Celebrating Life

There are lot’s of birthdays happening in my (Aimee's) family right now.  We had one this week, one next week, and one the week after that.

I love birthdays.  No matter how old I get, I will always enjoy celebrating my birthday and those of the people I love.  Every birthday represents another year of blessings to be grateful for.  Grateful for the blessings in their life.  Grateful for the blessing of their life.

Every birthday should be celebrated for great joy and praise to God.  Every new birthday is a gift.  Actually, every day should be celebrated with joy and praise to God.  Every new day is a gift.  None of us know how long we are going to be on the earth.  So we should savor each day.  Enjoy the beauty of God's creation, the love of your family and friends.  God intended for our lives here on earth to have joy; otherwise he wouldn't have created us to have relationships with one another, he wouldn't have made food enjoyable, etc.  He could have made us like the other animals who merely live to survive.  Instead, He created us for more.  Savor that!  Celebrate that!  Praise God for that!

Wag Like a Dog

When I (Aimee) was in high school we got a dog (not our first, but we had been without a dog for several years at this point).  Jacks was a beautiful little mutt with long reddish-brown hair who won the hearts of every person who saw him.  He was a small-to-medium size dog who fit comfortably in your lap and would cuddle with you for as long as you wanted.  He loved to cuddle!  He was a very docile dog.  He didn’t play with toys; he just wanted to be with you whether walking or sitting.  Despite being so docile, he had this habit that when he was really excited his tail would wag so hard that his whole back end would shake back and forth with the momentum of it, and eventually he would lose his footing a little as his back end would wag and his whole body would end up moving back and forth a little.  Now that’s excitement!  That’s joy!

I can’t shake that image lately.  Last week I met with my pastor to listen to a web seminar about evangelism.  The speaker was talking about being excited for Christ and he referred to the image of a dog’s tail wagging and I immediately thought of Jacks.  I have to admit that I became lost in thought for a moment thinking about Jacks and his wagging body, and I found myself thinking that I want to be that excited about Jesus.  I want to be so excited that I can’t contain it and it spills out into my actions and movements so that everyone can see it and everyone will know what it is.

At the conference that I attended last week we were again encouraged to be excited for Christ, recognizing that it is on His power that we rely, not our own, and we can trust that His power will always be sufficient.  That’s exciting!  If we were only relying on our own abilities then we would have every right to be afraid and discouraged; but we’re not.  We’re relying on the One who created the heavens and the earth, the One who has the power to heal the sick, the One in whose name demons tremble!  That is the power that He gives to us, His followers.  That’s exciting!

Be excited for Christ and the power of Christ that is passed to us through the Holy Spirit that we might be empowered to fulfill His mission throughout the world of spreading the Gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ!  Amen.

Too Busy Not to Pray

There’s so much going on right now.  Tomorrow and Friday, I (Aimee) will be attending a conference.  Then, I’ll be driving up to stay with Sherann while we attend another conference together that begins on Monday.  I just came home from a meeting with my pastor where we were talking about Advent; yes, folks, Christmas is closer than you think it is.  We started some planning for the sermons and other potential events and discussing whether that was all pointing us in the right direction for where we want to be going in 2011.  Plus, I now have four books that he has asked me to read and I’m still working on the first one that he gave me a few weeks ago.

I’m not complaining.  Honest.  I’m looking forward to the conferences and to seeing Sherann.  I enjoy working at my church and being involved in our worship services.  I’m just saying that things are busy right now and they’re probably only going to get busier as we head towards January.  Just a fact, that’s all.

Ever have seasons like this?  It’s likely that you don’t have the exact same kind of craziness happening in your schedule, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have craziness, too.  It happens to all of us at one time or another and more often for some than for others.

The more full our schedules become the easier it is for us to set aside other things to make more room, things like prayer.  We convince ourselves that taking time to sit down and talk with God is not a responsible use of our time and so we skip it and try to move forward.  However, in actuality, this is just another one of those times where we are trying to play God and it isn’t going to help at all.  In fact, trying to play God generally does more than holding back positive effects, it usually has negative effects. 

The truth is that the busier our schedules get the more that we need God, so the more that we need to spend time in conversation with Him.  We need to pray for God’s guidance in general so that we don’t delude ourselves into thinking that we can do anything good without Him.  We need to pray that God will help us to remember that He is in charge so that we can let go of worries/anxieties that would slow us down and damage our health.  We need to pray that God will guide us safely through our days so that we don’t allow being in a hurry to put us in danger (that’s how I sprained my ankle once, true story).  We need to pray that God will open our hearts in our conversations, so that we don’t forget the importance of relationships and that even the person annoying us is beloved by God.

