Christians in an age of blogging

I just spent some time reading the news on the internet. We have always been newspaper addicts and I guess the habit has crossed over into the cyber world. I don`t usually do more than read the main news articles, but today I followed a story from one thing to another and ended up on a New York Times Blog. It started out as a kind of introductory article by a woman named Amy who I suppose is famous, but not in Santa Barbara, Honduras, so I hadn`t ever heard of her before. Apparently she is a believer who is going to be writing on this blog about religion among other things. As far as I could tell it was her first time writing on this particular blog.

In this article, she wrote about hula hoops. I guess the future first lady is a great hula hooper. I never was very good at it, but I remember the great hula hoop competition downtown in Muscatine, Iowa when I was in grade school. The article had no great intellectual purpose--she just wrote it for fun, I suppose. I started reading through the responses, thinking they would be about hula hoops, or slinkies, or jumprope. Not at all. It was, for the most part, one hateful comment after another about Christianity/religion/faith in general. The original article wasn`t even about this lady's faith. Just the fact that she is a person of faith seemed to be enough.

I wondered--is that how Christians sound to unbeliever's ears? I wondered what had happened to these people, somewhere along the road, that their immediate reaction to a believer, even when she talks about hula hoops, is so intensely negative. I don't envy Amy. I suppose she is required to read the responses to what she writes.

Lord, help all of us who are Yours, to speak (or blog) truth to one another and to the world around us, but may the truth we speak be saturated in Your love for those who hear it. We will probably not always be understood, but may our words honor You, and be filled with compassion. While we need to use the intellect you have given us, it is not our arguments that will convince others. Help us, Lord, to point people to Jesus.

Christmas

The preparations for Christmas have always been my favorite part of the holiday. The Day itself is over so quickly. Packages unwrapped, food eaten, games played and the day is gone... But the preparations..that's the thing. Decorating the house while listening to old Andy Williams records (now on DVDs, of course). We even loved the songs whose theology we questioned. Baking cookies and inviting the neighbor's kids to come help decorate them. We have never had much money to spend on fancy presents, so the emphasis was always on creativity in wrapping. Lots of fun. Usually we invite someone to share the day with us who doesn't have family close. Concerts, programs, lights. I love all of it. That is why this Christmas seemed so...strange. Since we will only be at home a couple of days during the Christmas season, I didn`t even get out the decorations, I didn't bake cookies, I didn't even get out the Christmas music. We will be spending Christmas Day with friends, so no special meal to prepare for me.
But at the same time, I have felt like the Lord has encouraged me in what could have been a pretty melancholy Christmas for me. Christmas has found me. He has allowed us to have Hannah with us, even though we've spent more time on the road than at home...we've been together. Even in our travels, we just "happened" to be some place on the day of "the Christmas program" and have enjoyed not one, but three Christmas programs, with one more to come on Christmas Eve. None of the traditional decorations, but Mirza, who was living with us for the school year, made a Christmas decoration in one of her classes and proudly left it on my kitchen table. No home made cookies, but the bank where we change our money gave us metal tin of sugar cookies. Little things, but they have kept my spirits "Christmasy" in spite of not doing the ordinary things that I love so much. So much so, that I decided to listen to Andy Williams. Silver Bells......
Next year, I think I will decorate even if we are home for just one day, and bake cookies, even if I have to do it in October. I will not make Christmas come to me, but I am thankful that it has this year.

Matters of the heart

This morning I read a devotional by Spurgeon. He talked about Lydia, in Acts 16:14, where Scripture says that God "opened her heart". A few days ago I read a meditation on I Samuel 10:26 by John Piper that emphasized God "touching the hearts" of valiant men. The coincidence of reading two different meditations about God's relating to hearts got me curious. How else does God work in hearts?

What I discovered was really interesting: In I Samuel 16:7 God "looks at the heart", Psalms 44:21 says he "knows the secrets of my heart". God "creates a clean heart" in Psalm 51:10. God "pierces" hearts (Acts 2:37), "searches" hearts "Romanos 8:27". Christ "dwells" in my heart (Eph 3:17) and "directs" hearts (II Thessalonians 3:5)

Mostly, it seems God does all those things through His Word. Hebrews 4:12 says "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sights, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."(NAS)

I wonder how often I "harden" my heart to God's searching, piercing presence, and why in the world I do that? I can not hide from Him. He looks at it, knows it, examines it. The God who is there-- dwelling in my heart-- wants to open it to His touch. I find that amazing.

