counting to 40

If you're like me and you didn't grow up with Lent being a tradition in your family, then maybe you have a hard time being convinced of observing it now. I was always felt like I was "off the hook" for giving something up when everyone else seemed to be making sacrifices.

Well, we get older, and wiser {I hope} and begin to wonder what the big deal is with this Lent thing. After reading up a bit on the tradition and history of it all, it started to intrigue me. And I wanted to be part of the club.



This next forty days until Easter is a time of reflection, repentance, and a remembrance of the One who came to wipe sin away. Clean the slate. I don't know about you, but I definitely need a time like this. I need time to examine my own life, what I'm doing, my choices, my passions, my struggles...everything. And surrender.

Our sacrifices during this time are a way to remember the one to which we surrender. The Provider, the Sustainer, the Redeemer. Greater than all our sin, greater than our struggle and our need to justify ourselves with worthless stuff that doesn't last. To give something up is a brilliant way to see God move into that empty spot you just made and delight you with His presence.

I love the idea of doing this as a community - with your family, your close friends, your church, your spouse. We were created to be with others and encourage one another in the faith. What a great time to start.

This season I'm giving up complaining. And yes, I've already failed miserably at this which is totally the point because it reminds me of how imperfect I am, how terribly human it is of me to make mistakes and be negative about my life that's pretty darn great right now. So here goes...forty days of recognizing the Debby Downer in me and making an effort to stop it. 

What are your thoughts on Lent? Are you giving anything up this season?

it is well

These days I'm finding it very easy to be able to say this with a genuine heart. I have been overwhelmed with blessings beyond belief and really, the only thing to complain about over here is chipping nail polish and cloudy skies. {read: first world problems.}

I am reminded of this time last year as I was preparing to spend a good chunk of my year overseas. When my soul felt a bit on the rocks. A little lumpy. Uneasy. Stepping into the unknown wasn't safe or easy -- but it was good. And it turns out that walking through that experience was "well" in it's own kind of way. 

So after finding peace in the midst of change and uncertainty, knowing that God is ultimately the one that brings it in all circumstances, I am experiencing peace in this season of abundance. 

Today, this day, recognize your abundant blessings and give thanks. 

nik-so-ko-a, my relations

 

{via}


I spent last summer working on a Native American reservation. One thing that has always stuck out to me about that experience is when I learned what the word pronounced nik-so-ko-a meant -- My Relations.

The community there is like one I have never experienced before. People live to protect and stand by each other, their family, their relations. Nik-so-ko-a represents all of "your people", the ones who are close to your heart and influence your spirit.

I can't help but think about my relations, my people, who have been such an encouragement through this whole transition process. They have offered their time, their homes and their love to protect and encourage me. I am never alone, I was never alone. To me, community is what drives the heart and what so many of us crave -- because we were meant to. We were made for community. So today I give up an offering of thanks. Thanks for family, for community, and for it being Friday.

Three Dollars Worth

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine…I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

--Wilbur Rees

Just yesterday I read this and realized what a grave problem we all have when this is true. And it is true. We do ask for this. Okay, so maybe this isn’t the kind of thing you shout on rooftops but the message seeps through the way we live our lives. We are scared to hand all of it over to the unseen.

There comes a time when we’ve got to jump off the cliff in our faith walk. You either believe it – you believe Him, or you don’t. What happens when you jump? When you trust in the image of the invisible? Real life happens. Miracles are witnessed. Hearts are purposed towards what they were always meant for.

Our God is so capable. So big. So good. In the past year I have seen ten kids find a new home, students learning how to read, people finding jobs, strangers become family, babies being born, lives being renewed, teenagers saying no to what the world has to offer and yes to things that last forever, communities coming together and people putting their total trust in the One who made them. These are miracles. This is what makes life worth it.

So my prayer today is that He would explode my soul and disturb my sleep. Transform me. Help me ask for and believe in big things.

What makes your life worth it?

