Two quotes

"We do not approach a need with the idea [serving others in the community] that this really should be someone else’s job. If someone is hurting, then the Church should be the first to offer help."

- Dino Rizzo

"How wonderful it is that we need not wait a single minute before starting to improve ourselves and our world."

- Anne Frank

Amen and Amen.

Why the wait?

I'm sure we've all fallen guilty to this, and I think I've been staring, motionless, at this for quite some time: the temptation to wait.

It's the plan/worry first, do second. Doing something crazy for God surely requires to be debt free...right? Or at least financially 'stable'? Or to have a life plan? I am having more and more trouble with this (perhaps because I am none of these things). But really...is it 'smart' to go off on some grandiose adventure to serve God when there's a nickel in your bank account?

I've found myself consumed in worry about money. It's the lens through which I view life. And I know, right now, after writing that, that the lens of money is a lens of slavery. It's a lens that's sinful. It displaces the lens of God. How can I help this guy when I'm broke? How can I start anything?

Part of me feels like if I could only be free from the 'bondage' of worry I could find joy. I think this is an American infection. At least a Western one.

I think my other reason for waiting is that I feel like the calling of God will overcome all of these fears, though I am afraid these fears muddy the call of God. Catch-22.

I read some of the Sermon on the Mount this morning, when Jesus preaches about worry and I was really challenged. I find myself so consumed in 'what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, how to spend' that I miss the what to do and wind up waiting. I've probably missed a thousand what to do's because I've waited. What's the fear? Do I not trust in God?

May God deliver us from these fears and may we hear the call.

bringing Christ.

I finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia. I've been told for the past several years that "the end was their favorite part" and now I can finally agree.

It paints an absolutely beautiful picture. Narnia is falling, clearly conquered, but the kids are still fighting, ever so hard, for what they know is true and beautiful...for Aslan. Though their fight is futile, though they have no shot at victory and many have turned against them, they stick it out to the end and are immediately delivered to Aslan at their deaths.

The New Narnia, Heaven, is more glorious than the last. It was clearly something worth fighting for, clearly something worth working to bring to the old earth.

Ross and I talked a bit a girl who had begun to doubt the purpose of Christianity after a mission trip to Africa. I believe this is a common stumbling block for a lot of people. Christianity seems so irrelevant when kids can't get to food and their parents are dying of AIDS or even curable diseases. How relevant is it trying to get a kid to pray the prayer?

I think that while bringing Christianity can seem irrelevant, bringing Christ is not.

That, after all, is what we're called to do. To be ambassadors for Christ, not Christianity. When we begin to make a choice to bring Christ to darkness, to bring hope to somewhere hopeless, we put ourselves in the middle of the fight. We have to choose the hard choice, to fight, when others say all is lost, when others don't see a reason for fighting, when fighting is 'uncool', but dressing like a warrior is.

So fight. Even though it's not cool. Even though it's not glamorous. Even though it's so EASY not to, and so EASY to ignore it.

And slow down and pray. It's hard to find a fight when you're going 60 miles an hour on your way to work, running five minutes late, in your Passat. Hard to even believe there IS a fight...but there always is.