http://joyinthemargins.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-jesus-prays-for-us.html
I kindly and humbly suggest that you take a minute to read this blog.
For those who are parents, or who have family members and friends who aren't "all they could be" (read: perfect), or who work in the social services realm:
How are we reacting and what are we praying in the face of their misbehaviors?
What might Jesus (or others) be praying and interceding for on our behalf, daily?
with hope~
emily
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
name
Last month, I went with my friend, Julio, to a weekend seminar called Ancient Paths, which is part of a ministry called Family Foundations International. Through a series of videos, the organization´s founder, Craig Hill, shares about God´s system of blessing families, a system that He built into the Hebrew culture, but which we have mostly lost.
There is also one video session about spirit-soul-flesh, and the struggle we live out daily because of our triune being. If the Bible says that we are dead to sin and the flesh, and instead live in and by the spirit, why do we still find ourselves dealing with desires and actions that work against our God-renewed spirits?
He described our three-part being as a series of three rooms, with two mutually exclusive doors. If the door between spirit and soul (emotions, mind and will) is open, then the door between soul and flesh is closed. The reverse is also true -- the soul-flesh door opens and the soul-spirit door closes.
So how do we live in the Spirit, as we are instructed to do in Galations 5?
Hill said something very interesting in his talk: if we try to live in the spirit by consciously avoiding the flesh, we will fail!
Not very encouraging? Or maybe it is... He connected this concept to Hebrews, where the author speaks so much about God´s rest and entering into that rest. If we stay hyper-focused on the sinful nature and attempting to avoid living in the flesh, we end up doing just that (like a dieter eating the chocolate cake he thinks all day about NOT eating, or like a driver swerving off the cliff because he´s looking at the ravine instead of the road he wants to stay on). We can´t and won´t succeed on our own, because our soul (mind, will and emotions) is not strong enough... it is stuck in the middle of spirit and flesh, and does not want to give up its autonomy (MY will, MY thoughts, MY feelings). Living in the Spirit demands that my spirit submit to God´s spirit... that I die to MYself. That I REST in God. That I stop trying so hard.
Years ago, at a camp, God changed my internal name. I had been called STRIVING -- always attempting to do everything right. He told me that my new name was SAINT -- resting on Jesus´ perfection and sacrifice, the work already done for me.
On the last night of the seminar last month, the small group leaders turned in a little card to each participant. This card listed the participant´s name, its meaning, and a verse. I knew that my name, Emily, meant diligent one. I remembered reading somewhere that my middle name, Rebecca, meant deceiver. I could joke that I was diligent about deceiving! However, that night I was freed from my own joke, as the card handed to me said:
Emily: diligent or laborious
Rebecca: destined to God, abiding in God
So there, in my very name, is the paradox that Hill spoke of, and that God had already spoken to me in the striving-to-saint conversion. I can and should and do work, but it is valid only to the extent that I am resting in God. Abiding. Being, not doing. Living in the Spirit. Not inactive, but aware that my activity cannot save me, doesn´t make all the difference; God and His work does.
There is also one video session about spirit-soul-flesh, and the struggle we live out daily because of our triune being. If the Bible says that we are dead to sin and the flesh, and instead live in and by the spirit, why do we still find ourselves dealing with desires and actions that work against our God-renewed spirits?
He described our three-part being as a series of three rooms, with two mutually exclusive doors. If the door between spirit and soul (emotions, mind and will) is open, then the door between soul and flesh is closed. The reverse is also true -- the soul-flesh door opens and the soul-spirit door closes.
So how do we live in the Spirit, as we are instructed to do in Galations 5?
Hill said something very interesting in his talk: if we try to live in the spirit by consciously avoiding the flesh, we will fail!
Not very encouraging? Or maybe it is... He connected this concept to Hebrews, where the author speaks so much about God´s rest and entering into that rest. If we stay hyper-focused on the sinful nature and attempting to avoid living in the flesh, we end up doing just that (like a dieter eating the chocolate cake he thinks all day about NOT eating, or like a driver swerving off the cliff because he´s looking at the ravine instead of the road he wants to stay on). We can´t and won´t succeed on our own, because our soul (mind, will and emotions) is not strong enough... it is stuck in the middle of spirit and flesh, and does not want to give up its autonomy (MY will, MY thoughts, MY feelings). Living in the Spirit demands that my spirit submit to God´s spirit... that I die to MYself. That I REST in God. That I stop trying so hard.
