Strangely Dim

There is an old chorus that God has repeatedly used to shape my heart over the last few years...

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

I have spent a lot of time meditating on that phrase “strangely dim” and have seen how it fleshes itself out around the world. If we are turning our eyes to Christ, our material possessions, worldly experiences, selfish ambitions pale in comparison to Him. And the suffering, trials, and temptations we go through are still horrible, but not quite as bad in light of knowing Christ and focusing on Him.
I came across these two quotes along the same line of thinking as well, encouraging us to keep our eyes focused on Christ, no matter what our circumstances are.

“The highest of missionary motive is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God), but rather zeal — burning and passionate zeal — for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.”
~John Stott

“Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience. . .
It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and satisfaction. . . when the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense affections, they will cast out, or not give admittance unto, those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition. . .
And nothing will so much excite and encourage our souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and his glory.”
~John Owen

Time Warp: 8 Hours Ahead & 100 Years Behind

Even though Swaziland is 8 hours ahead in time, I often feel like I am entering a time warp and going back 100 years in time as I go there. Seeing people plow fields with horse drawn plows, houses without plumbing or electricity, doing laundry by hand makes me think more about my ancestors who first settled in the United States. But I find that it makes me question who is more developed & who has made all the progress, and for what. I realize this is oversimplifying things, and there are huge ways that our technology & progress have helped the world, but I often wonder if we suffer from some type of chronological elitism....where we think we are better or smarter than those who lived 150 years before us. Or than those who live in the majority developing world, similar to the US 150 years ago. I really think that a majority of us in the United States are really just lazy and unintelligent, relying on the technology that a few really smart people have developed over the last few centuries. I mean, really, if you were without power, indoor plumbing, phone service, a car, and an education, how would you survive?
The ironic thing is that the more “progressive” & somewhat trendy cultures within the US are trying to be more like the majority developing world, without even knowing it. We have programs to help people walk & bike to work, people are intentionally trying to get to know their neighbors that they’ve never talked to or needed to talk to, we are reusing containers instead of throwing them away, we are using real bags to carry stuff instead of plastic ones, we are reselling clothes so that they can be worn until they actually wear out, we are saving energy by hanging our clothes outside instead of using a dryer, we are having more and more babies at home every year.
So maybe Swaziland is really 8 hours ahead, 100 years behind, and 50 years ahead...

Wealthy King + Impoverished People = ???

The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty in Swaziland is incomprehensible. A king who builds elaborate palaces for all of his wives just minutes from people who eat grass or go hungry on a regular basis. There have been articles recently about how rich the king really is, and also about how the poverty is impacting the most helpless - the children. In the deepest parts of us, there is an outcry, wanting someone to do more to reconcile this great abyss between the rich and poor. After all, what is the right response to take care of these people?
Yet this lack of action & compassion in this reality on the other side of the world stands in contrast to another king. A King who has much more than any earthly king could ever imagine, a King who has no obligation to share His wealth, riches, or glory with anyone. A King who looks upon an impoverished people who are dying in their own messes, totally helpless to do anything for themselves, and who often don't even know how bad of shape they are in. And this King, who doesn't have to do anything, does the unimaginable. He goes & pays the ultimate price to buy back these people, sacrificing His own wealth and comfort in order to provide for them what they could never earn.
The situation in Swaziland makes the extravagant love of God through Jesus Christ stand out even more. That while we were dead in our sin, totally unable to save ourselves, in a worse situation than we even knew, God lavished His graces upon us, knowing we could never earn it or even begin to pay Him back.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of
His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ."
~Ephesians 1:7-9

Recognizing My Idols

Money, image, a missionary lifestyle, children, success, marriage, ministry, status, health, education, comfort... I have been convicted lately about how easily I am recognizing the idols in the lives around me while growing numb to the idols in my own heart. As I have been reading in Isaiah lately, I realize I am not alone in growing numb to idols. The Israelites return to their idols over and over even though God warns them over and over through various tests & prophets. God reminds them (and us) through Isaiah that the man-made things we turn into idols are useless.

"All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit...Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?" (Isaiah 44:9-10)

Even good things (like family, friends, health) can become idols when they become ultimate things in our lives. We don't wake up in the mornings intent on making idols, but rather take a step down that slippery slope every time we allow anything else besides the Lord of the universe to be THE ultimate thing in our lives. So how do we prevent this?
Here are 13 great questions from an old Puritan sermon that help us to recognize our idols, that we may turn from worshiping created things back to worshiping the only ONE who deserves all of our worship.

