Take aways from my first year in seminary...

Wisely, Larry suggested we spend the first Saturday after the end of our first year reflecting. We move on so quickly-- it is good to stop and remember. What better place to stop and reflect than a fabulous coffee shop on the coast?!

Here is a sampling of the things I am remembering from finishing my first year here (in no particular order):

1. Julian of Norwich. I am certain that I will love her tremendously when given the opportunity to meet. She was recommended to me by both my spiritual director/friend in the Pierce Fellowship as well as my church history professor, Dr. Adams. I spent a significant amount of time last semester hearing from her in her autobiography, Revelations of Divine Love. The primary thing I walked away with from her testimony was the power in reflection on how the Lord has revealed himself to us.

2. The need to retell God's story. This was Dr. Carol Kaminski's commission to the graduates of GCTS this year. She is a powerful story-teller! We took her January term Old Testament Survey. It was a hard class to cover in 2 weeks, but we powerfully experienced the Lord as author of the most incredible story ever written. I especially grew to love books I had barely read before: Ezekiel is scandalous!!; Proverbs has valuable lessons; Jonah encourages us to see God's love for the Gentiles, etc.

3. A new found passion for running! We love that the people here in the Northeast are outside in every season! I have taken up running, exploring every nook and cranny of the Northshore. I have found this to not only be healthy, but relaxing, reflective, and illustrative of what it is to persevere in the Christian life. It probably should have been that my greatest feeling of accomplishment came Monday after turning in my last paper of the year; instead, it was the 4.6 mile run I made the same weekend! I especially love how ironic this is because in September, when I first started jogging, I was teaching a group of college students telling them I would never know a runner's high. I still haven't experienced it, but I feel like I'm a huge step closer!

4. The love of discovery. One of our classes, Educational Ministry in a Cultural Perspective, required an ethnography project. While our official topic was fascinating, we found ourselves discovering even more about ourselves and inter-culturally with our Korean teammate. So not only do I love baklava, I also love Korean citron tea!

5. In partnership with Julian's need to reflect, I have also discovered the gift of Sabbath rest. We were instructed by our Pierce training not just to stop-- that is only the beginning of Sabbath. But also, we need to remember, embrace who God has made us to be, and celebrate Him! Reflecting on Hebrews 6:9-11, Sue Currie encouraged us that "Sabbath gets us in touch with what's waiting for us." So we practice being who he made us to be, and celebrate him!

As mentioned, these five things are but a sampling. Deeper thoughts can be seen through previous blogs (which I posted through Gordon-Conwell's website), and there will certainly be more reflections over the summer. I encourage you to take some time to reflect on your own past twelve months. God's blessings to you in your pursuit of him. I would love to hear some of your favorite moments from the past year!

God speaks!

Perhaps this should not be profound to me, but it is!

The first action God takes in Scripture is to speak. And by speaking, things are created.

Exodus 33 says that God spoke to Moses face-to-face, as to a friend.

In contrast, Scripture says that idols have eyes but do not see, mouths but do not speak (Isaiah 44).

We were challenged in class to consider how often we are like the Israelites, desiring God to act more like a golden calf. Be regal, in a place of honor, receiving our worship and be a point of reference for all the prayers we lift up. But God is not like the idols. He is LIVING, and he speaks. Are we listening? Do you expect him to talk to you?

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice -Jesus John 18:37

2 recent lessons

I've learned 2 great things through my classes that are certainly not going to leave me any time soon:

1. From Greek, I learned that the word for hope is ελπις. An accurate definition of hope in the Greek is the "confident anticipation of what we know will surely come to pass." In this season, I am reminded of friends who are living in the sureness of their hopes, with confident anticipation that the God given hope of their future will surely come to pass. I pray for you reading this that you will lean with a confident anticipation on what you know will surely come to pass because God is faithful to his promises.

