Various and Sundry (12/31)
This post should be titled “Various and Sundry: The Return.” Once again, it’s been forever since I’ve done this, but I’m back to it. So here are some great links that I’ve come across recently.
Scripture: Visit ESV Bible Reading Plans to see eight different plans to read through the Bible in a year. You can get them in a Web version, through RSS, through e-mail, or to print out. I think a lot of people will be reading Genesis 1 tomorrow!
Politics: Boundless Line printed a hilarious post called Chicken. Road. You Know What to Do. It’s an exaggeration of how various political and cultural figures would answer the question “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Hope: Sarah at inexorablyloved wrote a great entry entitled “My Hope is You” about placing one’s hope in the Lord instead of in other things.
Pro-life: Be a Voice is an outreach ministry of Focus on the Family, focusing on pro-life issues. Did you know that 90% of abortion-minded women change their minds after receiving counseling and seeing an ultrasound?
New Year’s resolutions: If you think you’re dreaming big about next year, check out Jonathan Edward’s famous 70 resolutions, written when he was between 19 and 20.
The Rebelution: Alex and Brett Harris, co-founders of The Rebelution, are asking for anyone’s endorsement of their upcoming book, Do Hard Things. Click here for a PDF sample and information about sending in your endorsement.
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That’s all for this edition! Happy New Year’s Eve!
The Little Faithfuls
In Christianity there is an emphasis placed on doing great things for God – particularly for the young. You can often hear people spouting ideals about changing the world and setting hearts on fire and starting revivals. The vision is great, the heart is wonderful, and the dreams can be realized. But sometimes I think we need to broaden our definition of “doing great things for God.”
It is easy to speak loftily from the mountaintop of youthful idealism. It is easy to use this time of life when new vistas are opening up all around us, to criticize those who have gone before us – people who seem too laidback, who seem to take life and Christianity for granted. It is easy to judge older Christians for not being passionate enough.
And because of our own passion and idealism, we are often quick to honor the “obvious faithfuls,” people whose lives are visibly extraordinary, who make a difference, who receive adulation from the church and the world alike. But in doing so, we sometimes neglect the “little faithfuls” – humble, ordinary Christians who are committed to the calling of Christ day in and day out, at dull 40-hour-a-week jobs, making quiet sacrifices and unseen changes, with no splash or glamour or stardom.
When we young people have the opportunity to go halfway around the world on incredible missions trips, who sends us? Many times, it’s forty-year-old adults who are working those long weeks and supporting our dreams. When a woman comes into the church feeling lost and alone, overwhelmed by the burdens of life, who takes her under their wing? It’s often a young mother who’s busy with her kids, unable to invest all of her time in spectacular ministries – but who will make a world of difference to that one woman. When the church is sparkling clean and things are running smoothly on a Sunday morning, who’s to thank? It’s the technicians and janitors and secretaries who have been working behind the scenes all week long in order to put together a pleasant service time on Sunday.
Let’s dream big… let’s exploit our youth and our singleness and our idealism in order to attempt great things for God. But let’s not forget that He calls us to be faithful in every circumstance of life, extraordinary or not. And let’s not be too quick to criticize people who are living ordinary and humble lives. Many times, the “little faithfuls” are making a huge impact, and they are doing it with a simple humility we should be emulating.
Following Your Heart
Boundless has a great article up this week about the dangers of simply following your heart into a relationship. “Follow your heart” is a phrase that we are often fed, and that we would love to believe, even though Scripture warns us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Especially in the area of relationships, following your heart can be so damaging, because emotions can so quickly get in the way of making clear-headed decisions. There are so many other things we should be listening to besides our feelings – the words of Scripture, godly counsel, and prayerful discernment, just to name a few.
How is this possible, though, when the heart’s call can be so strong and our flesh is so weak? I think in every area of life, it happens only when our heart’s desires are turned the right direction. Only then will we be able to rise above our deceitful longings. When we desire something greater than our personal satisfaction – the glory of God and the good of others – we will be able to move past selfish emotions and put what God thinks and what others need before ourselves.
