i often forget how incredible my job is. if anyone has asked me how it is going, they probably have heard me say that i do not like sitting at a desk all day while working on a computer. i still do not. but, maybe i forgot to mention this when the question was asked, i also love my job. i am getting paid to tell the media to tell people in the upper midwest about an organization thats mission is giving simple gifts to children all around the world. but wait, it does not stop there. not only do they get a shoe box with school supplies, toys and hygiene items, they also are able to hear the Gospel. at almost every shoe box distribution the Gospel is preached and a 12 week discipleship program is offered. thank you Lord for this awesome opportunity and blessing of a job. i want and pray for more children to know Jesus.
if you want to know more about OCC, please ask me or check out the website (had to do some free pr while writing this) www.samaritanspurse.org/occ. national collection week ends on nov. 19 (find drop-off locations on the website), but you can always give your shoe box to me up until dec. 21st.
one last thing. if you know of a job opening after dec. 21 that has anything to do with pr, coffee, nonprofits, baking, nature, or people....let me know. please and thank you.
my friend and i were driving home from minneapolis having a conversation about how to love, reach out, and help people who are homeless. this is something i have been thinking about since i started hanging out downtown over the past three years.
i am not sure there is one exact solution for every person we see holding a cardboard sign on the corner of washington and 35 or sitting at the bus stop. part of the solution; however, has to be love. we are commanded to love our neighbor (mark 12).
who are my neighbors? i am quickly learning that they are more than just the people in the two houses next to mine. the people i need to view as my neighbor are those who i come in contact with. my coworkers, my family, the waitress, the checkout lady at the grocery store, the people i sit next to in church and every person i walk or drive by. no matter if any of these people have a home or not, they are my neighbor. they all should be loved.
this does not mean we are called to give a homeless person all the money we have in our wallet every time we drive by them. it does mean we need to acknowledge them, make them feel human and listen to the Holy Spirit of how it is we can best love them. maybe we will be prompted to give them the money or gift card in our wallet or the apple in our bag. it could also just be finding out their story.
i am often scared to give homeless people money because they might use it on alcohol or something they don't really need. i am not sure where this idea came from. everyone assumes this, but who really actually finds out how homeless people use the money they are give? i am realizing that i really need to trust God with however He tells me to love. this is with whoever i am in interacting with. i also need to realize that the Lord commands us to help the poor which could mean giving them the $5 i was planning to use on my lunch.
one thing i told my friend, who waits at the bus stop every day seeing the same homeless people is that if she learns their stories she will then be able to understand who they are. when we learn a person's story, we learn pretty quickly how they spend their time and money.
Lord, i pray that You help me love better, especially the people who i often do not know how to love. teach me to treat every person i interact with like they are Your creation. thank you God that each person, homeless or not, has a story. i want to know those stories. thank you that my money is not mine, but Your money God. teach me to view it as that. let me not hold my money tightly but loosely so that You can use it to help those in need. God, you are the Creator of every human being and the Giver of all things. i praise you. Amen.
it is a river that quenches those who thirst. a river that gives life. the water is pure and refreshing. it has a current that keeps flowing. this river is full of water that rushes towards those that need it, in such a gentle way. it twists and turns to keep seeking, and never stops pursuing. this river rejuvenates those who are weary, heals those who are sick, and makes clean those who are dirty. this river reaches out before needing to be reached into.
God is teaching me something. i often look to Him like He is a well of water that i have to find. a well that will only come give me life and love when i want it. a well that i have to work for to be refreshed by. tonight, God told me that His love is like a river that is rushing to me at all times. He came to me first and will continue to pursue after me. no matter where i am at in life, He is a river that is always there and moving in me. this river is not something i have to work to find because it will never fail me.
this river is something i need to just be at to know it is there.
i'm learning something as i read the book, the hole in our gospel by richard stearns (aka...the president of world vision in the USA). i'm learning the difference between feeling guilty and feeling convicted. yesterday i went to dunn bros with the little boy i nanny, put money in savings at the bank, went out to eat with my mom and some friends, and then played tennis with some great friends. part of me wants to feel guilty because of the abundance of money that is available to me and the enjoyment i had. the other part of me feels convicted to seek after the lord in what to do about this and what i am reading about in the book. the lord does give us blessings, but i think what we do with those blessings needs to be thought about. i do not want to help people, do missions, or give out of guilt. i want to do it because that is what jesus did and tells the church to do.
i am learning from the book all about the problems in the world- disease, lack of education, lack of clean water, war, poverty, trafficking, ect. there is a part of the gospel people have missed- our ignorance of the poverty and injustice in the world. not all jesus followers have missed this, but many people have. stearns addresses how many people have missed that christ calls us to do something about the poverty and injustice.
the beautiful thing is, we can make a difference.
last night i read utmost for his highest. this connects in my mind so go with me on this. oswald chambers said, "If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “. . . I have called you friends. . . .” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life." http://utmost.org/will-you-lay-down-your-life/
jesus did NOT come to condemn the world (John 12:47). there is no condemnation in christ jesus (Romans 8:1). satan on the other hand is KNOWN for accusing the brethren (Rev 12:10).
conviction can motivate us to do something. guilt cannot. conviction is when i am convinced that something needs to happen. well, i am convinced that we need to do everything in love of others and god. i am convinced that there are problems in the world and we need to do something about them. the love christ showed while on earth and right now should be what motivates me to do something about the (dying) world we live in, and it does.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. . . . I have called you friends . . . -John 15:13, 15
Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” -Luke 9:23-27