Prayer puts things in perspective and ensures that we are open to allowing God’s Spirit to move us and guide us in all that we do.

I’m going to go pray now.

Everyday Miracles

I (Aimee) wonder how many people watched the Chilean miners being brought up from about ½ a mile below the surface of the earth after being trapped for 69 days.  I haven’t heard or read any numbers yet.  I must admit that I didn’t watch all of it.  I only saw bits and pieces as I half-watched while getting over the flu this week.  But what I saw was very moving.  All of the men were greeted with cheers, handshakes, and hugs.  There was a large television set-up in the family camp set up nearby where the family members of the miners awaited them.  Photographs show them cheering and crying as their husband, father, or brother was brought to the surface.  When the final miner, Luis Urzua who was the shift supervisor, came to the surface the rescue was almost 24-hours old, but the people cheered with energy like they had just gotten there.  Then, I heard someone say something that really caught my attention: “It’s a miracle.”

Being slightly out of it because of the flu, I’m still not sure exactly who said it—the president of Chile, Urzua, one of the reporters—and I’ve heard it several times since then from many different people.  But then, when Urzua had been rescued, that was the first time that I had heard anyone say it about this situation, and it got me thinking.

In one of my first classes at California Baptist University (the first class I had with Sherann), our professor gave us an unusual homework assignment one day to write a definition for “miracle.”  Have you ever thought about it much?  When most people think of miracles they think of supernatural events: walking on water, raising people from the dead, multiplying the fish and the loaves, etc.  Jesus performed miracles, there is no doubt about that if you believe what the Bible says.  But our problem is that we are often unable or unwilling to notice God’s miraculous work in non-supernatural events.

We look at the survival and successful rescue of the Chilean miners and we are quick to say that this is due to steady heads, calm thinking, science and engineering, careful planning, patience, and so on and so on.  All of that is absolutely true.  Those things were critical to their survival while they were stuck underground and in getting them back to the surface.  So where was God working in all of this?

Well, who do you think brought peace and calm to Urzua so that he could organize the men and the food to keep them alive until they were discovered?

Who do you think inspired the workers on the surface with the correct way to go about the entire operation?

Who do you think gave hope and courage to the men and to their families?

These things all come from God, whether people want to recognize it or not.  Non-believers give the credit to science and human ingenuity.  But we know that God is the one who created us to be able to grasp science and to have human ingenuity.

We need to be looking for God’s not-as-obvious miracles that He works out in our everyday lives, whether big or small, so that we can marvel at His love and grace and wisdom, and so that we can give Him the thanks that He is due.

So, praise God that all of the men who were trapped survived the cave-in.  Praise God that workers on the surface were able to get them food and water to sustain them.  And praise God that they all made it safely to the surface.  Praise God!

Picture taken from MSNBC of Esteban Rojas, the 18th miner to be rescued, just moments after stepping out of the rescue capsule.  Photo by Hugo Infante / Chilean Government via Getty Images.

2 Cents

I (Sherann) have been staring at this blank page for a while now.  Honestly, I don't know what to write.  What to say.  These days, everything has been a blur and it has been so crazy!  Our annual state convention meeting is in two weeks and we are all busy trying to make deadlines.  Plus, all the elected staff are headed out to the various associational meetings.  I won't be out until November, but in the mean time... deadlines.  This week has been pretty sweet and the Lord has been so sufficient.  I don't say that lightly at all.  I've decided that I need to memorize scripture.  Not just a few verses, but I seriously want to take the time to memorize the books of the Bible.  I decided to start with Philippians. 

In the mean time, here is a verse that really brought me comfort this week.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth!  Serve the LORD with gladness!  Come into His presence with singing!  Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!  Give thanks to him; bless his name!  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Mountain Top Experiences in the Valleys

Sherann called me the other morning to talk.  She shared that she had just finished the second book in a week that she just couldn’t put down.  Both books were very moving and inspiring in their messages.  Yet, she was concerned that she would put these books on her shelf and that they would simply become dust collectors and never truly influence her life.  She also shared her concern with me for how often we allow this to happen even with the Word of God.  We read the Scriptures, they move us and inspire us to action, and then we close the book and go back to our day to day lives.  Of course, this is true to more or lesser degrees from person to person, but I don’t think that there is a single person out there that can say that they always follow through with what has inspired them from the Scriptures.  I know, unfortunately, that I can’t.