2. I learned a great lesson on marriage during an impromptu rabbit trail sermon/lesson. Our professor mentioned that we practice divorce whenever we leave the room during an argument. I have heard it often said that we dangerously practice marriage when we stay overnight with the person we're dating. It's dangerous because there is not yet the level of commitment to Christ and to your relationship when you practice the covenant of marriage before it is made. However, I had never heard of practicing divorce. The fact is, when you leave a room when you're mad, next time you will likely leave the house. The not-so-subliminal message that you're sending is: I am better off getting through this argument without you. You could see where this would lead to an actual separation. With a sad number of people around us contemplating divorce, I am reminded of the work involved in doing marriage. I would beseech you as a friend to live in your marriage this week, and even when you're arguing, practice being together.

new places, new things

Rather than post one gynormous post about all the new things happening in life in Boston, I think I'll take it in segments over the next few days. I'm excited to introduce you to life up here! It's not as different from being down south as I expected.

One of the new things is a group of college women I'm excited about getting to know better. We're walking through the book Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline, written by Lauren F. Winner as a way of thinking about Christian disciplines in light of Judaic traditions. I want to share a few introductory quotes with you:

"Spiritual practices don't justify us. They don't save us. Rather, they refine our Christianity" (Winner, xii).

"Practicing the spiritual disciplines does not make us Christians. Instead, the practicing teaches us what it means to live as Christians" (Winner, xii-xiii).

Some of the disciplines I've most enjoyed being in my life are gleaned from Richard Foster's A Celebration of Discipline. I've found so much life and joy in prayer, meditation, fasting, and prayer. As I begin studying and working on these Judaic disciplines, I'm curious:

What spiritual disciplines do you most enjoy? Which would you most like to incorporate into your everyday life?

shout out to all my siestas

Can I get an AMEN! from my Siestas out there?!

I have to share a praise report today. A friend of mine is in college ministry in CA. She was hoping to do the study by Beth Moore called A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place. I recommend this study so much-- it completely changed how I view Scripture. I was able to see for the first time that the Bible is one phenomenal, perfectly planned story of redemption that began before Creation, had a big moment in the garden of Eden, climaxed at the cross, and is looking forward to its fulfillment of complete reconciliation at the end of times. So my friend was wanting to walk through this study with her college students, but the videos are very expensive, especially for a college ministry with limited resources.

So get this-- the amazing women who follow Beth Moore's blog set up a scholarship fund last year for those who are financially unable to spring for videos or conferences or the like. The wonderful ladies at Living Proof Ministries are able, through this fund, to provide my friend with the videos for next year.

So when we ask for big miracles from God, let's remember how creatively he takes care to provide for us in every moment of our lives. My verse this past month was Philippians 4:19-- "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." He is so faithful and so good. Let us never doubt.

Three Cups of Tea

I have been ever so slowly working my way through the books that have been on the right hand side of this page for an embarrassingly extended period of... ehem... months. I finally made it to the finale of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson this week. It is an eye and a heart opener. (not unlike many yoga poses I'm learning are hip openers-- ow!)

The conditions of the Middle Eastern countries are something I am grappling with from as many angles as I can get a hold of. Iran's recent elections, Afghanistan's literature, Turkey's cultural developments-- all have captivated my interest. Why? Why is a great question. Um..(I am really thinking hard about this here)... well there's a lot of reasons. This may sound corny, but I hope it doesn't. I feel an overwhelming love for those who are lost spiritually, for the suffering and hunger and displacement of those in the region, and a supernatural need to pray for Jesus to be known there.

Back to the book-- Greg Mortenson is a mountaineer that found himself lost on his way back from hiking K2 in Pakistan and landed among the Balti tribe. He promised them help when he returned to the States and bought them the materials so they could build themselves a school. That was the first. Now his organization, the Central Asia Institute (CAI), is around the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education to those who otherwise would find it inaccessible, especially girls. The book provides many dialogues about the power of education, its political and health care influences on entire nations of the underprivileged. He especially discusses how the schools are able to combat the powerful madrassas in the region that are churning out young jihadis. I encourage you to read this and grow in love with the region as I have. I believe that we have the opportunity through prayer to be a part in seeing the Kingdom come to these unreached areas.

Here are a few pictures from CAI's website of the students in the schools there. I ask that you would take the time to ponder a few things as you look at them:

1. Do the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan look, in terms of appearance, as you would expect them to?

2. Can you tell the age of the children? Do they appear similar to your own?

3. Please pray for them as you look at their faces-- that God would call them to himself, that they would grow in knowledge and understanding, and that they would be instruments of peace in their nation.

God's peace.