So it’s all about what we value most. When we value Jesus more highly than life, we can then, in a sense, “follow our hearts,” because they will lead us straight to Him and to what He desires. I believe this is the intent of that oft-quoted verse in the Psalms: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).
Review of The Writing Life
I just finished reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, and I absolutely loved it. I don’t usually write an entry announcing my new review, but I liked this so much that I encourage you to click here and read my review, and then go buy the book and read it for yourself… especially if you love to write.
The Trend of Ladylike Dressing
Time lists one of the top ten fashion trends of 2007 as “ladylike dressing”!
“Grandma’s closet was looking better than ever this year with designers pulling out everything from high-neck blouses and lace-up heels to mid-calf skirts…”
Read more here at my modesty-in-fashion blog, The Charm.
Do the Next Thing
I don’t think the phrase is original with her, but one of the most helpful quotes I’ve ever gotten from Elisabeth Elliot has been, “Do the next thing.” If I’m overwhelmed with everything there is to be done, there is only one thing I can do next… and that is the thing I need to focus on.
This morning I was skimming my mom’s book Shopping for Time by the GirlTalkers, and they quoted a poem with the same title. It reminded me of how important it is not to become overwhelmed with the seemingly insurmountable list of tasks that is always looming. Instead, I should take time to plan and to work my hardest on the thing that is right in front of me.
I’m really enjoying this in-between time I have right now. I purchased a new planner at the beginning of December (I love buying organizational tools 
), and I am looking forward to charting out my priorities and goals for the coming semester. As I’ve written, some important things have gotten pushed aside, and I hope by God’s grace to be able to focus on the right priorities again.
Letting Things Slide
Disclaimer: This is quite a long and somewhat rambling entry. I was mostly writing to sort out my own thoughts, and maybe encourage discussion on this topic… but I just wanted to warn you ahead of time. 
Did you ever notice that once you get lazy in one area of your life, that laziness tends to spill over into other areas as well? I have always prided myself on being a task-oriented, organized, on-top-of-things person. And yet several factors have combined this year to create a state of disorganized chaos in my life:
- Burnout. This is mostly related to schoolwork. I’m not genius enough to be able to get good grades without trying, so the past three years have definitely not been a walk in the park. As I wrote last month, I reached a point of burnout at the end of spring semester 2007, and that feeling lingered into the fall semester.
- Insomnia/sickness. Not being able to fall asleep at night makes me sleep in later in the morning. Then I can’t fall asleep again because I slept in late. Add to that my caffeine dependency and a lack of my usual workout habit, and sleeping became very difficult – resulting in headaches, sickness, etc. Also, I have been sick more this year than any other year in my life.
- A need to have everything organized at once, or nothing at all. I did experience this when I was younger, but now I’ll just let things slide more than usual because I feel like, if I’m not going to clean everything and accomplish every task in my life, then it’s not worth doing anything.
And the last one is just plain old laziness. I grew up in a house where there were rules about making your bed in the morning and turning the lights out a certain time and only drinking one glass of juice per day and only spending 30 minutes on the computer per day. And I was on top of things myself – I often scheduled out my days, and in high school I would get up early every morning to exercise. I continued these habits on into college, but I also began to enjoy the freedom of not having to follow those little rules, and the laziness of constant procrastination and excuses about why I shouldn’t do anything productive. So even though I pulled off my grades again, and I get things done when I have to, I’ve still let things slide to a point where I don’t want them to be. And now I realize that there is value in having those routines and standards for yourself.
I really want things to change. This past semester was incredibly difficult, and then I came home and had surgery and it’s been Christmas and busy, but I’ve had plenty of time to rest and recuperate. I really want to start getting things in order again, in my environment and in my life – to get into those old routines that are so valuable, to stop filling my mind with worthless junk from the media, to “do hard things,” and to work now and enjoy rest later.
