"A Time to Be Silent and a Time to Speak."

Definitely Not Anatomy Homework.

Instead of doing anatomy homework I have decided to read my Bible; a much better option, right? Naturally I turned to my favorite book and chapter of the Bible (although I’m not sure if playing favorites is acceptable, I digress) Hebrews 12. If you haven;t read Hebrews, just know that it is INCREDIBLE. Enough said. Seriously, if you want to get the gospel in 13 jam-packed chapters of ‘God breathed’ gold check it out. Anyways, Hebrews twelve talks initially about suffering and discipline and continues on into an exhortation not to refute God and a kindly reminder of how truly blessed we are. Its honestly one of the top five most beautiful things I have ever read, if not the most (its right up there with the crucifixion). 

Hebrews 12:11 

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who are trained by it. 

This verse alone carried me through an incredibly difficult season in my walk. Just take a moment to read Hebrews 12, do yourself that favor. Then take a moment and remind yourself that God is sovereign. Remind yourself that Jesus is interceding on your behalf, out of love; and that he didn’t never had to. Just remember that even the discipline and trials we face are for OUR good. 

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (go reread this with all 3 verses)

James 1:2-4

God Bless!

When You Fall Down

Have you ever wiped out? I mean completely lost your footing and found yourself face-down on the ground? I know I have, although its been a while. 

The reason I ask is because I was reminded of what that looks like from an outside perspective and I found it to be an unlikely reminder of my own emotional ‘trips’. I was walking back to my dorm from the gym and not too far in front of me was a girl in rain-boots with arms full of grocery bags. Waiting down the road was a man in a nice suit that seemed to be waiting on the girl to reach him. As she finally got within a few feet of him she lost her footing and completely face-planted. Her bags hit the ground, her hands and arms were scraped and I’m sure her pride was a little bruised as well…

In this moment God hit me with a minor revelation, so often I find myself falling into emotional anguish or into the trap known as temptation and sin. Metaphorically speaking, we are all this girl. Just walking along toward our goal:true relationship with God; and we all of a sudden find that something makes us trip up and hit the ground in a painful and unexpected manner. Sitting there looking at our battle wounds and wondering what went wrong, what made us fall? It could be sin, temptation, emotional turmoil, or a plethora of other worldly things. Whatever the case, we all fall down sometimes. The incredible part is what happens next?

So here I am watching this scene unfold… 

The girl is on the ground, her spoils scattered around her, and I will never forget: the man in the suit. Even though the girl seemed to forget he was there at first I watched as it dawned on her that someone was there to help; already picking up the items that had fallen out of her bags this man was already repairing the damages. He proceeded to pick up the rest of the mess while the girl sat on the ground and inspected her scratches with looks of pain and confusion still visible on her face. The man then helped her up, and asked if she was okay as he continued to hold onto her bags for her. As soon as she seemed to finally asses that the situation was contained they began to walk forward together, the man patting her back and comforting her. 

Now I know this seems like the same story we’ve heard or experienced ourselves many-a-times, but in that moment God hit me with this revelation like a brick. When you or I fall down and it seems like we have no one to help, scratches and pains that we have nothing to immediately cover, and our pride and emotions are laying beside us in the dust… This is when God comes along. He comes down and meets us where we are and begins to pick up everything we’ve dropped. Not only that but He carries our burdens Himself. That baggage that we seem to carry with us everywhere, yeah, God takes that and picks it up without even mentioning it or trying to hand it back to us! Then afterwards, He picks us back up and begins the healing process. When we allow God to come in and pick us back up, even though we might be embarrassed  and a little shaken, He will help us begin to move forward again. As Christians, we have the promise that God is never far away and that He is always there to pick us up again when we fall! 

Psalm 34:18 tells us ‘The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’

If I learned anything from the moments where I have found myself emotionally on the ground, lost and lonely it is that the Lord is never far away. Even if we don’t realize it at first. All we have to do is ‘come near to God and He will come near to you…’ as James 4:8 says. When we call upon the name of the Lord we find that our Comforter and Refuge is never far away! We can find comfort in the name of Jesus! All we have to do is realize that He is already picked up everything we’ve dropped and is waiting patiently for us to reach out and grab His strong hand so He can pull us back up and get us back on track. 

In times of trouble its all about reaction. What will you do next time you fall down?