National Day of Prayer

This is an excerpt (the less politically laced excerpt) from the Os Hillman daily work devotional I receive via email:

"The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here'" (Zech 3:6-7).

On September 17th, 1796, George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." In His Prayer At Valley Forge, he entreated God: "Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prostrates myself before Thee."

This is not another political email.  As Derek Webb sings, "My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man, a democracy or blood.  It's to a king and a kingdom."  Please join with me in praying that God's will will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.  I pray that his kingdom will come quickly in its fullness.  And in the meantime, I pray that we will have a flag, a country, a President, a government and families that stand for the Lord that walk in his ways, that know his grace and will govern over us with a spirit of humility before the Almighty and eternal Lord God.

MUST must must read

Piggy backing off my last post, you simply MUST READ this one.  Melissa (formerly Moore) in Calcutta, India.

N.T. Wright offered a much more eloquent answer to my issues in my post from the other day.

“The cry for justice in the world, then, must be taken up and amplified by the Christian church, as the proper response to the voice of the living God.  The gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit indicate that there are ways forward…Christians should be energetic in advocating and pursuing that justice for which all human beings long and which burst upon the world, in a fresh and unexpected way, through Jesus.” (N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, 228)

Slumdog & India

I have been overwhelmed, once again, but the plight of an entire nation of people.  Once again I find myself with the saints saying, How long O Lord??  How much longer will you withhold your justice?

(caveat) I think I'm going to work backwards on this one, so starting with where I am now and then backing up to where this whole thing started.  Please be patient with me-- I am a work in progress and so is this thought process.

Most recently, India has been on my mind because one of Beth Moore's daughters, Melissa, is in India with Compassion International.  For her story, click on the "melissa in india" blog link on the left.  Were it not for the droning of the florescents in my cube to keep me aware of where I am, I would have wept at her pictures.  The last one is almost too much for me.

There have been many conversations between Melissa and the movie, but the recent interest in India was kicked off with Slumdog Millionaire.  I recognize that I am one to be very emotionally wrapped up in a movie.  I jump at the slightest provocation and rarely watch a moving movie without dreaming about it later that night.  But this one was something else altogether.  I was on my feet for a good chunk of the movie, unable to bear even being in the same room when Latika is abused (granted, it is implied but OH MY the implication was enough), when the poor child's eyes are blinded by a cruel, greedy man, or when Jamal was tortured.  This was a month ago and I still know their names.  I was told this weekend, "but it has a happy ending!"  I can't help but recognize that for so many Indian children, there is not the hope of the million dollars.  

This led me to a frantic, soul crushing discussion with Larry and a close friend.  What hope at all can I offer the children of India?  Do I truly believe that the name of Jesus is hope enough when I cannot change even their hunger?  I am frustrated with myself for even having that question.  But a that close friend pointed out to me that the justice and provision I have pictured for these impoverished children is not God's justice- it is not nearly as perfect and it is focused on the circumstances of this world.  God's justice, however, is perfect.  Beth Moore talked about how God's justice is balanced with his love.  I cannot extract or separate God's perfect justice from His perfect love.

So I have been meditating on John 16:33

I have said these things to you (about Jesus going back into heaven) that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation.  But take heart, I have overcome the world.

I do believe, and for the sake of those who are truly suffering in this world, I must believe that Jesus has already overcome the world.  They will receive justice and every blessing from the Father.  He sees them and knows them each by name.

India began to be written on my heart back in high school, when a friend sought to go to India for the summer.  She must have already known that the hope offered in the name of Jesus and his redeeming work on the cross was and is sufficient for the poor in India.  That same assurance has been preached to me again and again through the powerful witness of those who have seen God's grace bring life in India: when she returned to India, and then another friend from high school went to spread the good news, and then a couple with 10/40 Connections spoke of the movement of God there, then when a friend asked me to pray for her burden for India, then when our church began sponsoring an orphanage there that takes girls off the streets and out of prostitution and gives them a home, and now with Melissa.  If you would courageously considering opening your heart to prayer for the nations, I believe that you will find as I have that the name of Jesus IS the power and grace, the love and justice, and the profound hope for all who are lost and all who are suffering.  May it be so.

Independent Women

Caveat: I do not pretend to think that by writing about this I am some sort of expert or have considered the sociological influences of this matter from multiple angles. This is not meant to be eloquent but just a gut reaction.