Hope

I have been trying to make good use of this quiet morning to work on some neglected projects. We are on the road again. John is in a meeting and I have some time to read, study or write without even the possibility of a sink of dirty dishes to distract me. But I am distracted. Just before we left the house, I mean like 10 seconds before I went out the door, I grabbed a book off the self to look at on the way. I am one of those blessed people who can read in the car (when I am not sleeping, which I also do a lot in a car).

The book I pulled off the shelf was Beyond Hunger, by Art Beals. I don’t agree with everything he says in the book, but he does make some very good points about the importance of compassion vs pity. He says, for example “Hope springs from a heart of compassion; despair is the product of a heart full of pity.” He quotes A LOT of scripture supporting the idea that we who are followers of Christ are supposed to be interested and involved in acts of compassion.

Add to that an internet link about Christian involvement in working for justice, esp. about the conditions RIGHT NOW in Burma that I received from the Trinity Forum (where Hannah lived and studied last year). (www.ttf.org/index/conversations/detail/human-rights-activisim)

Add to that the emails that we have received from our own mission and other Christian groups explaining how recent economic developments have created serious financial problems for them.

Add to that the fact that Hannah, who I consider a tremendously gifted person, is still without a paying job.

Add to that the people I saw sleeping on the street as we drove through Tegucigalpa on a Sunday afternoon.

I am feeling thoughtful and distracted.

What is supposed to be our Christian response to needs in the world, needs in our own backyard when economic times are not so good? I know that I (the champion worrier in our family) am concerned about how we can manage to not be a burden on our children when we retire. I wish I could buy those cool gifts I see in the stores for my nieces and nephews. I want to go see my first grandchild when he or she is born next year (Yeah, I get to be a Grandma). And then, there are Darfur and Burma, and hurting people in my own community.

I am not depressed, just thoughtful. I want to use wisely the resources God gives me. I don’t want to close my fist to those in need because maybe I don’t have as much extra this year as I had last year. I want to live with a spirit of hope. As I used to say so often to my kids, “No one can help everyone, but everybody can help somebody.”

Bare bones and adornments

I just finished preparing 25 picture frames to take on our next pastor/wives seminar. The seminar isn't until the first week of January, but I won't have time later. It takes me two or three days to get everything ready. Each lady will get a "bare bones" picture frame which they cover with a pretty piece of cloth. Then they can choose lace, ribbon, flowers and doodads to decorate it. We take a picture of the couple on the first day of the event, so they have a nice picture to put in the frame when they are done. It makes me happy to watch them, and they have so much fun adorning their creations. A friend just sent me all kinds of pretty buttons and ribbon and "doodads" and I can hardly wait to watch the ladies go to work. For some of them, it will be the only picture they have with their husbands, so it is very significant.

Most of the couples that we work with in these seminars live with a bare bones budget. A lot of churches can either not afford to pay their pastor much, or think poverty is a sign of spirituality in a pastor. (There might be a touch of sarcasm in the comment, but more truth than you would want to believe.) One pastor told John that he had been saving for years to buy a Bible dictionary, but always ended up spending the money on doctor bills. As I talked with the wives, the subject of finances comes up rather tentatively. They really don't want to talk about it much. I did have a moment of insight, though. What would you do if you want to feel pretty, or dressed up and don't have a lot of money? You do your nails!!! I had never thought about it this way before. A bottle of nail polish doesn't cost much, and with a bit of artistic effort, your fingers and toes blossom with tiny flowers. One gal showed me a whole page of designs that she uses to paint nails. That little bit of adornment is easy to do (for them, I don't think I could manage it), cheap, and beautiful!!!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the bare bones of my faith. What would my faith look like, if everything that is secondary was stripped away. What are the very most important parts of what I believe? Do I live like those are the very most important things in my life? (You notice I am not telling you what I decided. Think about it for yourself.) God has told us to "adorn" our faith, so what is the best way to do that? I looked up the word in my concordance and it was quite interesting the things are associated with the word adornment: the way I speak , seeking justice, being faithful, a friendly peaceful spirit, listening to counsel, a happy heart. I think we can make God's heart happy as he watches us adorn our faith with those things.