Quote

The problem with the church is not that we don’t care about the poor, but that we don’t know the poor.

Erin @ Red Rocks!

Happy Birthday to my amazing sister : )

What it’s not.

Recently, I was asked to write about an experience that deepened my understanding of mission or impacted my faith in the past year’s service, and to reflect on what I learned through it. . . this is what came to mind:

One utility assistance meeting in particular really changed the way I think about the purpose of mission and faith.  Prior to the meeting, I had seen that the client had already been to us twice for utility assistance, and had received a good amount of money from the Energy Outreach Colorado grant just last spring. I had already formed an opinion of this person as a user of our system, someone who was relying on our help rather than trying to better his or her situation. I had applied the story of others I had met  to this woman, before I had even given her a chance to speak.

In our meeting however, with every word she spoke and every truth of her story, the picture I had in my head fell apart piece by piece. Since her last assistance, her mother had passed and she herself had fallen ill, and while she was in the hospital for treatment, her son had robbed her blind and pawned most of her and her mother’s possessions. Despite her best efforts, she had gotten behind on her utility bill; but what is a utility bill when juxtaposed to the betrayal of your son and dealing with kicking him out of the house while simultaneously grieving the death of your mother? And shame on me for not allowing her the space to tell her story. And shame on me for placing any judgment at all on this woman.

Mission is not about helping the people you think deserve it. Mission is not about judging anyone else’s circumstances. Mission is not about giving with red tape and conditions. Mission is meeting someone where they are, and giving them the space to tell their story; sharing yours with them and inviting God into those places to bring peace and healing there.

 

-grace and peace

“The point of the resur…

“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

In Praise of Disillusionment

Reblogged from The Blog of Andrew Arndt:

I took a break from our Hebrews series at Bloom last night to give a talk on something that I think is crucially important for our growth - experiences of disillusionment.

Most of us run and hide from experiences or seasons of disillusionment, or at the very least seek to minimize them.  Whilst we are in them, we treat ourselves as “sick” on some level… “patients” in need of healing.  

Read more… 877 more words

Some beautiful thoughts on growth and disillusionment. Please take a minute if you can! -grace and peace

Lent (update)

Hey!

Just an update: we decided as a house to consume only fairly traded chocolates and coffees during lent, as a community. It’s something simple, bigger than ourselves, and that we could all agree on.  Many of us are fasting from, or attending to other things individually for lent as well, so we would ask that you continue to remember us during this season of dying and rising again with Christ!

-in his grace and peace

Lent

Lent is one of my favorite periods in the Christian Calendar; a season where I’m always encouraged to look at my smallness in direct contrast to the infiniteness of God’s love. That I, reminded of my mortality, look forward to the ultimate display of God’s love for us in Christ’s death and resurrection.

As a house, we Dwellers have decided to do something, give up something, or find something new that we can do as a community as both a reminder of the Lenten season, and as a step towards more faithful living; an active “different living” to stand as a statement about our faith, and how our faith informs our action.

Tomorrow, on Mardi Gras, we will meet and discuss our ideas! There will most likely be unfairly traded foods to give up, discussion on the media’s control over lives, and talk of consuming less gasoline as a statement about our commitment to the world God has given us to steward. Yet whatever small step we decide to take as a family, I would ask for you to join us in praying that God would use this season to fuel us, comfort us, and call us to respond even further to the beauty of God’s incredible love for us!

-grace and peace

Some thoughts on vulnerability

Some quotes on Love.

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.” -C.S. Lewis

“A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.” -Stendhal

“Love is the beauty of the soul.” -St. Augustine

“The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” -Albert Ellis

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” -Mother Teresa

 

Happy Valentines Day!

-grace and peace

Signs

Exodus 3:12

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

When I read the story of Moses and the burning bush, often I wonder what it must’ve been like for Moses. It must’ve been so strange, and with a wide range of emotion, I imagine.

A voice speaks to you from a bush that burns but is not consumed . . .

Says, “By the way, while you’re wrapping your mind around the fact that you’re hearing my voice, you should know that I’m sending you to the most powerful ruler in the world to tell him that you’re going to go lead a nation of people out of slavery.”

Moses asks then a series of relatively reasonable questions. “Why me? Who do I say sent me? What authority do I have to do this?”

God then says something of a comforting phrase: “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you:”

I’m sure Moses thought, “Yes! I get a sign! How cool! When I march into Egypt, I’ll get some fireworks, and I’ll know that everything’s going to be fine!”

But God says, “Your sign will be that once you’ve led the people out of Egypt, You’ll come back here and worship me on this mountain!”

In the words of Mike Pilavachi, “What flippin’ good is a sign like that?!” The sign comes after you’ve done the thing! After you’ve taken that step in faith; after you’ve burnt your bridges; after you’ve put your life on the line. . . .

Last weekend I went to Seattle, Washington, to a conference for Volunteers Exploring Vocation.  It was a really great time, and we were treated very well!  The idea of the conference was to get us thinking about vocation, either at all, or in a new way, and it definitely succeeded.  I began to think about the trajectory of my life, where it seems to be headed, the things I’m passionate about, and the things that God has gifted me with.

I also thought about the many vocations I already have: son, brother, friend, housemate, listener, encourager, musician, social worker . . .

And then, of course, I began to think about August. What comes then? What is the next step that God has for me?

This line of questioning, for me, brings a barrage of thoughts and worries. Where will I live? What will I do? How will I pay rent? What will people think of this choice? or that one?

I wanted a sign! A big one! An unmistakeable sign from God as to what I’ll be doing with my life! A voice booming from the heavens proclaiming my future!!! . . .

I got no such sign. . . .

Yet . . .

I received such comfort, peace, and strength in the promise that God will be with me.

There is no room for fear! God is going with me, and after I take that step, I’ll look back at how I got there and see God was there the whole time! Just as God has been in every other step in my life. I sometimes take inventory of those big steps, leaps of faith, and blind stabs at where God may be leading me, and most often in my life, the sign comes after you take the big step.

So, I would ask that those of you that read this, pray that God will continue to guide my heart in the way of his will, both in what I have yet to learn this year, and in whatever my next step will be; and that I’ll go boldly in the confidence of God’s presence in my life.

-grace and peace