BBC today featured today a story about an exclusively female hotel that has just opened in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is a hotel run by women, for women with female IT personnel, housekeeping, front staff and bellhops.


Gut reaction: Great!
That's so great to provide women with a place where they can relax, not have to wear the full abaya, and feel safe from the perusal of men.


Following reaction: Feminist
Why should a woman have to feel threatened by the perusal of men because they're not completely covered head to toe in stifling black fabric?


Final reaction: Sadness
This is just not how Jesus intended it. My friend Jason spoke very thoughtfully last night to what changed after Creation that set man and God apart. Creation was very good when God was walking with man and woman in the cool of the garden. Man worked and tended to the garden and the woman helped the man. When we ate from the tree of good and evil, it wasn't that the fruit in itself contained the knowledge of good and evil and that is what separated us from God...


Woman and man ate the fruit in direct opposition to the will of God which had man's good in mind (Gen 2:17- in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die). When we went in the opposite direction of God's will, our eyes were open to a new measure of whether what Adam and Eve were doing was very good and in God's will or not. This new measure is the measure of good and evil. Where did they fall in the spectrum? Well Adam believed himself more good than Eve, and Eve saw herself more good than the serpent. From that point forward, we've been judging ourselves and the healthiness of our lives against the good-ness of others' lives.


This situation brings that contrast into a startling light. Extreme Islamic cultures continue to be the Adam, blaming the Eve for their failings. This sends women under covers, hiding in hotels where they can be safe, dangerously submitting to paths they've been ordered to follow. One of the Saudi IT specialists said, "It's not easy to work in a company, male and female together, so I feel really lucky." This is just not the natural order of things! God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone and made Eve. Not good to be alone! We are meant to be complementary, men and women and to work together.

Jesus, reconcile our world to you, your will, and your order.

Breakthrough

I love the experience of having a God breakthrough. I had yet another one this week-- less personal, so I thought I'd share. Our highly esteemed Rev. DBurke was sharing about pain. No easy topic. I found myself throughout the talk frustrated and fighting against my own questions.

Yes, all pain will one day be redeemed. This we are promised (Rev 17:17).

Yes, one day we will know in full what today we have only known in part (1 Cor 13:12).

But what about the circumstances and individuals that God says that he loves (Romans 8:37)-- and I believe Him!-- yet do not know the end to suffering. How am I to bring light of the love of God in someone's life who has experienced inexcusable pain done to them. How can I speak of redemption when it is someone else's sin that has brought such abuse into their lives??

Jesus.

Yes, he is the Sunday School answer. As of Tuesday I understand why He is the answer to this question as well. DBurke walked us through a very troubling story of abuse. How one woman who had been abused beyond description had to walk right into the depths of the abuse to encounter Jesus. There, in the depth of the sea of her hurt, she was asked by this professor of DBurke's to picture Jesus in the room in the midst of her suffering. Then she was to picture Jesus walking towards her. Then, in the very act of abuse, she was asked to picture Jesus taking her place. The substitutionary sacrifice.

Now I get it.

Jesus not only provides redemption for us in the eternal sense (Heb 9:28). The provision of his death not only covers our sins (Romans 6:1-4). The provision of his suffering is also substitutionary for the sins caused against us (1 John 2:1-2 + the truth of living in the reality of the kingdom of God now-- a whole other discussion per Dallas Willard). He takes on this suffering. He died that we might have life and have it in abundance (John 10:10)! He has already, continues to, and will take on the suffering of the entire world. So to you who is experiencing more than your share of heartache-- you whose entire sense of today has been shaped by abuses of your past-- you who are looking ahead to months with a diagnosis of pain-- know that Jesus died that you might know now Christ himself and the redemption his death has purchased.

He cares for you so much.

Rev 4:8 "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

May we all say this in amazement.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have... 1 Peter 3:15

... but do this with gentleness and respect. (Thought that extra note might be necessary).

I've been pondering a passage from tomorrow's (sorry, I read ahead) My Utmost for His Highest passage. Please consider this and let me know your thoughts:

"The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others. The overruling passion of his life is Jesus Christ. Whenever you see this quality in a person, you get the feeling that he is truly a man after God’s own heart."