Love

     We all know that love is a feeling and that love is also an action. But what happens when love cannot be felt and the actions are not accepted? Is there another place for love? This is something I am trying to process through during this period of my life. I know that I have been called to love and to love everyone but I am not sure how to flesh out this call in certain situations or with certain people. So this is me trying to process through a new view of love because I am starting to realize that love has to be a mentality. 

     Thanks to Peter Buckland I have been in the practice of reacting in love whenever I someone has hurt me or upset me. This has taken over more than just my reactions toward someone. When you start forcing yourself to react in love it softens your heart. You start, I started, feeling love for others even when I had been wronged. I lost the power to be truly mad and to hate.  I am starting to realize that it has also started making me think differently. This is what is making me realize the mental side to love.  Love is becoming the source of my thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions. It takes over. 

     Love being mental helps me see that love is a characteristic, meaning that it becomes a part of you.  When the moment passes and it comes to processing you can’t escape who you are, I can’t escape loving. When I think of love being a mentality I can start to see the feelings and actions that are supposed to take place under that mentality.  It is somewhat an umbrella characteristic for a lot of different characteristics fall under it: patience, kindness, hopefulness, trust, perseverance. This means that while I might not be feeling love or being able to show love through actions I can live to be who I have come to be.  This helps me cling to who I am when I am undergoing hard times and hurt. When I think and act in love I win because I get to be who I am and who I am intended to be. I am still processing this but it is bringing me comfort to understand love.

Break

It is Christmas break and I am so thankful for this time of rest, but I am already missing parts of school. I miss the hum of dorm life, the constant stir of laughter and stress and studying. I miss being surrounded by friends and conversation. I miss the conversations that at one moment might be a light hearted chat that turns into deep theological thoughts. I miss being challenged in every way by what I am learning, the situations I am placed in, and the people I am in relationship with. If my semester and all the things I miss could be summed up in one word it would be immersion I think.

Going through a semester of being RA, taking 17 hours, working part time, while trying to have a life has caused me to be immersed in a set of challenges that I never thought I would face. I have had conversations I never thought I would have, have learned more and turned in more work than what I thought was possible for me, and have gotten the best sleep from going to bed exhausted every night. I am so thankful for this immersed semester, it has made me learn so much. Yet "made" is somewhat the keyword there.

Now I find myself in the midst of a break. What in the world am I supposed to do with that? I don't have to work on relationships. I don't have to study God or learn anything. I don't have to stay busy. I am suddenly immersed in an option: to have a time of laziness or to have a time of living and learning intentionally.

I have decided to live, love, and learn intentionally over break. Break is going to be a break from having knowledge, wisdom, and learning experiences handed over to me. Break is going to be a time to dig. I thank my relationships with my friends, girls in my dorm, and my professors. If I was not immersed in loving, living, and learning, and seen the beauty of its challenges in y'all, then I would not miss it and would not be choosing to live it intentionally. My love and compassion and counseling skills was so challenged this semester by you girls and I am so thankful for that. My endurance has been challenged and I thank my professors and the Ramseys for testing that. My love for knowledge and hunger to learn about God has incredibly grown this semester. Taking Greek with Kenny Boles has made me thirst for the true meaning behind the inspired words of God. I feel as if I am being handed over a note that uncovers just one more attribute of God. I am getting to know one more thing about my God, his use of language. Taking apologetics with Doug Aldridge has caused me to question every motive I have for living out my Christian worldview and is challenging me to live a completely genuine life that is ready to prove God. I thank these two men so much for challenging me this semester.

So while this might be a break, it is going to be a break from immersion. It is going to be an opportunity to love, work, and learn intentionally.

Dream

I was talking to Jenny tonight, the wonderful young lady I mentor, when she inspired my thoughts and spurred on my writing. The conversation went like this.

Jenny: I would love to go live in the jungle.

Me: Do it.

Jenny: It feels too early to know.

Me: You can still dream about Gods will.

This brief conversation led me to think about a couple of things. 

1)      1) Has our generation lost the art of dreaming?

2)      2) Do we dream about God’s will for our lives? 

