The Trinity Part 2

As soon as I typed that title I felt compelled to make this a 3-parter! It only seems right since we are talking about the Trinity. This last week has further actualized God's revelation of who He is in choosing to send His Son, to take the form of a helpless child, into the world with the eventual end with death on a cross, death for our sins, doing for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves, sacrifice in the name of washing our sins away and repairing our relationship with God.
I had the privilege of attending both a wedding and a funeral this weekend. Both were instances of great celebration. Such peace comes with assurance of who you are in Christ and where your eternal destination lies. It was said at the funeral that God always shows up. Sometimes it is in our loved ones, friends and family God has put around us to celebrate with us, grieve with us, encourage us, this is the body of Christ acting in accordance with how God has revealed Himself. In the case of Christmas, however God showed up as a baby in a manger. He showed up and walked through this world, he shares our hurt, our joy, our awe, our love, a love that is not self referenced, but comes from Him. He shows up when we cannot show up for ourselves.
Forgive my rambling but it also makes me think about how we fail one another when we do not "show up".
So many people have shown up for me, for Marten, for our girls. Without our church family, without the body of Christ, Marten would not know our God today. It does "take a village"! God's Spirit, the great Counselor that came freely to us upon Christ's ascension, is working through and in that village. We must only pay attention and be obedient!

Trinity, Community, the body

The Trinity has been on my mind a lot lately. Can't tell you why exactly, I guess I need to pay attention. The Trinity is a hard thing to wrap your mind around, much less try to explain to someone. Many a children's book has been written about it and many an analogy has been made. Maybe you have heard the water, vapor, ice one or the apple peel, flesh, and seed? The concept of how God has revealed Himself through scripture and through history has tripped people up for centuries. It was one of the reasons for a split in the early church between the east and the west. Did the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son or from the Father alone? How do we describe this one form three essences? One essence three forms? Anyway the explaining is diffficult. The experience makes a difference.

You see the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit exist in a state of constantly giving selflessly, one to the other a constant giving of self flowing from one to the next. This is the model for the body of Christ, the church universal, God's people in the world, constantly giving of self, one to the other. If you are always giving, never expecting in return, BUT the next person is giving, etc., etc. what kind of world would this be?

I can honestly say I have experienced the Triune God through His people in varying degrees. that is what has really been on my mind. The more I experience it the more I grow to be part of it. More about that next time...

My brain hurts but my heart is full...

So, I am sitting here working on one of my final papers for my Anthropology for Christian Mission class. It's finals week and I have completed my work for two classes but have two more to go. I'm tired. I want to be done. I want to veg and watch Christmas movies. My brain hurts. BUT, my heart is so full of all I have learned over these last months. On the outside things might be and look hard but on the inside God is doing amazing things. Some days I hardly recognize myself anymore. Most days I wonder how I got here and what could I possibly have to do in this role that has been cast for me. I feel like such an understudy, occasionally allowed to play the role, then sink back into anonymity.
I was thinking today about the last year and a half of seminary and what I have really learned. For the most part what I think has happened is that an excavation has been done. All of the dirt and garbage from this world and all of its yuck has been removed. But not removed never to be seen again, removed in order to be used to provide fertile soil for sowing seeds, redeeming the junk and using it for God's glory. It has been as well a process, and continues to be, of figuring out who God really created me to be, what He wants, not what I want or anyone has told me to be. My heart is full because I know my God is working, refining, honing. Sometimes it hurts but so do many cures for the sick!
Back to work....

How big is your God?

Times are tough for some more than others. It's kind of a wake up call to some of us who easily come by the necessities in life. Others know what it is like to not have basic needs met on a pretty regular basis. Where is God in all that? Well this is the way I see things...

I believe that God is a God of abundance! I do not believe there is a limit on what He can do and provide. I believe that as a planet and as a people we have been given everything we need, but I also know that some of us have better means and circumstances to access resources to meet those needs. I also believe that to those whom God has gifted in place and in circumstance a greater responsibility is given.

