Recently, my parents have invested a lot of money into redoing our main bathroom. As much as I appreciate it's new aesthetic beauty, it has become a thing of contention. The bathroom has become my mom's pride and joy. It was custom designed by her and I appreciate that it means a lot to her. What I don't agree with, is that there are wildly strict rules about the use of this bathroom. The sink, a glass bowl, must be wiped after every use. There can be absolutely nothing left on the counters or on the window sill in the shower.. and so on. The reason this gets to me is simple. I don't believe that appearances should ever concur practical use. The bathroom has instantly transformed from a practical and frequently used bathroom, into a piece of art, to be admired.
I'm playing an acoustic show in about a week. It's a fundraiser for some friends who are going to Africa this summer. I've been practicing a lot lately and my hands have never looked more awful. My callouses are peeling and my hands are dry and cracked, since using hand cream only softens my hard-earned callouses. At my old job at a spa, the girls I worked with had gone to school to prevent people from having to walk around with hands that look like mine. Hands that are used and worked and pushed. It probably never occurred to them that I like my hands this way. I believe that ugly hands are usually the sign of an artist and I relish my callouses. I love having paint and ink stains on my hands; they show that I am an artist.. they show who I am.
I feel that all too often, people are so consumed with other's opinions that they fear to unleash who they truly are inside. I believe too many people will never try an art because they don't want ugly hands. Too many will refuse their giftings because they are afraid of how the world might perceive them. I know that some, if not most, are called to terrifying (but rewarding and always exciting) extremes and I can promise that these extremes will not be pleasing to the lost onlookers. But wouldn't it be a shame if we let our beautiful, hand crafted destinies take a seat on a shelf to be replaced by popularity.
I heard a man named Shane Claiborne speak last night. This man gave up his comfortable "normal" life and lives on the street as a homeless person, willingly. He felt a call to reach the homeless and he sacrificed his life to pursue God's desire for him. He called himself an extremist for love and I couldn't agree more. He's been arrested countless times in the name of justice and the Lord has walked him out of jail, much like he did with Paul. He is a true authentic Christian, and I'm sure he has ugly hands.
Our purposes, our callings, the things that make us come alive... these things are what life is truly all about. How can we be content to settle into an existence void of these things for the sake of our reputation? It is fact that we can not be extreme people for God, and been seen as popular by the world. It is a choice that every person must make. I pray that you might rise up and take hold of your extreme calling, forsaking earthly identity, and taking on a heavenly one. I wish for us to shed our fear of man and take up a true and passionate relationship with God. I look forward to a rising generation of people with ugly hands and beautiful hearts.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Support
Today at church I realized something that I had not fully understood before. I allowed myself to be humbled by letting my friends at church know that I had been let go from my job just over a week ago. I expected ridicule and sideways glaces but what I received was sympathy and prayer.
Most of the woman I spoke with embraced me and become protective. A few confessed to think of me as a daughter and they laughed when they went into mothering mode with me. The poor men that had to endure my hasty tears offered prayer and support. A few of these amazing people immediately began networking on my behalf and searching for job opportunities.
This affects me deeper than most people can probably understand. As someone who grew up without much parenting, and who continues to live without much spiritual parenting, being parented and supported made me feel like I am able to lean on someone for the first time in a long time (maybe ever). I felt nurtured and protected.
I once wrote a missions statement for my second missions trip I had been planning to Mozambique. In my missions statement I explained that we, as Christians, are one body - the body of Christ. When one part of the body aches, it is natural for the rest of the body to respond accordingly - to shift the weight and work together to heal the hurting part.
Often I am part of the latter-nurturing, healing, and offering support. Today, I had the chance to experience the importance of our family in Christ supporting each other.I've taken a lot of hits lately. I've endured my first firing, a terrible fight in my family that has yet to be resolved, financial insecurity, and too much fear. I am aching.It was a beautiful and reassuring thing to watch from the other side of things as the body responded to be today. I was nurtured, embraced, fought for, and reassured - and it was wonderful.
Through this, God revealed to me again, how important fellowship is. We are designed to walk in community with each other. We are created to fight as an army, not suffer as lone islands. Together we stand as a force to be reckoned with in spiritual realms. Divided, it is too easy to fall into temptations of the mind and the flesh.
