You Gotta Serve Somebody

"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.  You don't have to have a college degree to serve.  You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love."
 -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Recently I was reading a post by Kelly Mine on her blog The Accidental Homeschooler, it was titled Simple Discipline--I Said Simple, Not Easy.  You can read it here.  I really appreciated what she had to say.

Teaching our kids to obey us is a day in and day out exercise at our house.  I must say "Obey mama" 100 times a day.  I must also say "Are you showing love?", "Are you being kind?", "Please share", another 300 times a day.   Discipline is exhausting.  Nevertheless, I am called to serve, and as tired as I get at times I'm in this thing for several more years.  

Serve, is a word that we have been using a lot more in our house recently.  I have been asking Ever Joy if she could please help serve her brother and sister, and then model ways for her to do so.  We have also been memorizing Philippians 2:3-5 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus"  and talking about what this verse means for our family.

 I can't sit here and say that I have seen overnight progress, but that isn't the point.  I'm still exhausted by the time I get them in bed, and I still start my day thanking the Lord that His mercy's are new.  My prayer for my children is that they know their Savior and learn to walk in His ways, my prayer for myself is that He will help me serve and love these kids in His strength. 

When you have time checkout Kelly's post, I'm sure you will be as encouraged as I was.

Bloodlines

I haven't read John Piper's book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross and the Christian, but after watching his testimony it is on my book list.

"There was a time when the church was very powerful -- in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society... If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century." 

This is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr written in 1963.  I found it while reading the first few pages of John Piper's book.  I think the quote is as much needed now as when it was written.

Lead Me

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide
All the way my Savior leads me
And cheers each winding path I tread
And gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with the living bread

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love
O the sureness of His promise
In the triumph of His blood
When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

Words by: Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Fanny Jane Crosby, and Robert S. Lowry

Ephesians 4:32-5:2

"All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning." - Oswald Chambers

“The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift, and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving. That’s what God did. At the loss of His Son’s life to the totally undeserving, God gave the best gift – the display of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”  -John Piper

one thousand gifts

Today I would like to share my thoughts on a book I am reading. I'm not going to suggest that you read the book because if you are like me you have a bookshelf full of books you want to read. And maybe you are a lot like me and just finding time to read your Bible is plenty.
The book is called one thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp

Have you heard of it?

Well, so far I've read the first two chapters. My thoughts so far...It's gonna be good. I needed tissues to get me through the first chapter, and chapter two has given me a lot to think about. I'm not going to use my blog to give a synopsis or anything, but I do want to use it to keep track of my list so for today.

1. I can breath through my nose.

2. stillness of naptime

3. clear blue sky in February

Old Story. New Light.

The Soft X by Jonathan Acuff

I cried in the Chicago Airport.

And these were not tough guy, lumberjack, I just punched a mountain lion in the face with my bare fist kind of tears. These were sad and tired and give up tears.

I was flying home from a conference in Chicago. I had been the closing keynote speaker and it had gone really well. That’s not what I was crying about though. I was crying because of what I knew would happen when I landed.

I knew I would take the train to my car, grab work clothes, change in the handicapped stall and then disappear into a sea of cubicles. I didn’t hate my job, not at all, it just wasn’t what I felt called to do. The Stuff Christians Book wasn’t out yet, but the site was doing well. I had this completely different life starting to develop and it was hard to go back to work and act like Chicago had all been just a dream.

This was long before the opportunity at Dave Ramsey. This was a doldrums period where I was just writing and writing and writing, but things weren’t happening the way I thought they would.

I sat in meetings about TPS reports and budgets and would get frustrated with God, wondering if he even saw me. Wasn’t he the one who put this burning in my heart? Wasn’t it his call that I was answering? This wasn’t how life was supposed to go.

Have you ever felt that way?

Has there ever been a situation where you had an expectation that you felt like God simply wasn’t meeting? I think most of us have experienced that.

Right now, someone reading this blog is mourning a marriage that fell apart. You wanted to be the first in your family to have a grandkid for your parents, not the first to get divorced.

Right now, someone is in a gray cubicle and the degree they got, the passion they followed in college is a million miles away from how they spend 40+ hours every week.

Right now, there’s someone struggling with an issue that refuses to release it’s talons even though you’re occasionally able to shake it for a few “good weeks.”

Right now, someone had to send out wedding cancellation notes, because it’s off.

Right now, there’s a man who feels a lot less than a man because he doesn’t have a job and can’t provide for his family.

Right now there are a million different versions of “Don’t you see me God?” happening. And so we doubt and get angry and lonely. But we are not the only ones with expectations that go astray.

In Genesis 48, the same thing happens to Joseph, of the double rainbow coat fame. He has brought his two sons to his father Israel for his blessing. We don’t understand this culturally because we don’t really do this anymore, but this was a critical, massive thing that was about to take place. Manasseh was about to receive Israel’s blessing. That was what should happen. That was what Joseph expected.

Joseph the faithful. Joseph the former slave, former convict, former saved all of Egypt from death and destruction. Joseph had a great track record at this point. He was a deeply wise man of God. He knew what was about to happen. By lineage, by tradition, by faith, Manasseh was about to get blessed by Israel.

Only he doesn’t.

It doesn’t happen that way. Instead of doing what he should have done, Israel crosses his arms and forms an X, placing his hands on the heads of the wrong children. He blesses Ephraim, the wrong son in Joseph’s mind.

And in 48:17 we see what happens: When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

Joseph has lived his entire life with one belief about how a blessing is passed down. This is his, “I got my Master’s Degree in teaching, I should get a teaching job” moment. This is his, “People get married after college, that’s what they do,” moment. This is what he’s always been ready for and it goes the exact opposite way.

So Joseph, like me or you trying to fix a mistake, says, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”

And how does Israel respond? Does he say, “Oh, I am failing of sight and made a mistake?” Does he reply, “Thank you for correcting this situation?”

No.

He says simply, “I know, my son, I know.”

And that is an incredibly tender thing to say as someone’s expectations crumble.

And I think it’s something God still says to us, even today.

“I know, my son, I know. I know, my daughter, I know. That thing you wanted is not going to happen. Not the way you’ve always dreamed. I know this hurts. I know this stings. I know you feel like I am distant or not aware of where you are and who hurt you and what you think life was supposed to be like. I know in moments like this you doubt that I can count the hairs on your head or have your best in mind. But please, I am not done. I have barely started to reveal your life to you. I am the God who satisfies your desires with good things. That is me! And when it comes to your hopes and your fears and your dreams, I know, my son, I know.”

I think of this moment as the “soft x.”

I think of the tenderness of Israel with his arms outstretched and crossed. I think of our desires and our dreams and the times they don’t work. And above all, I think of a God who wants to tell you he hears you, he loves, he knows you. He is not disconnected or disinterested in who you are and who you want to be. Today, he says,

“I know, my son, I know.”