About the first. Our generation has grown up in a consumerist, apathetic, win for the sake of winning culture. We go to school, to get the grades, to go to college, to get a job, to weasel our way to a promotion, so we can get the bigger house and the better SUV to cart around the next generation so they can go to school, to get the grades, to go to college, to get a job……  

Our society has become self-sufficient, even when it comes to our dreams.  Instead of dreaming about changing the way a race is viewed, walking on the moon, finding freedom, or finding the love of your life (not just the love of your night) we dream about being comfortable. Everything we do has become about us and our ease of life. 

The art of dreaming does not involve checking off a list or doing what feels good. It is about maximizing your potential and living out every bit of yourself. 

This leads me to the second. If living out God’s will is how we maximize our lives to our fullest potential then shouldn’t that involve dreaming? Just because we are following His will, this especially applies to those of us in ministry, it doesn’t mean we just sit back and wait for Him to reveal the checklist of life. He created us to dream. He gave us likes and wants and desires and dreams AS the way he reveals his will.

I don’t just dream of having children, I dream of raising the next generation to discover and think for themselves. I dream about raising them in a way to find God through knowledge, faith, experience, and truth.

I don’t just dream of becoming a counselor. I dream of changing the face and heart of Christian Counseling. I dream of writing books on Theological Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I dream of showing others how to change their life by changing their source, then changing their thoughts, then changing their actions, then changing their emotions.

I don’t just dream of going to college and grad school. I dream of intentionally learning every day of my life.

I don’t just dream of traveling the world. I dream of exploring other cultures, learning from them, meeting their needs. Taking my children to explore other lands, learn from other people, and love whomever they meet.

I don’t just believe these are my dreams. I believe God has instilled wants, desires, and cravings in all of us that call us to dream; they call us to dream of His will in our lives. It goes hand in hand. God can use our dreams, so dream.

Hide and Seek

First Adam and Eve

Now consequently we

Have seen Gods face 

Yet turn away

First Adam and Eve

Now consequently we

Have craved His wisdom 

Yet consume our evil

First Adam and Eve

Now consequently we

Have walked hand in His hand

Yet are now hiding in the trees.

Genesis 3:6-9 has been on my mind. So I shall write.
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

It isn’t just good, pretty fruit that the serpent used for the fall of mankind, but the real element of temptation is wisdom. The fruit from this tree held knowledge of good and evil. Now think about it Eve only knew of goodness. She could not have known what evil would bring. Wisdom was something that God had, that she didn’t and that was held within the piece of fruit. God’s warnings were now being surpassed by her desire for a bite of enhanced fruit.

Adam heard the same sales pitch that Eve received. He saw that this knowledge of good and evil was something that God and now Eve both had and now he was going to possess the same knowledge. However this new knowledge did not bring them closer to God.

We tend to struggle with very similar desires in our lives. In America we spend thousands of dollars on food, we buy countless products to attain beauty, and spend years of schooling to gain knowledge.

It is very easy for these desires of our lives to become the focus of our lives. It might not even be our initial desire but the fruit of our desires that takes over. Then when we ask “where are we?” we find that we are in a mess.

Their eyes were open to evil, their first experience of this would be in the fact they realized their nakedness. Evil was added into their sight, they could no longer view each other as just Adam and Eve, now they view each other’s naked bodies. 

Paul Kissling, a commentator on the book of Genesis, puts it this way. “the first result is the distorted way in which they begin to look at themselves and each other. Gone is the transparency which knew no shame.”  There was now a barrier between man and his wife. 

It is also important to notice their new reliance to provide for themselves. Before, God had taken care of their every need. Now they resorted to hiding their need and coming up with a less than adequate solution for the new found shame. 

So often in life we try to fix our problems on our own. But how does that work out for us? Let me ask this. When we find ourselves in trouble will it become our focus to fix it ourselves? Adam and Eve tried that but ended up finding themselves hiding in the trees.

Their relationship with God now amounted to hiding from Him in the trees.

They went from being drawn towards God’s physical presence in the garden to hiding from it. Now I know that we don‘t read in other places about God walking through the garden but the text doesn’t make a big deal about God walking into the presence of humanity.  It wasn’t because they had never strolled with God, but they had never confessed a mistake. This time they did not embrace the fellowship they had with their creator but resorted to hide in the trees. 

