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what a week
[Nathanial] Time to write out some of the things and experiences on my heart this past week. It has been a week of smiles and a week filled with emotion-wrenching news. I feel comfortable sharing some these situations because I feel that any prayer that can be lifted up is beneficial. Here are some of the stories of my week:
Monday I learned that a student I work with is dealing with an immigration hearing for his father. The family remains in Mexico despite school starting two weeks ago because the family can’t afford to travel separately. It is easy to feel helpless because there really isn’t anything I can do as an educator. It is my current goal to do my best once the student finally returns to classes. Lord, I pray for this family’s situation and their safe travels.
Tuesday I heard news that a coworker is discovering her second battle with cancer. Lord, I pray for that family and especially their two children.
Then today I learned that a Luther graduate has been confirmed dead as a result of the earthquake in Haiti. While I didn’t know this man personally, the loss remains tragic and ripples can be felt through other people. Lord I pray for the country of Haiti and all the families affected directly and indirectly.
Despite all these sorrowful events, it has been my birthday week. There has been many smiles and wonderful moments of love from the people that really care about me. I turned 24 and a wise man said to me, “24 is a big year.” While I initially scoffed at this, I am sure God has some amazing things in store for my life this year.
I woke up today and thought “I just want to skip the hours of my workday and get straight to tonight to spend time with my communal brothers.” Indeed, the Spirit of God is floating among these quiet walls tonight. Today, living in this place was worded with a slightly different meaning. We are each the best thing and the worst thing for one another. We can support one another deeply and challenge one another deeply. There is no better place for any one of us than within these walls in this season of our individual lives.
Thank you Lord for being ever present. Thank you for Lord being a source of comfort and strength deeper than any of us could ever fathom. paix.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Love
[Tony] In light of the new year, I'd like to partake in the almost cliché tradition of using the year transition as an opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed. Now, I realize I could talk for a long time about all of the different things and people and events and surprises and successes and failures and whatever else happened this last year, but I wont do that. Actually, I would fear that trying to recount everything would just set me up to leave something out and feel bad about it afterwards. Anyway, I'd like to reflect on this last year by talking about a deep and resounding truth that I have learned over the course of interaction with God and life over the last twelve months.
Living in an incarnational community like Ekklesiah has exposed me to a place of vulnerability. This vulnerability and allowing yourself to be vulnerable while asking others to open up to you is a place that is very frightening to dwell too long in. Its a potentially painful place, a place where control is given completely away and the need for God's tangible presence is a desperate one. This is one of those fragile places, one of those places that, for the most part, if someone ends up there its by accident. I'll admit, this is sometimes a difficult and frustrating place to be- frustrating in that lay yourself completely in the hands of God and one another but also frustrating because it will expose you. This is a place where weakness comes out in bold colors, where brokenness, past pains, and struggle stand hand-in-hand with your strengths and all you can do is stand there with your own baggage and ask to be loved.
Vulnerability is also a place that exposes our own humanity. It is in vulnerability, in those intimate and others-seeking relationships where humanity becomes the beautiful, priceless gift that it is. Here, people change from friends and acquaintances to image bearers and icons. And it is here that the marks of our Creator, even in our most broken and cracked states, shine brightest. It is here that we learn about ourselves and in learning about ourselves, we learn about our God. So, here are some things that I have learned in those scary but rewarding relational places over the last year. I'll just throw them out there and I'll let you chew on them-- because sometimes discovery is the best part.
First- Every human being is created with an incredible, natural, and endless ability to love and to be loved.
Second- We are incredibly relational creatures. Like food and water and sleep, if we don't have relationship we don't have life. Literally.