Years ago, at a camp, God changed my internal name. I had been called STRIVING -- always attempting to do everything right. He told me that my new name was SAINT -- resting on Jesus´ perfection and sacrifice, the work already done for me.
On the last night of the seminar last month, the small group leaders turned in a little card to each participant. This card listed the participant´s name, its meaning, and a verse. I knew that my name, Emily, meant diligent one. I remembered reading somewhere that my middle name, Rebecca, meant deceiver. I could joke that I was diligent about deceiving! However, that night I was freed from my own joke, as the card handed to me said:
Emily: diligent or laborious
Rebecca: destined to God, abiding in God
So there, in my very name, is the paradox that Hill spoke of, and that God had already spoken to me in the striving-to-saint conversion. I can and should and do work, but it is valid only to the extent that I am resting in God. Abiding. Being, not doing. Living in the Spirit. Not inactive, but aware that my activity cannot save me, doesn´t make all the difference; God and His work does.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
what's up with my immune system??
This is the basic question I'm asking myself now, and for the past month.
After getting better from my 8-month-long sinus infection, I felt really optimistic. No surgery! I can breathe! I'm not congested!
Then, a month later, I got a cold, with my typical symptoms of sinus congestion.
A week after that, I got some sort of stomach bug or parasite.
About a week and a half later, I felt like I was getting another cold, and then it turned into a recurrence of a virus I got three years ago when I first moved to Bogotá.
Last night I slept for 12 hours, and right now the thing I most want to do is go take a nap.
I've started taking Scott's emulsion again, which I think helped my immune system health while I was taking a spoonful daily (I ran out about a month ago).
But really?! What's all this about?!
Another theory is that my mild case of chicken pox (varicela zoster) as a child may have left me susceptible to catching and retaining other viruses in the same family (the gingivostomatitis that I got three years ago, and that is now acting up again is in the same family of viruses). Are any medical professionals reading this? Does that even sound possible?
Or, any tips on boosting my immune system health? I'm sick of being sick.
After getting better from my 8-month-long sinus infection, I felt really optimistic. No surgery! I can breathe! I'm not congested!
Then, a month later, I got a cold, with my typical symptoms of sinus congestion.
A week after that, I got some sort of stomach bug or parasite.
About a week and a half later, I felt like I was getting another cold, and then it turned into a recurrence of a virus I got three years ago when I first moved to Bogotá.
Last night I slept for 12 hours, and right now the thing I most want to do is go take a nap.
I've started taking Scott's emulsion again, which I think helped my immune system health while I was taking a spoonful daily (I ran out about a month ago).
But really?! What's all this about?!
Another theory is that my mild case of chicken pox (varicela zoster) as a child may have left me susceptible to catching and retaining other viruses in the same family (the gingivostomatitis that I got three years ago, and that is now acting up again is in the same family of viruses). Are any medical professionals reading this? Does that even sound possible?
Or, any tips on boosting my immune system health? I'm sick of being sick.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
the gift
J. gave me a gift: a clear plastic bottle, 1.5 liters, cut off just below the neck, empty of its original beverage and now filled with… dirt. Dried out dirt, nothing else in it, save only a little twig, shoved into the dirt.
What kind of gift is this? It’s ugly, I don’t really want it. I receive it, a bit confused. But he insists, “It’s for you! Look, I found it, I put this stick in it, I made it for you.” I’m sure he found it in the yard, cast off from some previous school project. I suppose that at some time it had something growing in it but now it’s just a useless, cut-off soda bottle, filled with hard dirt.
I receive it and don’t know where to put it so it goes on the kitchen counter and then later, after a day or two, I sneak it outside and hide it behind a fence post. But he finds it and brings it back to me and says, “Look, this was outside. I brought it for you; it’s yours.” So, resigned to the fact of my gift, my unwanted gift, my not-sure-what-to-do-with-it gift, I set it up in the windowsill on the other side of the sink. There, J. can see it, and I can see it but it won’t be too obvious. A month goes by and the bottle of dirt stays there. I don’t pay it much attention, I don’t do anything to it; still I don’t really want it. Until one day, I see that a thin blade of grass has emerged, so I sprinkle a few drops of water on it. Then a week or so later something else comes up. So I continue to water it and see what will happen.