I think that the bigger question here is: why do we allow things to move us in the moment, and then allow them to fade away later?  We read our Bibles, we go to church and listen to the sermons, we go to retreats, we join Bible studies, and we love it all.  While these things are going on we feel the movement of the Holy Spirit.  We are inspired by the passion of the music and the speaker.  Our minds and hearts are lifted.  Then, we leave and go home and we go back to our daily lives as if nothing life changing has just happened.  Why do we allow this to happen?  Perhaps that is really the big question here. 

If we love the feeling, why do we allow it to fade?  If we are so moved, why don’t we move?  Why don’t we act?  I think that the pathetic truth of it in my own life can be summed up in one word: habit.  We all create habits, good and bad, in our lives.  We have a certain way of doing things, of dealing with things, and it is all habit.  Habits are hard to break, which is why it can be so difficult to change.  But it’s not impossible.  People can learn to stop biting their fingernails or chewing with their mouth open.  People can learn to stop dealing with problems by turning to drugs and alcohol.  We know that change is possible.  We can change and get rid of our bad habits.  So, while we’re working on getting rid of those bad habits, why not replace them with some good habits. 

We can learn to hold on to the positive in much the same way that we learn to let go of the negative.  We simply have to learn a new habit.  Just like with getting rid of a bad habit, we can turn to family and friends for support.  We can find and use tools to encourage the good in our lives.  We can pray and ask for God’s help.  We can expect the change to come slowly, and not beat ourselves up when it doesn’t happen overnight.

extraORDINARY

I (Sherann) was listening to a podcast the other day and something about the pastor's analogy really struck a chord in me.  It wasn't a fancy statement, but it was definitely one that left a bitter-sweet after taste in my mouth.  He started to talk about how much he despised his first job selling fireworks.  Fireworks and hate?  No way! How could anyone hate fireworks?  Well, this pastor did and the fireworks became less appealing to him.  But, this is the part that really grabbed my attention.  The pastor went on to say that when we constantly see God do AMAZING things in our churches, friends, community, family and especially in our lives, we start to become susceptible to see God's extraordinary blessings and promises dwindle to something that's just...well...ordinary.  (My summary of the pastor's point)  I remember going to Disneyland with my family and to be honest, the best part of the experience was watching the fireworks they showed every night.  I loved watching the neat designs and colors in the night sky.  The first time was great, but the second time around was rather less exciting.  In my life, I've seen and experienced God do so many amazing things that it used to give me chills.  And I still get the chills, but it's not the same as if I was watching the fireworks for the first time.  I've realized that my view of God's amazing power has become nothing more than watching the fireworks over and over again.  Ordinary.

But the more I listened, the more I didn't want or even need that type of perspective in my life.  I don't want to look through the lens of the ordinary, but rather with lens that sees every work of God to be extraordinary.  Why?  Because when the Lord is working and transforming lives, they are always extraordinary!

What's your story?

Meet Troy Lee

I (Sherann) am so excited to introduce my friend Troy Lee! He is a worship leader/song writer in the Los Angeles area and is currently traveling with the Purple Pig Tour. I had a chance to catch up with him after one of the events and he was gracious enough to let me interview him. This is what he had to say...

God's Roadmaps

Did you know that Abraham waited 25 years before he saw any of God’s promises to him come true?  It’s true!  Look in your Bible.  If you read the story of Abraham in Genesis you know that God promised Abraham that he would have many descendants, that he would have land, and that he would have a relationship with God.  Well, ok, I (Aimee) suppose it’s true that he didn’t wait 25 years for everything; he had a relationship with God pretty much right away.  But those other two more tangible promises took a lot of time. 

Genesis 12:4 says that Abraham was 75 years old when God first spoke to him and told him to leave his father’s household and to go off on his own and promised him descendants.  Genesis 21:5 says that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.  25 years!  Of course we could argue that he had waited even longer than that to be a father, but it was 25 years between God’s promise of a son and the arrival of that son.  That’s a really long time to wait.  And he waited even longer for other things.

How long have you been waiting for God to fulfill his promises? 

I think that in many ways God fulfills promises every day.  They may not always be big promises.  We may not always notice them.  But He is working in our lives every day.  He provides for us, He protects us, He loves us, and that’s true every day.

However, there’s still always the question of those big promises; when will we see them happen?  One of the reasons that Abraham is credited with having so much faith is the fact that he waited 25 years.  If you didn’t really believe that something was going to happen, that someone was telling the truth, you wouldn’t wait around especially for 25 years.  Would you?  I wouldn’t.