Third- We need each other desperately- Quite possibly the greatest gift that God could have given to us was each other. Alone, we are weak, stubborn, scared and easily misled, but together- together, in relationship, we can hold and build each other up to places we could never go alone. How wonderful it is that we were created by God in such a way that we actually physically, emotionally, and spiritually need love and need to love desperately in order to survive. We were created to be in love! How wonderful it is that we can share with each other the same love that is poured out on us by our maker. Suddenly, when you pay more attention to these details of being human, even the painful sides of love become beautiful in their own way. For children of God, to live is to love and to be loved, which means love or a need for love will pervade everything and every part of our lives, in some way, shape, or form. Sometimes that love is messy, sometimes its sloppy, sometimes its neglected, other times its desperately needed and sought after. Its the every day love, the “I really just need someone to talk to” love, the “I don't know what to do” love, the “I messed up” love. Its the “I'm so glad you made it” love and its the “I miss you” love. Its the “that hurt” love and its the “I'm sorry” love. Its the “forgive them father for they know not what they do” love and the “for God so loved the world” love. We are inundated with it. We cannot escape it. We cannot live without it. We need it in our cores. There will never be a time when we don't have it. This is the world that God has created for us to live in and this is the way that God has created us to live- to be, eternally, in love.
And then, theres this- God is love. So, we are inundated with God. Even if we weren't Christians. Even if we didn't even belief in Him, we could not live without Him. Literally. He is breath, He is Spirit, and He is love- and we cannot live without Him.
Happy New Year- May God bless you with grace and peace in the upcoming year.
Living in an incarnational community like Ekklesiah has exposed me to a place of vulnerability. This vulnerability and allowing yourself to be vulnerable while asking others to open up to you is a place that is very frightening to dwell too long in. Its a potentially painful place, a place where control is given completely away and the need for God's tangible presence is a desperate one. This is one of those fragile places, one of those places that, for the most part, if someone ends up there its by accident. I'll admit, this is sometimes a difficult and frustrating place to be- frustrating in that lay yourself completely in the hands of God and one another but also frustrating because it will expose you. This is a place where weakness comes out in bold colors, where brokenness, past pains, and struggle stand hand-in-hand with your strengths and all you can do is stand there with your own baggage and ask to be loved.
Vulnerability is also a place that exposes our own humanity. It is in vulnerability, in those intimate and others-seeking relationships where humanity becomes the beautiful, priceless gift that it is. Here, people change from friends and acquaintances to image bearers and icons. And it is here that the marks of our Creator, even in our most broken and cracked states, shine brightest. It is here that we learn about ourselves and in learning about ourselves, we learn about our God. So, here are some things that I have learned in those scary but rewarding relational places over the last year. I'll just throw them out there and I'll let you chew on them-- because sometimes discovery is the best part.
First- Every human being is created with an incredible, natural, and endless ability to love and to be loved.
Second- We are incredibly relational creatures. Like food and water and sleep, if we don't have relationship we don't have life. Literally.
Third- We need each other desperately- Quite possibly the greatest gift that God could have given to us was each other. Alone, we are weak, stubborn, scared and easily misled, but together- together, in relationship, we can hold and build each other up to places we could never go alone. How wonderful it is that we were created by God in such a way that we actually physically, emotionally, and spiritually need love and need to love desperately in order to survive. We were created to be in love! How wonderful it is that we can share with each other the same love that is poured out on us by our maker. Suddenly, when you pay more attention to these details of being human, even the painful sides of love become beautiful in their own way. For children of God, to live is to love and to be loved, which means love or a need for love will pervade everything and every part of our lives, in some way, shape, or form. Sometimes that love is messy, sometimes its sloppy, sometimes its neglected, other times its desperately needed and sought after. Its the every day love, the “I really just need someone to talk to” love, the “I don't know what to do” love, the “I messed up” love. Its the “I'm so glad you made it” love and its the “I miss you” love. Its the “that hurt” love and its the “I'm sorry” love. Its the “forgive them father for they know not what they do” love and the “for God so loved the world” love. We are inundated with it. We cannot escape it. We cannot live without it. We need it in our cores. There will never be a time when we don't have it. This is the world that God has created for us to live in and this is the way that God has created us to live- to be, eternally, in love.
And then, theres this- God is love. So, we are inundated with God. Even if we weren't Christians. Even if we didn't even belief in Him, we could not live without Him. Literally. He is breath, He is Spirit, and He is love- and we cannot live without Him.
Happy New Year- May God bless you with grace and peace in the upcoming year.
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