response to overcoming

my friend travis left a comment in response to my past last week entitled overcoming. i post it here because it articulated a lot of things i know, but don't always feel and continues to keep me thinking about our role in doing kingdom work.

here is his response in full...

I was struck by the beginning of this post as I often have those same overwhelmeing feelings. I cam across this quote not too long ago that made the burden a little lighter: “What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? … The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually first to Abraham, then to Moses and the Prophets, and then in the Wisdom Literature–the God who revealed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love…. It is only because of our hardness of hearts that we think this is too little.”(the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI). If Jesus did not come to eradacate disease, end poverty, and establish world peace, then why do we think we can or must? Our calling is is to make known the living God who has, in Christ, conquered death, and the powers and principalities that often seem so overwhelming. What a humbling call we have.

grasping for it

great lent post be eugene. gets at a bit of what i am thinking. still working on exactly what this means for me in the Lenten season, but have also been thinking a bit about this passage in Matthew. i hope to share more here from my journal though in the coming weeks. i think it will be good for me to bring my thoughts to a point in which they are more clearly articulated than the jumbled mess that is my journal. blessings as you travel through the Lenten season.

Getting lenten

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Aka the start of Lent. Been thinking a bit about that. Started by asking myself, oh, what do I want to fast? Then moving too, wait, why am I fasting again? And I guess that put everything in a bit of perspective for me. I stumbled across this blog post- http://www.emergentvillage.com/weblog/are-you-giving-up-chocolate-for-lent and thus had ask myself what is going to be an actual sacrifice? What is going to free up time so that I can truly get deeper into prayer and reading the word? I am still trying to figure it out exactly, but I am moving in the right direction. It is probably going to have a lot to do with how much time I spend on the internet. Probably something associated with espn.com (something hard to mess with during March Madness-the NCAA should have really considered the church calendar before scheduling that tournament), but I still have a hard time cutting out reading up on sports a "sacrifice." I mean it's not necessary in the first place, so to give up a unneccesity isn't really a sacrifice is it? But then again I don't think it would be good to give up anything that already works to serve. Hmmm...maybe developing a spiritual discipline. A kind of reverse fast? I know some people who are giving up blogging and internet. But maybe if I develop blogging as a daily spiritual discipline? Hmmm. I suppose we will find out tomorrow if this is what I feel lead to do.

overcoming

been feeling kinda small lately. feeling like i am too small and the world's problems are too big. feeling a bit overwhelmed in regards to how i am supposed to fight poverty, eradicate disease, and end war. feeling a bit confused on how God would have me use my gifts to love others the best i can. feeling like i can do so much more, but not really sure how to do it and what is keeping me from finding out. it's easy for me to let these types of thoughts and feelings work on me and break me down. i am ok with that. i don't want to lose sight of how much work there is to be done, i don't want to become numb and callused to the pain others are experiencing. but i also don't want to despair. and i feel like it's easy to reach that point when you feel the weight of it all. i am reading a mclaren book right now and after he finishes talking about some of these issues, war and inequity in particular, in a chapter of it, he ends with this paragraph.

But despair is boring and uncreative, and to succumb to it is to empower it. So I turn from it and turn to Jesus, to believe his narrative and to join his peace insurgency, to stop figuring out how to get him on our side, and instead to try to cross over to his side.

despair is so boring and uncreative. i know God is calling me to be creative, to be imaginative, to pray, and think, and act. it's good, it's a process. i was encouraged this week to have stumbled across some organizations and people that are creatively seeking to love and embrace Christ's narrative and message...

http://www.micahchallenge.org/english/
http://www.msainfo.org/
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://onedayswages.wordpress.com/ (this one isn't new to me. be praying for it)
http://www.mochaclub.org/

...and many personal blogs and other things i have been reading.

good looking out.

i've been encouraged of late. not sure what it is, but i was getting worn down a bit. i think mostly just from work and such. just the day to day wear stuff, but i am feeling refreshed of late. well, actually i have been a little sick so the body hasn't felt refreshed, but the soul, ya know? and as i pause to think about it, it has been because of my community. old friends, new friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, straight up community have blessed and encouraged me. it's good. it's a real good thing.

how are you blessing those in your community? i know it's one of a few good questions i need to be asking myself more often.