Sacred Mundane: The Blog

Sorry I’m late … yesterday got away from me and I realized this morning I never posted the LiveDifferent Challenge (6). This idea has been creeping around my mind, but I was never sure how to nail it down until this morning. It originated from my sister-in-(love) Nikki, who committed to a Mental Detox fast for one week, where she shut off her laptop, cell phone, and TV (they don’t have one, but that was part of deal), and lived “unplugged” for one week. I thought it was really cool, but couldn’t do the same seeing that I use my laptop for all of my schoolwork (and finals are this week so that would have meant flunking out of seminary 🙂 But I was really challenged by this and she recently posted her “after thoughts” on their blog (CLICK TO READ HERE).

The thing that personally challenged me the most was the realization this week that email is truly the lowest form of communication. And you have no idea how tragic this is to me! As a writer, I LOVE email. I can email/write my thoughts WAY easier than I can articulate them on the phone or in person. I have “penpals” who I keep in contact with regularly through email. But I’ve also experienced firsthand how miscommunications can happen so easily. We know that more than 90% of communication is through non-verbal cues…so when those aren’t there, how easy it is to “imagine” our own non-verbals and messages can be misconstrued. Just yesterday I was communicating with a person about some business and I got back the response and thought, “Oh my goodness! That is the rudest thing!” I responded kindly and never heard back, but it made me feel all yucky inside. Perhaps if we had communicated on the phone some of that yuckiness could have been avoided. This is a challenge to me …

But what I’m considering this week is how great things can truly be acccomplished when we lay aside the “stuff.” Jeff told me how Mark Driscoll (a pastor we both admire) “unplugs” one day a week in order to work on his book (laptop stays on but wireless is turned off). Just as Nikki wrote in her reflection–play times with kids, rocking to sleep, picnics outside, baking cookies, reading good literature, reading the paper, talking with one’s spouse, dreaming for the future, reading the Word. So much good can be done if we streamlined our lives a little, if we “unplugged” just long enough to remember we live in a beautiful reality that is greater than any cyberworld created by man.

What is it you want to do? I want to write a book (2 actually). So my challenge to you and to myself is to take one day this week (and every week if you’re up for it) and unplug. Turn off your cell, disable your wireless (or close your laptop entirely) and work on something worthwhile–whether a relationship with another person or with God, whether reading something valuable, taking time to enjoy the beauty around you, or just spending time with God in prayer. Embrace this world, the beautiful world or nature and creatures that God put around us. Cyberspace cannot hold a candle to the sensory paradise around us. And decide, what do I really want to do? What do I want to do that I’d have time for if I streamlined my life a little…? Take the plunge, and unplug…just for a day.

After speaking the first time at the women’s retreat, there was an extended time of worship and prayer from 9:30pm-11pm for anyone who wanted to stay and linger in the presence of the Lord.  Not wanting to be in the center of things, I got up from the front row and moved my bag and myself near the back and sat down in an empty seat.  A moment later a woman came back from somewhere and started to sit next to me.  “Oh, did I take your seat?” I asked.  “No, but this is the perfect because I have a word from God for you, and I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”  I nodded slowly, a little skeptical, “test all things” quietly running through my mind.  She shared a vision she’d had, and immediately I knew it was God.  My eyes filled with tears as she finished by saying, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”  I knew that verse.  Proverbs 13:12.   I hugged her, sincerely grateful that she’d been obedient to the Lord.  At the time I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but now I do.

I do feel a little sick in my heart.  I feel like Jeff and I have been waiting for almost 4 years for God to let us “back in the ballgame” of full time ministry, to walk in the calling that we know He has for us.  Yes, these years have been great. Yes, I am grateful.  Yes, I am content to serve in whatever capacity, even if it’s not in “ministry.”  But at the same time, I would be lying if I said that we’re satisfied with where we are.  And today, there is no other way to describe it other than that “hope deferred makes a heart sick.”  I’m tempted to wallow, I’m tempted to whine (and I may, but not here!), but all I can do in good conscience is be honest before God, myself, and you, and say that I’m weary of waiting.  I’m weary of wondering where we’re going to live and how on earth we’re going to pay the bills.  We finish classes in less than a week and after that it’s sort of a black hole of unknowns.  So today, my heart’s a little sick. 

It’s not the end of the world–just a little heart-sickness. This too shall pass.  And I can say in confidence, that when our longing is fulfilled, it will be a tree of life.  Anything precious in my life has been worth the wait.  So by faith I’m asking God to help my sick heart, when hope is deferred, and to help me to trust Him for good things in store, whatever they may be. 

Jeff sent me this exerpt from John Piper’s blog entitled “When God will not use Bigness”.  It struck me …

“There are saving works that God will only do through small churches and ordinary people, not through large churches and more sophisticated people.

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” (Judges 7:2)

Beware of missing your appointed fruit by envying bigger trees.”