And don’t we do the same thing?

When we have failed, when our desires and focus have become centered around ourselves don’t we draw away from God? Are we hiding in the trees?

So here is my question when we have pursued selfish desires, focused all our time and energy on ourselves, and have found ourselves alone in the midst of broken relationships, where is God?  When we are hiding behind the trees of our lives, where is He?

You see the story doesn’t end with vs. 8. Adam and Eve don’t go on living in trees. Because God called Where are you? He did not just pop in on Adam in the midst of the sin or appear in the tree where they were hiding. He called out Where are you?  They weren’t enjoying the presence of God but hiding. He gave them a chance to come to Him while He was searching for them. He did not stay on His thrown and demand for them to fess up to their mistakes. He walked through the garden calling out to His dearly loved children. Where are you?  Showing His love through His search. And the cycle continues. God doesn’t treat humanity like a tv show. He calls out Where are you? We hear Him throughout history Where are you? When Hagar is out in the desert, he calls Where are you?

Even when we ask “where are we?” and we find that we are not in God’s goodness, He still seeks us out.

Think of two candles, one being God and one being yourself. You can move your candle wherever you want depending on your screw ups and accomplishments. God, his candle, sits in the middle of perfection. We feel like we can always see God and we want to get closer to Him but sometimes our hearts can’t reach the distance to be in the light of God’s presence. We become weighed down by our earthly desires, our focus shifts to our desires or it is wrapped up in trying to fix our own problems. We are so afraid of His disappointment that we hide, too scared to run to His light. But are we thinking about this the right way. Is God just sitting in the middle of perfection waiting for us to do everything on our own and join Him. No. Vs. 9 says God CALLED OUT “Where are you?” Here is the key, it doesn’t matter what we have done, God is searching for us. He is calling for us to embrace His presence. His light is always right there next to us. We need to come out of the trees and embrace His light. Where are you? He is waiting and searching Where are you? He is loving us even though we are too scared to cling to Him. No matter what we do, He is searching for us. So where are you going to be? Once we have messed up are we going to stay in hiding? Are you  going to ignore the voice calling out to your heart Where are you?  Are you going to stay blind to his light? He shows His love by calling out Where are you? Are you going to return the love by stepping out from hiding behind your trees and saying Here I am.

Loving You, 

Liz

Creation Care

      Green. The green movement has been sweeping our culture. Organic foods, vegetarianism, solar electricity, hybrid cars, five million ways to recycle are all available for our use. I even have a precious little bird pillow that is made out of recycled water bottles. There is a plethora of options to care for our planet. Yet this movement has become a differentiating characteristic between the secular world and the Christian world.

      But why? Why is it our lost neighbors who have decided to take action? Why is it that we, Christians, have become apathetic to the physical, natural world? Are we, those called to live selflessly, that selfish that we view the world as ours to consume? Or are we scared of saying that the secular world has actually gotten something right? Or maybe we remain purposely ignorant and misinterpret scripture concerning the world.

1)     

                         While our secular neighbors are OF the world they are also the ones caring for the world. They are carrying out God’s first description of our intended creation and the first command God gave to man of what to do. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,  and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

2)       

           We have become so concerned to not appear secular (when that is the convenient thing to do) and are apathetic about how we do live out the worldly ways (when that is the convenient thing to do). Instead of Christ Transforming culture through the care of creation we are rejecting this cultural movement. This is not ok! This is our job description and we are rejecting it, for fear and ease.

3)    

                      As Christians do we have everything right? No. Just because we are smart and modern does not mean we are not following the patterns of the past and don’t screw anything up anymore. The church has made many mistakes throughout history and history is repeating itself. Could it be one of our biggest mistakes that we don’t recognize TRUTH outside of our own Christian culture?

     Creation Care is ours to claim. I have been debating in my mind what this means and how to get it right. I can’t imagine God agreeing with our current use of his planet. I am not saying that all of us should become tree hugging vegans; I do believe we are supposed to live with respect. Respect to Gods creation, respect to his intended description of our purpose, respect to other humans by not consuming what they need, respect to animals by showing kindness to life by humanely raising and consuming them, respect to nature by using just what we need and by not wasting our resources.

