will come again and again and again because we are to produce fruit that comes by means of being trained by trials.

We never know what good God might be working in any given situation.  The story of Paul the apostle in Philippi is also such a clear example to us.  He and Silas were seized (for preaching the gospel and setting people free from evil spirits). Acts 16:22-24 Read.  Then, v. 25-35. Talk about accomplishing something! The salvation of a whole household!

Finally, Hebrews 10:32-36 paints a picture of what this might look like in us: (esp. v. 34)

What if that were us?  We have need of endurance/patience/perseverance. We all have need of it. It’s interesting that while we’re suffering, we need patience, and it is suffering that produces patience. Sort of like when you’re in a scary situation, you need adrenaline in order to overcome the situation and it is the scary situation which produces the adrenalin.  In other words, God uses the suffering to produce the very patience that we need in order to endure the suffering and enjoy what it produces at the end.

If we skip down to verses 12-15 we see a bit more on this topic.  V. 12: Again, we read that we are blessed when we remain steadfast in a trial.  And another reward is promised, a crown of life. That is God’s promise. I don’t know exactly what a crown of life is, but it must be amazing! If everything in this life is simply a shadow of things to come, then the most amazing extravagant luxuries we imagine are nothing compared to what God has in store for those of us who love Him.

But here’s another key in the midst of trials. We are to rejoice not in the pain, but in the process and product, we are to Focus on the Future, and we are to

V. 13-15

1. 3. Concede Culpability. Admit where you are to blame.  We’ve talked before that some suffering is caused by external trials, natural effects of a fallen world, etc. But often, probably more often than we care to admit, our suffering is a direct or indirect results of our own choices.  The concept of culpability is intimately tied up with notions of agency, freedom and free will. We have been given the gift of freedom, which brings with it the freedom to be responsible for our choices.

So, James is saying, don’t blame God. God has no evil in him, so He cannot tempt with evil.  We are tempted through a process which is most clearly illustrated in the garden of Eden.  We don’t have time for a complete study of it today, but I have teaching notes on Genesis 3 online if you are ever interested.  Essentially Eve demonstrates the progression of temptation and sin.  In short, we all follow this progression. DiscontentàDoubtàDesireàDeath.  Beware if you see one of those in your life. The good news is that when God shows us where we are guilty, when we feel that conviction, we simple confess our sins, because He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse of of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  Repent and move forward! Amazing grace!

We’ll close by looking briefly back at verses 5-8.  We’re going to leave verses 9-11 for now, because we’re going to do a more in-depth look at wealth and poverty in a few weeks.  For now, let’s look at 5-8 and we’ll see our first glimpse of one of James’ main themes.  We’ll see it pop up again throughout the entire book, so I’ll just briefly look at it as we close—the Danger of Dipsychos. (Don’t be Dipscycho)

James 1:5-8. When we are in trials, we do need wisdom. Lord, what kind of treatment do you want me to pursue. What steps should I take when I’m out of work? Lord, what on earth do you want me to do about this wayward child?  It is when we are suffering that we need wisdom.  The good news is that God promises to give it, 1)liberally—all that we need! 2)without reproach (he doesn’t say, well you made your bed now lie in it).  Even when we are the ones who got ourselves into the mess, He still gives us wisdom for how to get out!  Amazing grace!!

But, there is a condition. It’s possible to ask and not receive because something is amiss.  We are to ask without doubting Him. Without doubting His faithfulness, without doubting His goodness, without doubting His love.  Paying lipservice without any intention of doing what He says to do.

Luke 6:46 says “”Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

We tend to think of doubting more as not sure whether something is a fact or not, but here doubting is not so much intellectual doubt as a basic conflict in loyalties.  In other words, if we ask for wisdom, but are still going to go off and do what the latest secular talk-show host says to do, we are double-minded.  This world in the Greek is literally “double-souled” or dipsychos. When our allegiance is divided between the world and the Lord, we are fractured beings with fragmented lives: we are double-souled.  And, as a result—we are unstable. Anyone ever feel unstable? Am I the only one?

It is the natural result of being double-souled, of having a conflict in loyalties.  When we have not firmly and resolutely decided that Jesus Christ is the One and Only Lord of our lives, that what He says goes, that His plan is the plan, that His will for my life is best, when that is not fixed, we will find ourselves double-minded, and the result will always be that we are unstable. The Psalmist prayed, “Unite my heart to fear your name” Ps. 86:11

When we ask God for wisdom, we’re simply asking Him to tell us what to do.

If we want God to tell us what to do, we must be prepared to do what He says.

If we study God’s Word, we must be prepared to do what it says.  When we are single-souled, we are whole.  We live in wholeness. We are no longer fragmented. We are no longer unstable.  We are complete, at peace, steadfast, able to stand firmly in the winds of adversity.  We are confident in God’s giving of wisdom, we are at rest knowing all things will work for my good and God’s glory.  We rejoice not in the pain but in the process and the product.  We fix our focus on the future, knowing our trials are working for us. We concede culpability where we need to.  We repent if need be and rejoice in knowing that when we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Lord, show us how to rejoice in the process and the product. Show us how to endure the pain.  Help us to keep our eyes fixed on the future glory you are working for us. Reveal where we are guilty, Father, and help us to repent and turn from our sin.  Make us whole.  We confess Lord we believe, help our unbelief.  Unite our hearts to fear your name.  In Jesus name.