One Body

So today after Mosaic, which to be honest I was not totally feeling…. Something that really bummed me out… Alex and I decided to skip the group lunch and just head back to the commons. When we got to the parking lot and parked Shelby and Zekoff called and asked where we were and we decided to go, but before we backed out a man came up to the car window and had a sign saying that he was deaf, homeless, in need of help, and that today is his 65th birthday. Alex had just been telling me about how bad she felt for telling a homeless man the other day that she would “bring him leftovers” and how she wanted another chance to help someone out. Well, this was her chance. God placed this man in our paths right at the perfect time. As two girls, we were kind of sketched out about the whole deal and I honestly have a rough time trusting strangers, especially men. So, we get to talking to the man and find out that he is not completely deaf, and it didn’t really seem like he was very deaf at all. After a while we decided to take him to get lunch at the commons and provide him with some fresh food. While we ate we talked to him and found out his name is Jerry and that he came here from Chicago. He recently got kicked out of his girlfriend’s place because he is broke. He also has five kids that are all grown and I know he’s been divorced at least once. He also attends church on south side and is a fellow brother in Christ. As we continued to talk to him I became increasingly uncomfortable with him and some of the things he was saying. He kept asking if we could pay for him to get a room at a local hotel and honestly Alex and I have very little money available to us as college students and we told him the most we could offer him was one night at a cheap motel. We also asked if he would be open to staying at a shelter and he immediately got defensive and said no, that he would beat someone up and get kicked out. So I attempted to ask him what he thought about a Christian shelter and he told me he would get kicked out of there as well and that he didn’t want us dropping him off some place he didn’t want to be. This is where I got uncomfortable, and I regret having to admit this, a bit upset with the poor man. Here we are, two young women offering to help get this man off the streets and all he does is tell us that it isn’t good enough and that he needs us to provide for him longer. Something inside of me got agitated watching this man, who doesn’t have a job because he is retired and gets checks from the military. I immediately began to pray and ask God to give me compassion and a heart for this man, for me to have patience and love for my fellow brother in Christ. I couldn’t quite shake the uneasy feeling that had come over me and I called some guy friends asking if they could escort us to the motel and after exhausting my list of male friends Zekoff pulled through and met us. We set off from the commons and began the short trip to the motel with some to-go plates of food and a few bottled drinks and snacks bagged up next to Jerry. When we got to the motel Alex payed for his room and we got him settled in, and before leaving Alex gave him her first real Bible, a leather parallel and gave him some scripture cards with it. Zekoff also gave him his number and we encouraged him to call us with updates on what scriptures he reads and how his life is going. We made him promise to search out God’s word every day and encouraged him to start Ephesians. Overall the situation showed me the compassion and love that we are expected and should want to give as members of the body of Christ. The church is called to love and to encourage, to build one another up and to care for those in need. It was so perfect because this morning at Mosaic the message was on Ephesians 4:1-6, all talking about the church and how we are called to live in unity with one another. ‘As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called- one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ –Ephesians 4:1-6 This honestly has just now hit me, not quite full force but not the words hold a lot more weight than they did as I was sitting in the second service surveying the tips of my damaged hair. It’s sad but true. I prayed during the service that I would take these words to heart and really have them hit me, that the Spirit would hit me like a crashing wave, God’s love pour into me like as it is released from the floodgates of heaven. So, as I sit here now contemplating today’s events I see that people’s needs are real and that everyone is needed as a part of the body. Jerry had expressed to Alex and I the fact that he believe he didn’t need anyone but God, ever. And I know that ultimately this is true, all we need is God, but God has given us a gift, a gift that we can choose to take or leave on the table: the gift of fellowship, of community, and of being a part of the body of God. Kris also addressed how the church cannot flourish in the midst of pride and arrogance. We weren’t called to be alone; we were called to be a part of the body of God. Individually we are temples of our Lord Jesus Christ and that is truly a beautiful and profound mystery. Collectively we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, one body under Christ our head. It pains me to hear stories like Jerry’s, ones where people have either been hurt by the church or have been taught that community is something that is unnecessary. If only people could truly see that it is a gift! “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.” In Genesis 2:18. We weren’t created to live this life alone! Not only do we have the incredible gift of the Spirit but we also have the body! Each person plays such a critical and active role, whether or not it is viewed as important or not, it plays a part. Paul does an awesome job describing the importance of each and every role in 1 Corinthians 12: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized be one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” Clearly, some of us are meant to have this gift and another to have that. Earlier on in 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks about spiritual gifts, which are given by the Spirit to whom it chooses for the purpose of building up the body and glorifying God. Not everyone has the gift of evangelism, not everyone the gift of encouragement or of teaching or preaching. Everyone has the gift that suits them and allows for the Spirit to work in them for the glory of Jesus Christ. At times I find myself frustrated because I lack some of the gifts my friends have and I believe that I could use them, for example; I have always wanted the gifts of wisdom and evangelism. Evangelism especially, I constantly see it at work in my friends like Alex and Shelby, who can walk up to anyone and instantly, spark a deep spiritual conversation or provide some great act of compassion. Personally, I get to situations such as that and I freeze, uncomfortable and unsure of how to approach it. I can’t help it. I just have to acknowledge that my spiritual gifting lies elsewhere, though I am called to evangelize and help others which I pray I do every chance I get. For me, a couple of my gifts are encouragement and knowledge, which the Spirit has given to me for a unique purpose. Alex and Shelby may not have these two gifts as I do, and I do not have their gifts either. I wouldn’t want it any other way… if we all had the gift of evangelism, who would encourage? Or if we all had the gift of encouragement who would be able to provide knowledge? In fact, we all have unique and different gifts to supply the needs of others. The important thing to realize here is that God wants us to use our gifts in tandem with other members of the body, all to bring Him glory. On our own, yes we can do His work, but it will be inevitable that we will feel frustrated and stressed at the fact that we are not equipped to do it on our own. We have to remember that God created us for community and fellowship with other believers. It is a gift and a blessing.