In the next few days, I’m hoping to make some specific guidelines for myself in the form of New Year’s resolutions – not so that I can be legalistic and delight in my ability to follow my own rules, but so that I restore order, work, and diligence to my life – things that I know God desires for me. I may share some of my resolutions in the hopes that doing so will keep me more accountable – we’ll see!
If you have any thoughts to share about a similar experience you’ve had, or New Year’s resolutions you’re making, or advice for me, I’d love to hear them.
Merry Christmas!
O sing a song of Bethlehem,
Of shepherds watching there,
And of the news that came to them
From angels in the air.
The light that shone on Bethlehem
Fills all the world today;
Of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth
The angels sing alway.
O sing a song of Nazareth,
Of sunny days of joy;
O sing of fragrant flowers’ breath,
And of the sinless Boy.
For now the flowers of Nazareth
In every heart may grow;
Now spreads the fame of His dear name
On all the winds that blow.
O sing a song of Calvary,
Its glory and dismay,
Of Him who hung upon the tree,
And took our sins away.
For He who died on Calvary
Is risen from the grave,
And Christ our Lord, by heaven adored,
Is mighty now to save.
(lyrics and audio link here)
Through a Martyr’s Eyes
Reading articles and news updates from the Voice of the Martyrs (links here and here) has been one of the most beneficial things I could have possibly done to help me in my Christian walk. Our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world do exist, and their faith and courage are incredibly inspiring. From Sunday school teachers who illegally teach children about Jesus in a Muslim country, to pastors who are beaten and killed by mobs, to children who watch their parents suffer and die – these are people who have much need of prayer. And they are people whom we have much to learn from.
I am sure there is nothing like the threat of persecution to lay your heart bare. When a gun is being waved in your face, and you are threatened with death if you do not deny the name of Christ, then the truth will come out, and what you value most will be seen. And that is why these martyrs are heroes. They show through their sufferings that they value Christ more than comfort, security, physical possessions, family, or life itself. There is a starkness to their faith. The cushioning is gone. There is nothing between them and Christ, and they see their need for Him so clearly, and they know how much He is worth to them so deeply.
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At my school, we have a worship service each Sunday night. One of my favorite songs there is entitled “None but Jesus.” When I sing this song, I think it is the kind of song a martyr might sing – and mean more deeply than we could possibly imagine, until God stretches the limits of our love.
(audio chorus link here)
In the quiet, in the stillness
I know that You are God
In the secret of Your presence
I know there I am restored
When You call I won’t refuse
Each new day again I’ll choose
There is no one else for me
None but Jesus
Crucified to set me free
Now I live to bring Him praise
In the chaos and confusion
I know You’re sovereign still
In the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do Your will
So when You call I won’t delay
This, my song, through all my days
I am Yours and You are mine
I am Yours and You are mine
All my delight is in You, Lord
All of my hope, all of my strength
All my delight is in You, Lord
Forevermore
(lyrics found here)
Christmas Giving
If you’re wanting to give monetarily this Christmas season, I encourage you to check out Samaritan’s Purse’s online gift catalog for people in need. They have an amazing variety of incredible options: for instance, you can feed a hungry baby for a week, for only $9. What an incredible thing to spend $9 on. Also, sponsoring a child through Compassion or another organization is a wonderful way to give both material and relational assistance to a child in poverty, and it costs just over $1 a day.
Then there are two ways to give that cost you nothing except a little time. People are harnessing the advertising revenue of the Internet to fight poverty. GoodSearch.com is a search engine powered by Yahoo!. Before you start searching, you choose a charity to give to, and the money from your searches goes to that charity. What a great idea. The other is FreeRice.com. Merely by answering vocabulary questions, you can donate hundreds and thousands of grains of rice to people in poverty. Another amazing idea!