We have all we need. God has been partnering with man since the beginning of time, it is in His nature to continue to do so. God's resources are unlimited. Yet so many of us don't live like that. We hang on to what we have and fear giving it away because what might tomorrow bring? It makes me think of the Israelites in the desert, collecting the manna, even though God had told them not to, only to find it had rotted the next day.

Do you believe that God will meet your needs? Maybe you are hanging on to something that you don't need right now but someone else does. Give generously. Trust that God will provide. Love one another.

So very thankful....

I am thankful for so much. More than anything I am thankful for the people that God has put in my life and whose lives I have the privilege of being a part of. I am in awe that God loves me so much that he has blessed me with each and every person around me and my family. I need each and every one of them!
The semester is about to come to an end and I am a little burnt around the edges. I am ready for a long winter's nap, ready for Marten to know he has another job, ready to know that school is paid for for a change, ready to rest, if only for awhile. Those of you that know me know I have a hard time sitting still for long! It's a good thing because come January I am starting CPE, which is Clinical Pastoral Education. I will be doing this at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital, an internship as a hospital chaplain. I look forward to this practical experience in ministering to families and all God will be doing in and through me. I will also be starting a student pastorate at a little church just south of Social Circle. I am overwhelmed by this opportunity and look forward to that as well, although truly it seems surreal. In addition I will be taking two classes and continuing to work part time.
All that being said, I sure would appreciate your prayers! I ask that you join me in prayer for God's provision in a job for Marten, strength, energy, and annointed words to share in both my CPE and in my pastorate position, and very importantly, someone(s) to help support my seminary costs. Not receiving any of the scholarships I applied for and not being eligible for financial aid has made being obedient to God's call more than a little challenging financially, but nevertheless the obedience is not negotiable. I will continue to move forward in whatever ways I am able! Doing otherwise is frankly impossible!
Jeremiah 20:9
9 But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

The Change of Seasons

So much seems to be changing right now. On the surface winter is coming on full force no doubt with our 18 degree temperature in Georgia this morning! We have a new President coming into office that ran on the idea of change. Marten is looking for a new job thanks to Circuit City closing all of the Atlanta stores, I am finishing up another semester in 3 weeks and trying to get things in order for next semester. I am praying about an opportunity to take a student pastorate position at a small church, and Monday is my 40th birthday. Man that is a lot of change! It really is enough to send someone over the edge. BUT, Marten and I have gotten some practice at this turmoil before and we are getting the hang of it. Yes we are uneasy, and as I said, I was angry for awhile about the job, but underneath it all, and this goes for Marten too, is a sense of peace and assurance. We know whose we are and we have seen Him come through in awesome ways before.
It's time for me to preach to myself. Some of the things I have found myself saying to others (friends, classmates, family, and in interviews) lately are: "we need only step forward in obedience, the details are His and He will work them out, the kingdom is brought to earth in those small steps taken forward". "We do not get to pick who we sit next to in the Kingdom. They will probably not look like us, talk like us, or smell like us, but they are our brothers and sisters, God's beloved children." "It is normal to doubt. You live your life and God shows up and you know that it is more than a story". "Yes all of this newness is overwhelming but it will be fine and I will learn so much by being stretched outside of my comfort zone". "To be honest with you nothing about this whole thing is comfortable. I did not think when I was a little girl, 'oh I want to grow up and go to seminary and be a preacher', but God called and I answered and the rest has nothing to do with me and everything to do with what He can do in and through me."

Thank God it has nothing to do with me! I am just a willing instrument. AMEN!

Building Projects

My friend Linda and I had a great time with our Youth girls small group this weekend. We had a sleepover at Linda's and spent a lot of time talking while we put together and decorated gingerbread houses and a gingerbread church to auction at our church's Harvest Festival next weekend. It was quite an undertaking and while the results were pretty fantastic the process was most rewarding. While building and creating I thought about the time and energy and effort we all put into making our lives just so, maybe it is appearance or decor and maybe it is truly strong to the foundation, nevertheless, how little or how much does it take in life to destroy the veneer if the foundation is not so strong? What if you have not taken the time to do the real hard, dirty work? It made me think of the passage in matthew 7 about the wise and the foolish builders...24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Who knows how much money we will raise for the church as a result of our labor, one thing is sure the time we spent building was priceless!