The result? It is a beautiful little plant, with heart-shaped leaves, bright green on the upperside and purple on the underside: a shamrock. And I am just astounded that from this worthless gift -- this found nothingness that I did not want and tried to cast off but wasn’t allowed to, that was given in love – something can grow from that. Something beautiful can grow from it, something I do want, even though I could not conceive of it when the gift was given. I showed him the plant, and I said, “Look what grew!” He smiled. “Look at the leaves, they’re shaped like hearts because you gave it to me in love.” He nodded and grinned and kept playing Legos.
The shamrock is still there and it’s growing, and recently it sent up a long shoot with several buds. Soon it will have little lavender blossoms. When something is done in love, even when there seems to be no hope, something good can come out of it, something beautiful can grow out of that act. It’s still in the ugly old coke bottle. Part of me wants to replant it, but part of me likes keeping it in that, to remember. There is a song by a group called Gungor that says, “You make beautiful things out of the dust, You make beautiful things out of us.” And Bethany Dillon sings, “Only You can see the good in broken things.” I’m so glad that J. didn’t let me cast it off, that God didn’t let it go unnoticed out there in the yard, but that I was forced to continue with this ugly, difficult, unwanted thing, and learn how it could grow into something beautiful where I didn’t expect anything good.
That’s what I hope for in life, and in these kids and their families. Formando Vidas exists to honor God through regenerating at-risk children, their families, and their future generations. Sometimes these kids come to us like an undesirable, dirt-filled, broken piece of trash. But they come to us as a gift. And sometimes we can’t appreciate the gift, but God is a giver who knows the seeds that are buried that we can’t even imagine. And he’s the one who makes things grow. He’s just inviting us to see the process and sprinkle drops of love, order, and hope into their parched lives.
What kind of gift is this? It’s ugly, I don’t really want it. I receive it, a bit confused. But he insists, “It’s for you! Look, I found it, I put this stick in it, I made it for you.” I’m sure he found it in the yard, cast off from some previous school project. I suppose that at some time it had something growing in it but now it’s just a useless, cut-off soda bottle, filled with hard dirt.
I receive it and don’t know where to put it so it goes on the kitchen counter and then later, after a day or two, I sneak it outside and hide it behind a fence post. But he finds it and brings it back to me and says, “Look, this was outside. I brought it for you; it’s yours.” So, resigned to the fact of my gift, my unwanted gift, my not-sure-what-to-do-with-it gift, I set it up in the windowsill on the other side of the sink. There, J. can see it, and I can see it but it won’t be too obvious. A month goes by and the bottle of dirt stays there. I don’t pay it much attention, I don’t do anything to it; still I don’t really want it. Until one day, I see that a thin blade of grass has emerged, so I sprinkle a few drops of water on it. Then a week or so later something else comes up. So I continue to water it and see what will happen.
The result? It is a beautiful little plant, with heart-shaped leaves, bright green on the upperside and purple on the underside: a shamrock. And I am just astounded that from this worthless gift -- this found nothingness that I did not want and tried to cast off but wasn’t allowed to, that was given in love – something can grow from that. Something beautiful can grow from it, something I do want, even though I could not conceive of it when the gift was given. I showed him the plant, and I said, “Look what grew!” He smiled. “Look at the leaves, they’re shaped like hearts because you gave it to me in love.” He nodded and grinned and kept playing Legos.
The shamrock is still there and it’s growing, and recently it sent up a long shoot with several buds. Soon it will have little lavender blossoms. When something is done in love, even when there seems to be no hope, something good can come out of it, something beautiful can grow out of that act. It’s still in the ugly old coke bottle. Part of me wants to replant it, but part of me likes keeping it in that, to remember. There is a song by a group called Gungor that says, “You make beautiful things out of the dust, You make beautiful things out of us.” And Bethany Dillon sings, “Only You can see the good in broken things.” I’m so glad that J. didn’t let me cast it off, that God didn’t let it go unnoticed out there in the yard, but that I was forced to continue with this ugly, difficult, unwanted thing, and learn how it could grow into something beautiful where I didn’t expect anything good.
That’s what I hope for in life, and in these kids and their families. Formando Vidas exists to honor God through regenerating at-risk children, their families, and their future generations. Sometimes these kids come to us like an undesirable, dirt-filled, broken piece of trash. But they come to us as a gift. And sometimes we can’t appreciate the gift, but God is a giver who knows the seeds that are buried that we can’t even imagine. And he’s the one who makes things grow. He’s just inviting us to see the process and sprinkle drops of love, order, and hope into their parched lives.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)
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