But God is faithful!  He is faithful to keep His promises.  Numbers 23:19 says:

                        God is not a man, that he should lie,

                             nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

                        Does he speak and then not act?

                             Does he promise and not fulfill?

When I was an upperclassman in college God told me that He had different plans for me and that I had to step away from what I knew (or thought I knew) and step out into the unknown.  I did that and I don’t have any regrets.  But I am still waiting for him to show me what his purpose is on this new path.  It’s been almost 10 years.

Along the way I met a man, and several years into our relationship God told me that He had different plans for me once again.  And I had to walk away from that man and have faith that God’s plans were better than my own.  I have no regrets.  It’s been a little over five years and I haven’t met anyone else that I thought I could have a future with.

Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to wait on God’s promises.  It’s very tempting to try and take over and do things our own way thinking that we can make it happen sooner… kind of like when Abraham took Hagar to be his wife and she gave birth to Ishmael.  Metaphorically speaking, I've created a few Ishmaels in my own life.

But God IS faithful!  He will keep his promises.  And His plans are always better than anything that we can come up with.  We simply have to be patient, which I know is difficult.  But if we trust God, and we allow Him to be God, then we can wait.

I pray for patience often. 

Radical

Christianity in real life is all about stories.  Your stories.  My stories. Stories of both young and old.  Today, I (Sherann) want to share with you a story of my former youth leader who is living a radical life for Jesus in the east part of Oakland. 

"break my heart, for what breaks Yours"

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F09%2F19%2FMNN41F6LTG.DTL

Son Exposure

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast came out when I (Aimee) was in sixth grade.  I watched that movie everyday (or at least, everyday that my parents allowed me to).  Very soon, I had the movie memorized.  I don’t mean that I had the songs memorized, though that was true, too.  I mean the movie, the entire movie.  Without even putting it on, I could recite the entire movie from start to finish, dialogue as well as songs.  I wasn’t trying to memorize it.  In fact, when I try to memorize things, it is usually very difficult for me.  In this case, it just happened.  Over time, through regular exposure, the movie just sank into my head.

And that movie isn’t the only one.  AND movies aren’t the extent of it.  It happens with songs, too.  I’ll find myself singing along with a song on the radio and I’ll stop and think to myself, “oh, wow, I guess I’ve memorized that song.”

So, knowing that, how much of the Bible do you think that I have memorized?

Go on, guess!

80% ?  75% ?  50% ?  What do you think would have sunk in from sheer exposure?

The correct answer is: probably less than 1%!

It’s really quite pathetic and I am very ashamed to admit it, but it’s the truth.  I have maybe 3 or 4 verses memorized along with Psalm 23 and that’s about it. 

I have read all of the Bible.  More than once, even!  I am very familiar with it and I even have favorite stories and passages.  So you’d think that some of it would have sunk in word for word just like a movie or a song.  But the truth is: I haven't had the exposure to the Word of God that I've had to my television or my radio.  It saddens me when I think about it.

Let me make a small disclaimer.  Not having the Bible memorized does not necessarily make you a bad Christian.  But I am talking about the amount of time and effort that we put into knowing the Word in comparison with what we give to other areas of our lives (like television, for example).

I have claimed that I desire to honor God in all my ways with my entire life.  I went to school and received two degrees with the purpose of working in His church as my career.  But there are still times when I realize that I spend more time watching TV or surfing the internet than I do with His Word.

This morning I began reading the Bible from Genesis 1:1.  I intend on reading a small section everyday so that I will have read through the entire Bible in exactly one year (finishing on September 30, 2011).  And then I'll start over again.  I want to show God how much His Word really means to me by spending time in it every day.

Reading the Bible every day may not work for everyone.  But I would encourage all Christians to spend time in the Word on a regular basis, more than just every Sunday.  After all, the Scriptures tell us about the God that we serve, the loving sacrifice of His Son, and so much more.  It's through the Bible that we learn what God expects of us and where we can read about how much He loves us. 

I could make a bunch of corny comments like "the Bible is the true 'tale as old as time,'" and "it is 'true as it can be,'" but I won't.  Instead, I'll offer this: Psalm 119:10-12 says

I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

Praise be to you, O Lord;

teach me your decrees.

I pray that this would be true of me and that it might be evident in the way I live my everyday life.  I want to expose myself to what will build me up and bring glory to the One who died for me.