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| Before getting into my (hopefully) deep thoughts, a couple of prayer requests:
My brother is back on solid food for the first time in a full month and is supposed to go home today. Please thank God for his quick recovery and ask Him that it continues.
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Andrew Fittz and Heather Barnett got married Saturday. Please pray that they may share one spirit that is entirely dedicated to Jehovah so that they can grow together as they bless those around them.
Now go ahead and pray before you forget about it.
I went for another walk tonight and something that was on my mind was the future me. Most people probably have a list of things they want to change about themselves (I'm talking character, not appearance/health/intelligence) and I daresay that those who don't are probably in denial. When I think about the future I often think of the traits I wish to master for ministry's sake. Along that line, where is the balance of time/effort between making the most of the skills you already have and trying to learn new ones?
A personal example (and please let me know if you think this is wrong): I feel that I do a good job at supporting and encouraging my friends but I don't feel strongly about my ability to make new friends. In spite of that (though quite possibly because of that), I value the latter more than the former. In a conversation with my brother last week, we talked about what roles we feel called to for ministry. My brother is confident that he has been called be an apostle (and as such has already gotten started on being persecuted) and stated that he saw me as more of a shepherd/pastor sort of guy. I agree that our current skill sets support that view, but in planning to go to Chicago, I'm planning on assuming an apostle role. However, an apostle definitely needs to be able to meet people and get to know them, but if I don't feel confident in that area, should I focus on improving myself in that way? or look for a way to use the skills I already have?
Technology advances so rapidly, that if you wait for the next cool thing to come out before you buy, you'll wait forever since it's rare that a new product comes out before rumors of its successor begin. Therefor, you have to buy whats available now, knowing it'll be surpassed in 6 months. Though I wonder a lot about who I'll be in 5 or 10 or 50 years, I do know that just like in technology, if you wait for the future to arrive before you get into it, you'll die before you start.
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| I went for a walk tonight. It was a pretty long walk, but for some reason, the only parts of me that are sore so far are my toes. Does that seem right to you?
Anyway, on to serious things.
My brother is healing pretty quickly. In fact, I've only heard a couple of things about his situation lately that haven't been positive. His situation, among other things, has had me thinking a lot about prayer lately. Namely the idea of asking God for something.
When I ask a friend for something, I do it to let them know of a need or want that I have that they typically don't know about. Usually, when I ask them for something they know I want, I'm asking to let them know when I want it. But with God, neither of those situations occurs. God knows better than I do what I need, what I want, and when I should or should not get it. So should prayer simply be a method of expressing thanks to Him for what he has done or is doing?
There are plenty of examples of people praying to ask for something in the Bible (the Lord's Prayer, among others), so I see that it is common/expected. I even remember an elder telling my junior high class one time that if you get enough people to "badger God," He'll give you what you're asking for (though even then that seemed like the wrong attitude). But a question that arises is when we earnestly ask God for something, aren't we asking Him to change His plans to better accommodate our's?
I keep thinking of the verse that reads, "If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those
who ask him!" (Matthew 7.11) This verse seems to say in the same breath that God knows better than we do what we need, yet we should ask Him for what we think is best anyway. (The paragraph this verse is in also starts, "Ask and it will be given to you,...") It almost seems oxymoronic (is that a word?).
The only logic I can come up with for why we should verbalize opinions He already knows is so that we are reminded of His influence and power. But it doesn't seem fitting that when Jesus prayed, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me," just to remind Himself that God has that much power. When I read that verse, I read it as someone who is pleading to that Power to intervene.
So why?
I'll continue to ask for things in my prayers since I've found more in scripture guiding me to than not, but I really want to hear from anyone who has something to say on this.
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| 5 AM calls are never good.
For those of you who don't know, my brother has been in Ecuador for the last week or so. Last night, he was tent camping in someone's backyard. Apparently, somebody decided they wanted in and began to cut a hole in the tent. My brother then hollered at them to stop.
So they shot Daniel in the stomach.
Mom just called me again to let me know that he has been out of surgery for an hour or two and is doing fine but will likely spend 7-10 days in the hospital. Dad is flying back home now and as soon as he gets here (I'm assuming tomorrow or Wednesday), Mom and Dad are going to fly down there to see him.
It is very bizarre how similar this seems to when my little cousin was shot several years ago. Both were completely random/unexpected, both were in the stomach, and both of them got to have a plastic bag attached to them for a while. Yet this time around, I am far less worried about the whole situation. And that is despite the fact that Daniel's happened in a foreign country where he only knew a handful of people, and especially despite the fact that I'm 1000 times closer to Daniel than I was to my cousin when his happened.
I think it's because Daniel is so much more involved with God. Knowing that Daniel was in Ecuador because God wanted him there and that Daniel went there fulling expecting he might get beat up a little like missionaries tend to be.
It's not that God's influence or power in a given situation is tied to how much the involved people believe; but I'm wondering if God would be more involved in situations like this because he is more welcomed by those involved. God loves all of us. I have no doubt of that. But I'm wondering right now if God is less active in some people's lives because He's less welcome by those people.
If you had a girlfriend that got shot (not that Daniel is girl! he's a manly man! Just ask about his other times in the hospital) you would do everything you could to ease her pain, encourage her in such an overwhelming time, and you would find every way possible to help her recover quickly. But if a girl that you liked that wouldn't give you the time of day were shot, what would you do? True, it would be a good chance to help her and show that you care (and get on her good side). But it would be much more difficult since there wasn't an already established relationship.
I don't know if I'm making sense.
I'm sure Daniel will recover, I'm just trying to put some logic to why I'm so confident that Daniel will recover when I wasn't about my cousin.
Also, because I'm feeling so at ease with this, I've not had an overwhelming urge to pray/beg that God will intervene in this. Don't get me wrong, I am praying, but the words seem almost casual in mind. Is that wrong?
Dear goodness, that was a long post. Sorry, but I have a lot on my mind.
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| It's been a long time since I've written a post here, but I've been having a lot of thoughts about (to quote Switchfoot) life and love and why. I want to reshape this blog into a place for me to share those thoughts and get some feedback. I'm sure trivial posts will find their way back into here every now and again (perhaps Jessie will get another poem out of me), but I want to warn anyone who still reads this that it will no longer consistently be a light read.
To start off with, I'll share a brief thought:
I'm convinced that sharing the Gospel with someone is only partially (perhaps the smaller part) about teaching them who Jesus is and what he does; the other (greater, I think) is teaching them that that is who they can become. Jesus did a lot of cool things to be sure, but it seems to me that a lot of the things he said were variations on the statement, "go and do likewise." (Luke 10.37) And as wise as the sayings of Jesus were, his famous lines about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25.31-46) were all based around the right things we do, not the right things we say.
So while it is critical that people believe in Christ and obey everything on the don't list, it is a sin for us to in any way imply that that is all they (we) need to do.
PS - "The Irresistible Revolution" is a great book, but I must warn anyone who wants to read it: it'll probably play havoc with your ideas of what it means to be a Christ-follower.
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