1. What do I most highly value?
2. What do I think about by default?
3. What is my highest goal?
4. To what or whom am I most committed?
5. Who or what do I love the most?
6. Who or what do I or depend upon the most?
7. Who or what do I fear the most?
8. Who or what do I hope in and hope for most?
9. Who or what do I desire the most? Or, what desire makes me most angry or makes me despair when it is not satisfied?
10. Who or what do I most delight in or hold as my greatest joy and treasure?
11. Who or what captures my greatest zeal?
12. To whom or for what am I most thankful?
13. For whom or what great purpose do I work?

A Matter Of Perspective

It seems as though my mail increases this time of year with all of the holiday specials and sales. I have random advertisements stuck to my door, encouraging me to buy one thing or another for someone as a Christmas gift. The other night a salesman came to my door, offering me a great deal on cable and internet. When I told him that I don't have cable or use internet at my house, he looked at me with such shock that you would have thought I told him I have a giraffe in my condo. He continued his sales pitch, encouraging me to buy the package deal so that I have something to do when it's snowing outside. He ended his speech with a question that has still been haunting me over the last few days...he said "it's only $50...what else are you going to do with $50"?
Well, as I closed my door, my mind started wandering...thinking of all of the people who I know that would do anything for $50 a month!

• I thought of several missionary friends of mine who live off of $1000 a month - and a commitment of $50 a month would add up to $600 for them over the year (which doesn't seem much to us, but when you live off so little or in a foreign country, it will go a long way).
• I thought of a ministry I have worked with that can get meals to kids at a cost of 25 cents a meal...which would mean that $50 a month would provide 200 meals to kids whose parents can't afford to feed them.
• I thought of the many child sponsorship programs around the world where you can contribute to a child's physical, spiritual & educational well-being for around $30 a month (the 'community center' here provides a meal for dozens of kids each day in Swaziland, who otherwise wouldn't get food every day).
• I thought of so many parents I have met around the world who work endlessly to provide for their families, yet still don't have enough money to buy their children shoes so that they can go to school...imagine what a one time gift of $50 dollars could do (the house in this picture is where the teacher - one of the few working men in the village in Haiti - lives with his wife and their 9 children)!
  

So while I don't think that everyone needs to cancel their cable and internet, I do think that we should think creatively about our finances and look at it from a different perspective, willing to sacrifice a few of our comforts so that others can simply have a few necessities. As we shop for Christmas presents and budget for 2011, let us remember that most of the rest of the world lives on less than $1 a day, and that it's only by the grace of God that we find ourselves on this end of the equation (wondering how we can give) instead of the other (wondering how we are going to feed our families or keep them warm during the winter)...and let that impact how we spend our money!
The next time the cell phone salesperson asks you if you want to upgrade your phone for $20 more, take a minute to think about what you need instead of what you want, and about how God could multiply your $20 for His glory and people's joy! The next time you get a cup of coffee, get a size smaller and start collecting the extra 50 cents in a jar - knowing that you can donate it to provide 2 meals for kids!
As we enter into the most materialistic season of the year, in one of the richest countries in the richest times in history, may God protect us from the lies of the culture & the enemy, and give us a new perspective on our money, and give us discernment about how we should spend it.

"...your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness." (2 Corinthians 8:14)

Priceless...

As I have had a few days to begin processing our trip, there are so many images & moments that stand out in my mind. I keep thinking of the MasterCard commercials, and this is my version: new outfits for 135 kids: $1350; new shoes for 135 kids: $1350; new school supplies & backpacks for 135 kids: $1350; hearing 135 kids pray & sing about the hope they have in the Lord: PRICELESS!
Don't get me wrong, it was great to be able to bless them physically and lavish gifts upon them, but it was moments of hearing them pray the Lord's prayer that brought tears to my eyes. In a world that is so quickly passing away because of AIDS and poverty, the material gifts that we can give them only go so far. But to know that these children are hearing about the eternal hope and salvation that Christ came to give us is priceless...because no matter what happens to their parents, to them, to their country...they can have eternal hope in Jesus Christ! Please continue to pray with me that their hearts would be open to the Gospel, and that the Holy Spirit would be at work in their hearts, enabling them to respond to the offer of eternal life & hope! Please continue to pray with me for the missionaries, Swazi discipleship-team, and the gogo's who pour into these kids regularly.

