A Daily Savior

Heather, a beautiful brain cancer survivor, wrote a recent post entitled Empty Me. She quotes a devotional written by someone else:

So, not only does everyone need a Savior to save them and take them to heaven but, they need this Savior also to cleanse them of the filth of daily living and to empower them to live as a believer. Without Him, washing, cleansing and filling us, we begin to stink to this lost and dying world and we will offer nothing to quench their spiritual thirst.

It is possible to stink and not be a “sweet smelling savor.”

Jesus wasn’t done with me when He saved me – and for that I am so thankful. I find that I constantly need renewal. I need that daily washing in the Word and prayer. It needs to be daily – I still am not as consistent as I should be. I need Him tomorrow morning to empower me and give me wisdom and hope as I go back to my job. I need Him in order to be a light to those around me. I need Him in order to cling to joy in every circumstance. I can do none of this, absolutely none of it, on my own. He is my Savior yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Cheesy friendship songs

Tomorrow I’m saying goodbye to two of my best friends – one of them for a few weeks, one of them for months or years. Yesterday we were sitting around listening to songs about friendship, like “Every Moment” by Joy Williams and “More Than You’ll Ever Know” by Watermark, oh, and “Follow Love” by FFH – that was a killer because God is leading us in different directions and we trust Him but we will miss each other. We were getting sad so we decided to listen to some supposedly “cheesy” songs about friendship. So we turned on a true classic:

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hand we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends

Now, we were thinking that the general corniness of this song would make us laugh, but then we realized that in spite of that, we were still made emotional by it! I said that I needed to blog about something, and Sarah told me that I should write about that. So this is kind of my tribute entry to my dear friends, who are currently planning my life out for me as I’m blogging . Chey and Sarah, I love you and thank you for being such blessings in my life. Friends can be friends forever!!

The Birth of Freedom

I really appreciated the perspective this preview brought about the revolutionary importance of freedom, connecting with biblical times, the Middle Ages, and more recent struggles. Especially in regard to the mass prevalence of slavery during Bible times – think what it must have meant for Paul to write to the early Christians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Spiritual freedom – a poignant idea considering the lack of physical freedom during so much of human history.

(HT: Beauty from the Heart)

Gray skies overhead

One year ago today, I was finishing all of my last-minute preparations for Peru. After a very brief night’s sleep, I got up around 2:00 a.m. to leave for the airport. Two days and four flights later, the airplane wheels touched down in Lima, and a month I will never forget began.

Not surprisingly, I still haven’t finished processing through all that occurred during that month. It was so much harder, yet so much more rewarding than I expected. One of the images that remains in my mind is from a home we visited our second week. It was a two hours’ drive from Lima, I think. I’ve written about it before, yet it made such an impression on me that I am compelled to reminisce again.

It was a home for boys, and it touched my heart so much. So many forlorn yet brave little souls. Safe, really – grateful for what they had, away from whatever trouble they had been in. Some were mentally handicapped, and others were loud and wild. Some of the older boys – eleven, twelve, thirteen, perhaps? – watched over the younger ones like big brothers, quietly keeping them in line.

At the end of the afternoon, before we said goodbye, we stood around talking on the big concrete slab in the courtyard, with gray skies overhead and a dirty beach nearby. It was curiously peaceful, with an almost isolated feeling. I felt as far away from home as I’d ever been in my life. And I felt helpless. My heart just yearned over these children, the same way it yearns over the children floundering in the inner-city school systems I’ve worked in. Not for them to know the extravagant poverty of “the good life,” but for them to know the all-embracing shelter of home and family, a living image of Christ’s love.

It was a very long goodbye with the few boys I was talking to (with the help of a translator). They asked how long it took me to fly here. They told me their stories of how they got to the home – one boy was from the jungle and was able to speak Quechua, which I was excited to find out about because I was reading Elisabeth Elliot’s novel No Graven Image – it was tucked in my bag at that very moment. They followed us to the bus, and I leaned out the window talking to them and holding their little hands. They asked if I had children. They asked when I was coming back. I knew I might never come back to this place, only a memory to me now but as real today as it was then.

I cannot be their savior. I pray they will know the real Savior. And I hope He might use me in other children’s lives. Those boys gave me a gift – they let me come into their world and catch the tiniest glimpse of understanding, and inspiration for the future. They showed me my own helplessness, yet the possibilities for a weak child who has a strong Father.

My Job is Not a Hindrance

One of the most recent posts at the Girl Talk blog was entitled Homemaking is Not a Hindrance. It was an encouragement to me because even though I am not a homemaker, I often feel as though what I do forty hours a week is hindering me from what I really should be doing. Although this does not mean that I’m going to stop looking for “real” jobs, nor does it mean that I shouldn’t pursue outside ministry, it does mean that each morning when I wake up, I am called to glorify God in my current job. I’ve paraphrased some of Carolyn’s entry:

It’s easy for us to look around and see “everyone else” playing a productive and meaningful part in the church’s mission and feel like we are the “only one” languishing on the sidelines.

Now, it is good and right for us to want to invest the gifts and talents God has bestowed on us for the good of the church; but when we view [our job] as a hindrance to using our gifts, I think we’re missing a vitally important truth…

Be like Susanna Wesley, “the incomparably brilliant and well-educated mother of sons who shook two continents for God” who wrote: “I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified” (Dorothy Patterson).

My Favorite Authors

I always like to do book memes. Kaysie tagged me for this one. It’s funny because our favorite authors are similar too.

Who is your favorite author and why?

For nonfiction, my favorite authors are Elisabeth Elliot and John Piper. I have loved Elisabeth Elliot’s writing for a long time; she has mentored me through her books. I haven’t read everything she’s written, but some of my favorites are A Chance to Die, No Graven Image, Be Still My Soul, and Passion and Purity.

I was introduced to John Piper’s writing when my dad started reading Don’t Waste Your Life to my family. I finished it on my own. It has been one of the most important books in my life. I should share some of my favorite quotes from it soon. I have read parts of Desiring God, Let the Nations Be Glad, A Hunger for God, What Jesus Demands from the World, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Taste and See, and really appreciate all of them for their God-exalting, Christ-centered, solid Scriptural truth.

Who was your first favorite author and why?

This is probably an impossible question to answer, since before I learned how to read my mom read to me all the time, but my guess would be Lois Gladys Leppard. She wrote the Mandie series – Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, anyone? That brings back so many memories – Mandie, Joe, Celia, Snowball… so funny to think about. I wrote a whole series of mysteries “inspired” by the Mandie books.

Who is the newest addition to your favorite authors and why?

I haven’t read many new authors lately – I love to reread old favorites, and what reading I’ve been doing has been mostly that. But as of this past spring, one of my new favorites is Susan Hunt. I love how she wrote about biblical womanhood in The True Woman. I want to read more of her books.

I’m tagging people, but please don’t feel obligated – and if I didn’t tag you and you want to do it, go for it (or answer in the comments section): Courtney, Hannah, Holly, Jennifer, Kaylene, and Kristin.

And the “rules”:

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Answer the above questions.
3. Tag 4-6 people.