(Copied from www.desiringgod.org)  

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I’ve been thinking about this.  This last weekend, as you know, I had the honor to speak at a women’s retreat.  I could write a whole book on all that God did there, but suffice it to say that I was floored, absolutely floored at God’s faithfulness.  He truly met His women.  And I can unashamedly proclaim that God moved mightily at this retreat, and I can say that because I am so incredibly confident that not only is it not about me, nor is the work attributed to me, but God chose me, a small and ordinary person to fill in the tiny piece. I was just one little piece, but I was a piece, and for His glory I got to share and speak and teach and be a little mouthpiece.  At the end of the retreat, different women came and shared how God ministered to them.  One woman came, and I actually knew her from years back in Corvallis.  She cried as she shared, explaining that at the last women’s retreat she went to the speaker was like a celebrity, totally untouchable, and that she left the retreat just feeling totally worthless, like the speaker was in a whole different category and it made this girl feel horrible.  So she was amazed to see that this retreat speaker was just a girl, just a woman her age, who she knew, who had a real past, a real life, real faults (she was gracious enough not to say that part, but that’s the truth).  Basically, God needed to use a small and ordinary person to reach some of these women. And I’m so grateful I could be that small and ordinary person.  THank you, Lord.

Secondly, Jeff and I have been praying about where we belong, in terms of ministry.  We were praying about two opportunities (neither of which were guaranteed to us, but were possibilities). One was a huge, metropolitan church that has awesome ministry opportunities, and to be truthful, hefty salaries.  (just being honest here).  The other was our home church, in our little small town, with a bunch of pretty ordinary people, with a 1/2 time salary.  I can honestly say that it wasn’t the “glamour” of the big church that drew us, we were really and truly just trying to discern God’s will and be faithful.  And, we were really wondering if perhaps God wanted us in a “bigger” church so that we’d have increased opportunities.  We basically just want all that God has for us, whatever that might be.  So this week, as we prayed, this blog by John Piper came through Jeff’s GoogleReader.  He almost fell off his chair. He didn’t share it with me until the end of the weekend, because he didn’t want to sway my thinking.  But after the weekend, after thinking about small and ordinary people, he shared this blog and my jaw dropped. Yes.  That was it.  How like God to reverse our expectations, as with Gideon and show how some great things can only be done through un-great people.  Lord, we pray that You would accomplish great things through your un-great people, through small and ordinary people like Jeff and me, through small and ordinary churches, through small and ordinary means so that You might receive all the glory.  Let it be. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

This week many people celebrated Earth Day. I’m sad to say that this year our hectic schedule kept us from really thinking twice about its observance but last year we had SO much fun celebrating. We invited 2 couples over for dinner who lived in nearby neighborhoods. We sent invitations printed on torn off pieces of brown grocery bags (recycled ones!) that read “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it; the world and allw who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). The rule was that they had to walk to our house, and had to pick up any trash from along the side of the road and bring it with them (these were super fun friends and were into the idea as well!). We ate and drank the earth’s bounty–12-grain homemade bread, fresh local fruit, a green salad with organic dressing, and a vegetarian soup with quinoa and kale. Dessert was fresh strawberries followed by green tea. Yum! It was my dream meal. Afterwards, us girls sat in the sun with the babies, and the boys planted a tree, an apple tree, in our backyard while we cheered them on. It was really a grand time. I wanted to make it an annual party, but considering where we live this year, we don’t have ANY friends who could walk to our house ;-). So perhaps next year.

But all that to say that even us crazy conservative Christians are finally starting to understand that it is godly stewardship to take care of the beautiful Earth that GOD created and gave us dominion over. He’s entrusted this precious creation to us, and what have we done? We’ve either worshipped it or trashed it. Neither is our right response.

I’ve been conscious this week that I don’t want these LiveDifferent Challenges to begin to bog you down. “Another thing” is all you need. I DO want us to be challenged to live a wartime lifestyle–and yes, I’m not buying gun nor clothes and giving to the poor and sharing food with Jesse, etc. etc. and I’m loving it! These little steps are helping me a teeny tiny bit less consumed with myself and more consumed with Christ and His people. But this week I thought we’d just take a week to thank God for His beautiful creation. I was so blessed to spend the weekend up at Menucha, in the Columbia River Gorge. What beauty! It was breathtaking. My bed was in a little nook that cropped out of the wall and overlooked the river–amazing! And taking 3 days to just savor and soak up such beauty was nourishing to my spirit. The camp is owned by a church and in every bathroom there was a little prayer (which I’m kicking myself for not copying down) but the gist of it was this: “Thank you, Creator God, Heavenly Father, for your gift of water that nourishes us, cleanses us, and gives us life. Help us to be good stewards of this gift.” So our simple challenge this week is to enjoy and preserve this gift of earth. Start by enjoying it. Go for a walk, thank God for His creation. Worship Him in the midst of His creation. And secondly, evaluate your lifestyle and see if there is any small way that you can better steward the natural resources around you. Plant a tree. Take shorter showers. Fix leaky faucets. Walk instead of drive. Skip the trip to the store and make do with what you have. For more ideas on ways to Go Green for God, click here. Regardless of one’s political views, it is always right to be good stewards of all that God has given us, which includes the earth.

So have fun with this! Notice the water you drink. If the sun actually comes out this week, wrestle with your kids in the grass. Eat some fruits and vegetables–better yet, plant a garden! Enjoy God’s creation and worship Him for all He has done. Pick up that trash on the side of the road. Go Green … for God.