     We all know what we could do. Whether your feelings match mine and feel guilty by eating animals, or by eating locally raised and grown foods, using reusable bags at the grocery store, or even just taking the easy step of starting to recycle, we all know what we can do; now realize why we should do it.

Christmas time is here

Every year Christmas seems to creep up on you sooner and sooner. As soon as Halloween candy and costumes are taken off the shelves of Wal-Mart, Santa and his reindeer take over. The stores start to send out ads with flashy gimmicks to get the buyers in their stores before the ever too soon looming deadline comes crashing in on them. Hundreds even thousands of dollars, along with hours of worry are spent trying to find the best most acceptable presents for family, friends and people that we don’t even like. For the families who actually took off their Christmas lights, its time to compete with the Joneses and put up five thousand sparkling bulbs along with a fat man and elves on top of their house. It seems like we always lose Christ in this. He disappears right until the very end when we go to church and read the Christmas story on Christmas day. But what did Christmas really start with? It never started Santa, a red shiny nose, and a talking snow- man. No, it started Christ, with the divine Jesus stepping down so low in to the womb of Mary so that he could be the infleshment of God. 

While it is not even December most of have already made it through it Black Friday and probably have most of our Christmas shopping done. But have we spent any time yet contemplating why we are buying these presents? Christ birth.  I am pretty sure Mary spent a lot of time dwelling upon this upcoming event.  How was this going to change her world? How was this going to change her world? What would he look like? How could this actually be the son of God growing inside her? I don't doubt that she had just as many questions considering the incarnation of God that was her son Jesus. Yet, I also believe that she grew to have one of the greatest understandings of who he was. And isn't that what Christmas is about? Understanding God so we could be reconciled to Him. It had to be done through a baby, born of a virgin, who was fully man and fully God. Giving us the chance to have earthly reconciliation with God through understanding the relationship of man and God, seen through this precious incarnation of God. 

Remember why we are celebrating Christmas. How did it change the world? How has it changed your world?

Loving you, 

Liz

Drunk Magicians

       I spent this past weekend in Lexington, KY at the National Missionary Convention. Like I expected I went to great classes, saw many friends, heard great preaching, and staid in a nice hotel among thousands of Christians. Yet, the thing that stood out to me most was something I was not expecting.

       I was about to go on a walk down town with three of our high school kids when we were stopped out of Starbucks. A middle aged man gently grabbed my hand and stood to talk to us. He leaned in to our faces allowing our eyes to take in the lines a hard life had drawn upon his face, and for our nostrils to sting with the stench of alcohol pouring from his mouth. He introduced himself as Floyd and raised his shirt to show the leftovers from many surgeries and pointed to his wife who just had a hip replacement. He said that he wasn't asking for money, but that if his magic tricks impressed us he wouldn't turn down a dollar or two. I turned to the three kids and their faces were glued to me, looking for the cue to excuse ourselves and bolt. While this didn't surprise me, it made me stay. We watched his magic tricks figuring a few of them out. The kids started to look for any cash that might have but I knew more was supposed to happen. I told Floyd that I had cash but that I wanted to pray with him before I handed it over. He and Caroline were more than eager for this. I wrapped my arm around Caroline and our prayer circle formed. Nothing special happened during that prayer, It was merely two drunks, a college student, and three high school students praying what we have all prayed before. 

       It was after we walked away that I truly saw the affects this prayer had. We rejoined our group and they talked about how that could have been a scam and their heartfelt prayer might have been a practiced line. All I and the kids could answer was "maybe".  It really bothered me the rest of the night how our group made up of ministers and ministry students only saw the scam in Floyd and Caroline. They might have been a scam but I know that God used that encounter. Floyd and Caroline might have blown the money on booze, they might be amused by our prayers but someone was changed. I and these high school kids did what we were supposed to do and gained so much from it. We allowed God to use a possible scam as training for our futures.

          While I care about Floyd and Caroline I don't care about how they used the money, for I gained so much from giving to them. We need to start putting aside our doubt and be open to sharing the love of Christ. We need to be willing to under go a scam in order to give physically and spiritually to those who are in need. We need to be willing to pray with a drunk magician so that he might truly pray to God.