I am learning that one of the by products of working with many different people is varying levels of commitment, expectation and the end result. My life is centered around nurturing relationships that are Christ driven to see people serve others unselfishly. It is easy to say this but another thing to pull it off and not step back at times and either think that I am so cool to get 300 people to paint 10 houses or the reverse, boy did I blow it by not being more organized at smaller event or why is it the case only 2 people showed up to help with my own neighborhood work project last week?
I have always struggled with people that look at life from a negative perspective. All it takes is one sour apple to spoil the whole bunch. I am learning that being a positive factor in anything in life will transform any situation. I know that especially around Christmas time people are more open to talk about the difference having hope in life can make. What is the one thing that is going to help you keep going and not stop or quit in your present situation? It doesn’t matter what the circumstances we all come to the end or our rope at times.
You add what I have been talking about to doing work in a cross-cultural setting where you have many different ways of doing something and you have the ingredients for friction and frustration. It is like learning to speak another language and sometimes the more you try to do it right you mess up more. It is so easy to impose my personal values or ways of doing things and miss out on allowing God to work through the chaos of life that I miss out on many blessings. I know that having done both construction work and church work most of my life that there is always someone who knows what they think is the right way to do something. If you suggest or do something different you receive a lot of flack or threats, i.e. I’ll quit or we never did it this way or this is doomed to fail.
I love how the apostle Paul reflects on his life journey, which was at times a mess with the following thought from 2 Cor. 4: 7:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always caring in the body of the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
The simple fact is that most of Paul’s heart ache in life was from his past life as a Jewish leader and also from his new role as the missionary to the non-Jewish world. Paul was a mover and shaker in his day and wasn’t afraid to stir the pot or step out and do something totally different so that more people could both hear and see the gospel.
My life at present is working with many kids from the inner city and a lot of Grandmas from my neighborhood. We have been doing mercy church for over the last year plus. At times I do consider whether the amount of time, funds raised and the results are truly worth it. This comes out of my educated and white culture that says everything has to be a certain way for it to be considered a worthy endeavor. The other side of my life, which is Jesus talking to me, says that He came specifically to love the least, the last and the lost. I love the Master Card commercial that says ultimately that certain things in life are priceless. This is my life at present as I could tell stories each day of being with different people and seeing first hand results of living out the gospel in both word and deed. So what is my point in writing this blog but to encourage myself to not quit and for others to see the heart of God for the poor, broken and lost around them? It is way too easy to become insulated from the real world around you and live in a Christian ghetto or vacuum.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers for relating back to some who question the type of work I am pursuing. All I can say is that God has given me a passion and a call to love on the South Phoenix neighborhoods. Yes I would love to have a time table for a lot of things that I do but I am beginning to see that what matters is God’s time table over all not mine. Yeah I do care about being organized and seeing God bless. I guess Paul’s two cents was that his life was always facing different messes and the adventure is in watching God work through those circumstances for his glory to show forth his grace and mercy.
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