I encourage you to get connected. Wherever you may be at spiritually or emotionally, it is increasingly important to surround yourself with authentic people who you care about and who care about you. There are a lot of people hurting these days with the economic climate being what it is. It is important to minister to people in need and it is important to ask for ministry when you are in need.
No matter who you are or what you've done, there is a specific and beautiful purpose for your existence. You have a unique perspective on the world because no two lives are exactly the same. You have unique feelings and thoughts and it is important to stay true to yourself and express those thoughts and feelings because you never know when something you say might be of immeasurable benefit to someone in need. You may possess the unique answer to their problem that no one else could offer.
These thoughts are kind of scattered but my main point is to pursue real community and fellowship for your life. Sometimes you will be needed to offer ministry and sometimes you will need ministry yourself. I needed mending today and because I had spent time investing in other people, I had people who supported me and invested back in me in my time of need. Build relationships with love and patience and an attitude of servanthood and you will always find the support you need in your desperate times. Be blessed in knowing that you are needed. You were created to fill a specific role and to be bold enough to step into it. Get connected and enjoy the beauty of the support structure that has been created for you.
Be blessed.
Most of the woman I spoke with embraced me and become protective. A few confessed to think of me as a daughter and they laughed when they went into mothering mode with me. The poor men that had to endure my hasty tears offered prayer and support. A few of these amazing people immediately began networking on my behalf and searching for job opportunities.
This affects me deeper than most people can probably understand. As someone who grew up without much parenting, and who continues to live without much spiritual parenting, being parented and supported made me feel like I am able to lean on someone for the first time in a long time (maybe ever). I felt nurtured and protected.
I once wrote a missions statement for my second missions trip I had been planning to Mozambique. In my missions statement I explained that we, as Christians, are one body - the body of Christ. When one part of the body aches, it is natural for the rest of the body to respond accordingly - to shift the weight and work together to heal the hurting part.
Often I am part of the latter-nurturing, healing, and offering support. Today, I had the chance to experience the importance of our family in Christ supporting each other.I've taken a lot of hits lately. I've endured my first firing, a terrible fight in my family that has yet to be resolved, financial insecurity, and too much fear. I am aching.It was a beautiful and reassuring thing to watch from the other side of things as the body responded to be today. I was nurtured, embraced, fought for, and reassured - and it was wonderful.
Through this, God revealed to me again, how important fellowship is. We are designed to walk in community with each other. We are created to fight as an army, not suffer as lone islands. Together we stand as a force to be reckoned with in spiritual realms. Divided, it is too easy to fall into temptations of the mind and the flesh.
I encourage you to get connected. Wherever you may be at spiritually or emotionally, it is increasingly important to surround yourself with authentic people who you care about and who care about you. There are a lot of people hurting these days with the economic climate being what it is. It is important to minister to people in need and it is important to ask for ministry when you are in need.
No matter who you are or what you've done, there is a specific and beautiful purpose for your existence. You have a unique perspective on the world because no two lives are exactly the same. You have unique feelings and thoughts and it is important to stay true to yourself and express those thoughts and feelings because you never know when something you say might be of immeasurable benefit to someone in need. You may possess the unique answer to their problem that no one else could offer.
These thoughts are kind of scattered but my main point is to pursue real community and fellowship for your life. Sometimes you will be needed to offer ministry and sometimes you will need ministry yourself. I needed mending today and because I had spent time investing in other people, I had people who supported me and invested back in me in my time of need. Build relationships with love and patience and an attitude of servanthood and you will always find the support you need in your desperate times. Be blessed in knowing that you are needed. You were created to fill a specific role and to be bold enough to step into it. Get connected and enjoy the beauty of the support structure that has been created for you.
Be blessed.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Vision
This is one of the most amazing things I've ever read. It's true Christianity summed up. It's from a novel called Red Moon Rising.
Enjoy.
The vision is JESUS obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.They wouldn't even notice.They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
And this is the sound of the undergroundThe whisper of history in the making
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed
Enjoy.
THE VISION
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this The vision?
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this The vision?
The vision is JESUS obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.They wouldn't even notice.They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers
choose to loose
choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the undergroundThe whisper of history in the making
Foundations
shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing
This is the sound of the underground
And the army is disciplined.
And the army is disciplined.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them ?
And the generation prays
like a dying man
like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 7 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed
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