A Hard Walk Down A Dusty Road

I write this hesitantly because one of the things I hate about blogs, blogging, bloggers, etc. is that they/we often put things out there that are not our stories to tell. But I am going to go ahead and post this story of one of our home visits in Swaziland for 3 reasons: 1. It is one example of what I've seen now in so many situations...it could be one of many kids in Swaziland or around the world, there's nothing unique about this story, just that it's fresh on my mind. 2. It is a story that needs to be told to a numb, apathetic, affluent, American Christian - to bring reality to life. 3. It is a story that I (as a numb, apathetic, affluent, American Christian) am apt to forget as I leave this culture where poverty is all around me and I head back to my comfortable life...and I don't want to forget it or be numb!

We walked with the boy for several minutes before he pointed and said his homestead was right there. The road we were on was so dusty, and the air so still, that we would all turn away for several minutes until the dust settled when a truck went by. We walked through the opening in the stick and thornbush fence as several cattle lay near by and chickens ran about. The boy ran and got a grass-woven mat and a chair, and brought them over to spread out under the tree several yards from the house. The homestead consisted of a few buildings - a loose stick hut that served as a kitchen, two concrete buildings (about 8 x 10 feet) that were where the adults slept, and a mud & stick hut with a thatched roof where several children slept. The thatched roof had several places where it had fallen apart, leaving it with several holes that were over 6 inches in diameter.
As we women maneuvered to take our shoes off before stepping on the mat to sit down on the ground, the men sat on the chairs, and the boy ran to the field to get his gogo (grandmother). She quickly and quietly came back, followed closely by a 4 year old girl wearing only a sun bleached piece of fabric wrapped around her like a skirt.
When we shared with the woman and talked, she told about how we could pray for her. She shared her health struggles - mostly common ailments of a hard life of a poverty-stricken, hungry, water deprived person in a third world country - sore feet, legs, headache, backache. She couldn't have been over 60, yet her eyes looked much older because of her experiences, and she was still taking care of so many others!
Before we laid hands on her to pray, she had her grandson fetch a coat so she could cover herself as we prayed. I held her hand - weathered by years of hard work outside & caked with dirt in every possible crack. After we prayed with her, we blessed her with a gift of a bag of food and supplies. She sat quietly as we laid out the corn meal, sardines, soap, candles, sugar, tea, matches, beans, and oil. What would cost about $30, and last us Americans less than a week would last this woman and her entire family from two weeks to a month...and she wiped away tears at this gift from strangers.
As we walked along the road back toward where we had come from, "Siyabonga kakuhlu" was what she repeated - "Thank you so much!" And we told her the same thing we had been teaching the children all day...we love because He first loved us.

Overwhelmed By Needs

Many of you have asked me how I can keep going to these places that are filled with so much brokenness, poverty, death, and sadness. Often I am overwhelmed to the point of tears, and am unable to even describe it in words...but a sermon on Psalm 123 has changed my perspective as I live a life of ministry - surrounded by broken people serving broken people in Christ's name. That sermon has become part of my preparation as I head out on a mission trip....kind of like warming up to "Eye Of The Tiger" before basketball games. So, you can be sure that I'm listening to it on my ipod again today as I fly over the Atlantic ocean!

"To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God."
~ Psalm 123:2

In ministry, my tendency is to be overwhelmed by all of the needs around me and to lose sight of the specific call that God has given me in each situation. Yet in the midst of this passage, God taught me that in ministry (whether in Colorado or somewhere else in the world), my eyes are to be on HIM, and that will direct my hands to what they need to be doing. A maidservant doesn't just think about all that needs to be done, but rather she watches and learns about her mistress so she can anticipate the needs and be ready to serve before the mistress even has to speak. In the same way, as my eyes (and mind and heart) are focused on the Lord, I will see how He is at work and how He has gifted and called me to respond and join Him in that work.
This is huge for me in ministry, because when there is always more to do, it gives me freedom to do a few things well and to trust that He is calling others to respond to the overwhelming needs around me. It gives me freedom to say no to the areas that He hasn't called me to serve, so that I can say a better yes to the ones He has. And so my prayer today is that again this week I would be faithful to serve in the specific ways He has called me to serve...and that others would respond in obedience as He calls them to serve to meet the needs that they see around them.