hands and feet

God has been dealing with me a lot lately about the practicality of faith and about what role our works have in faith. It's a tough subject to wrap your mind around and I think I still have more questions than answers, to be honest. Like I said in my last post, I have been reading Shane Claiborne's book Irresistable Revolution (it's a great book but don't read it unless you are ready for it to ruin your life...in a good way...ha). There are so many aspects of the book I could talk about but one of the things that has hit me the hardest about it is a particular passage:

"I remember hearing about an old comic strip...Two guys are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for God. He wants to ask why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world And his friend says, 'Well, why don't you ask?' The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, 'I'm scared God will ask me the same question.' Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, 'You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet.'"

Wow...That really shifts the responsibility doesn't it? So I have been contemplating what it looks like for me to be the hands and feet of Jesus in my particular situation and place in life. This is a huge struggle for me because I constantly want to be DOING something big for God. I want to be doing whatever it is He has for me, making a tangible and visible difference, living out a dream that God has given me and that I am passionate about, especially when I see other people in my life living the fulfillment of that (like my friend Janine....check out more at www.nuruinternational.org). And yet I can't help but wonder whether God is looking back at my frustration and saying "But what are you doing NOW? You want to do something tangible, so do it!" I think this is a trap so many of us fall into...We are pursuing and loving Christ and yet it doesn't seem to translate into our actions and thus our impact because we are waiting for THE thing God has for us instead of looking for what we can do now and realizing that THE thing that we are looking for may look different in every stage of our life. Again, I am still trying to flush this all out and I don't have all the answers, but what I do now is that I don't want to be a stagnant Christian. I don't want to get so caught up in my own life that I don't see the injustice, the poverty, the problems around me. And I want to do more than just profess Christ...I want to live Him.

a woman's worth

I think as women the most common way that Satan attacks us is by attacking our self worth. Maybe this is the same for men but I'm not one so I don't know. It breaks my heart to see this happening to so many of the amazing women I know. Satan loves to plant doubts and questions into our minds (and too often they get incorporated into our hearts and into the view we have of ourselves): Am I a good enough friend? daughter? sister? coworker? student? girlfriend? wife? mom? Christian? AM I GOOD ENOUGH? As I was meditating on this issue, it brought to mind a passage from Sex God by Rob Bell that speaks so much truth about our worth and value -- which comes completely from Christ and not from ourselves:

"Do you realize?

You don’t need a man by your side to validate you as a woman. You already are loved and valued. You’re good enough exactly as you are. Do you believe this? Because it’s true. You have limitless worth and value. If you embrace this truth, it will affect every area of life... YOU ARE WORTH DYING FOR. Your worth does not come from your body, your mind, your work, what you produce, what you put out, how much money you make...You have inestimable worth that comes from your creator. You will continue to be tempted in a thousand different ways to not believe this. The temptation will be to go searching for your worth and validity from places other than your creator. Especially from men.[Tara's note: or I would argue from other people in general] ...You are already loved. Your strength is a beautiful thing. And when you carry yourself with honor and dignity that are yours, it forces the men around you to relate to you on more than just a flesh level. YOU ARE WORTH DYING FOR."

This passage speaks more specifically about male-female relationships but it's truths apply universally. Yes, as women we often look for validation from men, but we also look for validation from other women and unfortunately women can be some of the harshest critics of other women. What hurts my heart most is that we as Christians are often responsible for bringing down others instead of building them up. Maybe it's our own internalized self-worth questions and strive for perfection that we impart on others, but it is Christ's heart that we would see each other (and ourselves!) through Him -- as invaluable and worth dying for -- and act accordingly, by living in a way that reflects and honors that value in both ourselves and others.

heaven on earth

This morning, I was reading in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles the part about David wanting to build a temple for the ark of God. In this passage, David says "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent." David recognizes the inequity between his dwelling and the dwelling place of God and wants to do something about it. That concept really got me thinking. How many of us are concerned about the inequity between our abundance and blessing and that of the current dwelling place of God, the current temple of the Lord .... His people.

Lately, Jamie and I have also been reading "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it....so much good stuff in there (which I will probably be blogging about sporadically). But this morning, as I was reading "Velvet Elvis," God reiterated the lesson above for me. In the book, Rob Bell is talking about heaven and how it is not a future place, but a reality here and now for those who are believers. Here is an excerpt from what he says:

"Jesus said that as this new reality takes over our hearts and lives and minds and actions, we are crossing over 'from death to life.' He called this new kind of life 'eternal life.' For Jesus, eternal life wasn't a state of being for the future that we would enter into somewhere else; it is a quality of life that starts now....

When we choose God's vision of who we are, we are living as God made us to live. We are living in the flow of how we are going to live forever. This is the life of heaven, here and now. As we live this life, in harmony with God's intentions for us, the life of heaven becomes more and more present in our lives. Heaven comes to earth...

Now if there is a life of heaven and we can choose it, then there's also another way. A way of living out of sync with how God created us to live. The word for this is hell: a way, a place, a realm absent of how God desires things to be. We can bring heaven to earth; we can bring hell to earth...

When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter -- they are all hell on earth.

Jesus' desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.

What's disturbing then is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian, I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth. Poverty, injustice, suffering -- they are all hells on earth, and as Christians we oppose them with all our energies. Jesus told us to."

So to follow Christ, to live the life of heaven on earth, to take care of God's current temple, we must be concerned about others, about injustice, about using the resources that God has blessed us with (whether it be gifts, talents, material blessings, prayer) to oppose hell on earth.

I am so thankful for those of you who are already doing this, who are bringing heaven to earth here and now. I have been able to see it so clearly lately in people rallying behind me to help prepare for my trip to Uganda. It has been amazing to see people pour out generously to support me financially, to encourage me spiritually and to meet a need STAO has by getting a laptop for their use. (Seriously, thanks guys....I think I have been offered 5 laptops at this point!) Though I know many of you can't go and would want to, please know that a piece of you will be going with me...through your prayers, your financial support, and your love. Thanks for helping me attempt to bring heaven to earth :)