{photo cred goes to Kate from our group a few weeks ago. thanks, lady.}

the overcoming

"although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

-source unknown

walking up that dirt path. a man with machete in hand and rubber boots passes on the right going to work. the chickens running crazy right outside the wood slatted house. a woman peers out the kitchen window as she throws another tortilla on the open fire for breakfast. just-washed clothes hanging out on the barbed wire fence and the small kids run around, their feet pattering all over the dirt. and the sun...the suns is bold coming over the peak of those green mountains. it's a new morning.

sometimes living here overwhelms me with the all the need and all the suffering that goes on. broken families, not enough food, the back-breaking labor, sickness, and loneliness. 

yes, these things happen in america, but there's something about seeing it here in raw form. it's kids who think twice before buying a new pair of sandals. where a three liter of pepsi means a party. widowed women walk with food baskets on top of their heads selling their goods to the neighbors. the boys make their soccer goals out of cut wood and young workers fill in holes on the road hoping for a little extra cash from those who pass.

but above all the need there are greater things. kids laugh with friends. there is a job to do today. students get to go to school. there is love. family. peace. life. tomorrow is a new day.

those who know their Creator are the most joyful because they know this isn't it. life is not a daily grind to get ahead -- it's an opportunity to celebrate blessings. and there are greater things yet to come.

today i got to see a boy learn to write and learn sentences in english -- i mean really learn them!
today we get to live with ten kids who have a safe, loving home to stay in.
today there are fresh coconuts from the trees.
today baby kelly learns how to walk.
today we have an abundance of food and water in our house.

this is the overcoming of suffering.

photo credit goes to the lovely visitors {again}. 

indoor plumbing is for sissies

so it all started when the mostly reliable water source became a little less reliable. lots of left over dishes, lots of drip-drip-drop showers, yaddah yaddah yaddah. something had to be done. i could tell you the story about the water leak scare in our house, a consideration to knock out the concrete floor of the kitchen, the easy fix of an un-glued pipe, the cow stepping on the waterline and the adventures of outside dish-washing…but I won’t. 

the brilliant brainstormers and innovators over here decided it was time to dig a well and get a new, very reliable water source goin’. after some logical location selection and a grouping of a few good men, they started digging. and digging. and digging. and then they hit water. oh, wow! let me just say that for a non-country living girl i was thoroughly impressed, alright?!

Here’s some footage from the well-digging escapades..

and my limited but heart-felt participation in the matter.

{cute, right? yeah. i won't be living that one down for awhile.}

this whole thing sure made me think about all the people in this world who don’t have access to water, much less have it in their house! we are so spoiled. life got real easy when water stared coming out of the faucet again. were we happier? maybe for the moment. but then it becomes just another thing we expect out of life.

things like that don’t make people joyful. we’ve got to look somewhere else for that folks or we’ll find ourselves a lifetime later with empty pockets still searching for the next greatest thing.

Today we are more thankful for water and we find our joy complete in the one who created it.

one year ago

one year ago this week i went on a short trip to honduras with a few of my friends to serve and encourage the medical team there. we ended up working with a couple, monica and kelvin, who also had long term missions on their mind during the trip. i had left that place feeling the most fulfilled and purposeful and thought to myself, "hm, this could really be something." i thought maybe working for a year or two at home and coming back to honduras some time later would be best. turns out that was just not the way it was supposed to be. a few months later i found myself down here again with monica and kelvin. this time for a little bit longer. and it couldn't have turned out any better. God's plan is always better.  it just is.

ministry update

hope you are just as encouraged as i am about what God is doing down here in rural honduras. please check out the ministry's blog to read about our new kids and the team we've got down here. 

a few of us are headed to guatemala to renew our visas this week. pictures to come!

if your'e interested, check out monica and kelvin's blog here and brayden's over here to read about things from their end. 

equally unentitled

I'm not a big reader...ask anyone who knows me. However, I think this new little life phase of mine has got me into it a little. Maybe it's the fact that I made myself haul a bunch of borrowed books to this country and now feel obligated to read them. In any case, this new one I've gotten a hold of has really got my attention -- it's called The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. 

Frankly, a book about the gospel of grace seems trite. It's lost it's significance. But that's exactly what this book is about -- redeeming and establishing grace. Putting it in it's rightful, pivotal moment, life-changing place. I am amazed at the accurate description of my our desperate attempt to find freedom by a "do-it-yourself spirituality."

It's a fantastic reminder of the gospel that should unleash in us a personal response.

The gospel that tells of a deeply loving God. 

                                                   who knows us because he created us.

                                who wants us to stop the self-denial and recognize our failure.

                                                 who wants us to come to Him like that.

                     who will embed in us a spirit -- the same one that raised Christ from the dead.

                                                    who knows the best way possible to live. and invites us into that. 

                                       who does not count tally marks on the good and bad behavior list.

                                                                     who rejoices over our entering into his calling. 

                                                who still loves us when we don't.

"We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God's mercy."

So there's my book review. 

Or at least of the first chapter -- which I have now read three times and written all over.