That's the hashtag for the 30 Hour Famine. If you'd like to see what our students and other students around the world are doing to help fight global hunger search for it.
For us, this weekend we did the 30 Hour Famine together as a group. Some of our students were pros, they've done this before. Some were newbies, they had no idea what this would be like.
The biggest revelation for me is people realizing what all they take for granted. Snacking constantly through the day, having a pantry that's full so they can snack through the day, having clean water sent straight to your house (in multiple rooms) instead of to walking 4 miles carrying 70 pound jugs. Too often we don't think about how good we've got it because it's normal to us.
Let's do what we can to make it normal for everyone. If you would still like to sponsor what we did you can at http://youth.worldvision.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.team&teamID=15464.
Thanks for your support, let's make things like clean water and healthy food the new normal.
T
Monday, March 27, 2017
Monday, March 20, 2017
"But I Built That With My Own Two Hands"
That was my inner monologue last week.
About eight years ago I built a bench. And I built it to last. This thing is heavy as can be. All our board games fit in it. It can support many people on it (we even had kids sleep on it during our Real World Retreat a couple of times). But even more so, this was the first major building project I did on my own. I built this. It was something I am attached to.
And now it's in a dumpster.
I chose to do that. Our daughter loves to play on the bench but we have an idea of something she may like better. And the only space for it is where this bench was, and seeing it was built to fit only in certain corners of a room the options for new places for it to live are extremely limited.
So I destroyed it. It is so heavy it was harder getting it out of the house than it was to get in. It made a mess. it was way more work to get rid of it than we imagined. But we did it.
Because that's how change works. It's messy, it's hard, you have to destroy things you are attached to and many times on a gamble that the new thing will work like we're doing.
But it needs to be done. I would rather risk something amazing for my daughter than hold onto something comfortable not because it's good for her but because I don't want to hurt myself.
I wonder how often we have this same conversation about change with God. Are you willing to risk? Are you willing to let go of something you love? Are you thinking about what God wants for you or what you want for you?
Get a sledgehammer and start breaking things up...
T
About eight years ago I built a bench. And I built it to last. This thing is heavy as can be. All our board games fit in it. It can support many people on it (we even had kids sleep on it during our Real World Retreat a couple of times). But even more so, this was the first major building project I did on my own. I built this. It was something I am attached to.
And now it's in a dumpster.
I chose to do that. Our daughter loves to play on the bench but we have an idea of something she may like better. And the only space for it is where this bench was, and seeing it was built to fit only in certain corners of a room the options for new places for it to live are extremely limited.
So I destroyed it. It is so heavy it was harder getting it out of the house than it was to get in. It made a mess. it was way more work to get rid of it than we imagined. But we did it.
Because that's how change works. It's messy, it's hard, you have to destroy things you are attached to and many times on a gamble that the new thing will work like we're doing.
But it needs to be done. I would rather risk something amazing for my daughter than hold onto something comfortable not because it's good for her but because I don't want to hurt myself.
I wonder how often we have this same conversation about change with God. Are you willing to risk? Are you willing to let go of something you love? Are you thinking about what God wants for you or what you want for you?
Get a sledgehammer and start breaking things up...
T
Monday, March 13, 2017
Looking Back
I did something I haven't done in a while. I looked back at some of my first blog posts. Painful.
Painful because I could see all the things that have changed. How I write, what I was doing, even little things like talking about my iPod (talk about old technology... I still have it...).
But the best part of it? It was painful. If it was not, if it was good to me, or familiar, that would have been even worse. That would have meant I haven't changed at all in a decade. It would mean my ministry, how I communicate, even how I listen to music hasn't changed at all.
Here's a challenge, look back at where you were a year ago, two years, five, maybe even ten or twenty. What's changed?
And if nothing's changed, why? (and how do you start to change).
T
Painful because I could see all the things that have changed. How I write, what I was doing, even little things like talking about my iPod (talk about old technology... I still have it...).
But the best part of it? It was painful. If it was not, if it was good to me, or familiar, that would have been even worse. That would have meant I haven't changed at all in a decade. It would mean my ministry, how I communicate, even how I listen to music hasn't changed at all.
Here's a challenge, look back at where you were a year ago, two years, five, maybe even ten or twenty. What's changed?
And if nothing's changed, why? (and how do you start to change).
T
Monday, March 06, 2017
Ashes and Lipstick
A little while ago we took the family to Walt Disney World. If you know anything about our family it's the closest to heaven on earth for us. Our daughter, now being three years old and understanding what's going on, loved it. Specifically meeting every character the Walt Disney Company has ever created. But one of her favorites (and ours) was Merida.
Mainly because Merida loved our daughter. She immediately hugged her, got on the ground with her, played with her, listened to her stories, it was very obvious that Merida was having a ton of fun with our little one. So much fun that at the end she did something that this princess does not do very often. She gave our daughter a kiss on the forehead, bright read lipstick painting the fact she loved the Little Miss. And for the rest of the day we heard about it, people at Disney saw it and asked (and were surprised it was Merida). Even now at home she will see pictures of herself with the lips on her forehead and get all giggly.
Fast forward to the other night. We were at our church's Ash Wednesday service. At the end we went up to get the ashes on our foreheads and, or course, the little one was covering her forehead saying "no". We didn't push, she doesn't understand, so mom and dad got ours and we went back to our seats. Our daughter looked at us, you could tell she was a little puzzled, but then burst into telling everyone about how she was kissed on the forehead by Merida. She saw the marks on our foreheads and immediately associated it with her own from Disney.
It was great to hear this, take a step back, and think about it. In many ways this is Christ kissing our foreheads, it's a mark of our love for Christ and His love for us. It's bigger than ashes one day a week, we are marked by Christ as His. Much like our daughter remembers the love of a princess because of the kiss that left a mark on her we can remember the love of Christ for us by the mark He leaves on us.
Ephesians 1:13b ~ When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. (NCV)
Ashes and lipstick fade but being loved lasts forever.
T
Mainly because Merida loved our daughter. She immediately hugged her, got on the ground with her, played with her, listened to her stories, it was very obvious that Merida was having a ton of fun with our little one. So much fun that at the end she did something that this princess does not do very often. She gave our daughter a kiss on the forehead, bright read lipstick painting the fact she loved the Little Miss. And for the rest of the day we heard about it, people at Disney saw it and asked (and were surprised it was Merida). Even now at home she will see pictures of herself with the lips on her forehead and get all giggly.
Fast forward to the other night. We were at our church's Ash Wednesday service. At the end we went up to get the ashes on our foreheads and, or course, the little one was covering her forehead saying "no". We didn't push, she doesn't understand, so mom and dad got ours and we went back to our seats. Our daughter looked at us, you could tell she was a little puzzled, but then burst into telling everyone about how she was kissed on the forehead by Merida. She saw the marks on our foreheads and immediately associated it with her own from Disney.
It was great to hear this, take a step back, and think about it. In many ways this is Christ kissing our foreheads, it's a mark of our love for Christ and His love for us. It's bigger than ashes one day a week, we are marked by Christ as His. Much like our daughter remembers the love of a princess because of the kiss that left a mark on her we can remember the love of Christ for us by the mark He leaves on us.
Ephesians 1:13b ~ When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. (NCV)
Ashes and lipstick fade but being loved lasts forever.
T
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)