Letters

Not much in Mark Driscoll's sermon last week really stuck out at me, save one comment. Letters. Paul wrote to the Corinthians with his own hand. He sent them the letter. Mark started talking about how great it is to recieve a letter. And he went off on some story that I don't remember because I was off in my world.

Capernwrayers do you remember the mad dash to the mailboxes? The pure joy that came from finding something in your box. And the utter disappointment that came from seeing an empty box? I have all my letters from Capernwray. All of them. They are cherished memories.

I thought about that. And I thought about how I don't dash to the mailbox with the same excitment. Usually all it holds are more wedding invitations and bills. No personal letters.

What is the big deal with letters. Why do they make us feel so good? Perhaps its simply because when you recieve a letter you know that person was thinking of you, they care about you. They the took the time to actually sit down and write you a letter. Not just send a quick text while sitting in traffic. They took time to buy a stamp and walk to the mailbox to send it. Not just hit a cut little button on the left side of the screen. They revealed some of themselves that they couldn't in an e-mail, like the fact that they can't spell or they have horrible penmanship. A letter, I've concluded is in fact a beautiful thing and lost.

I want to find it again. Not just in my life, I'd love for ya'll to find it also. So, if you allow me to be so bold, I challenge you to write a letter a week with me. Let the Spirit burden you each week for who you should write to, but find again this lost art. And who knows maybe you'll find yourself dashing to the mailbox :)

Desert, or Just a Change of Scenery?

Every one seems to be telling me I'm in a desert place. I burned out in jr. high ministry so I'm taking a season off and all I seem to hear from everyone is: this is a desert time. But I don't think it is. I don't feel distant from God, rather I feel he's chilling right next me and I'm enjoying peace with him. Though I'd been hearing everyone's commentaries on my spiritual I picked of St. John of the Cross' "The Dark Night of the Soul". Which is a great book and I enjoy it greatly but this time round it just didn't hit me, convict me, or encourage me as it did before. I started listening to an excellent sermon series on lonliness (www.thevillagechurch.net "only the lonely" Paul Matthies) and though I've been learning a lot and I've ejoyed the teaching, there's a part of me that says this isn't entirely where I'm at though.

I don't feel distant from God. I don't feel lonely. I feel quiet. I'm waiting. And learning to do so patiently.

God has one Plan A for all of our lives and in that Plan A there must be times of waiting. Waiting and quietness (or stillness) does not always denote a desert place. I think we too quickly slap the "desert time" tag on our soul when we are not vibrantly on fire for God, with tangible expressions of our faith. Its easier to stomach then just resting in the Lord. Because when in the desert there are things we can do to get out, there are endless lists of advice on how to walk out of these times, or find the oasis and the life. Its easier in the desert to fix ourselves then to rely on God. However I find I am quite enjoying the waiting time. Its a time of peace and quietness. My ministry has not been diminished or put on pause...its just quieter. I'm enjoying chilling with Jesus and getting to know him more...through prayer, quiet time and reading. Its great.

You that point in a relationship where you don't always have to talk when with that person...how that's a sign of something good, that you can sit in silence (not out of anger) and not feel awkward, like you need to say something. I feel like that with God. Its not a desert, its just a time of waiting an stillness...no awkwardness, no striving, just being. And I know it won't last forever so I know I should cherish this moment for what it is.

I don't know what lies ahead of me, what God is having me wait on but you know I'm totally content. I know God is good and that he makes us wait sometimes, which doesn't mean our life is put on hold, it justs means we wait, and life might look different, might look to others like the desert but there is life.

I went to Mt. St. Helens yesterday and I think the secenery there describes this best. The drive up is beautiful, lots of good 'ol Washington green and great landscapes, you get great peeks at the monstrous mountain, snow capped and hiding under some clouds. Its just beautiful. Then you reach the top and it looks like a desert. Its dry and very little grows but if you look you see growth, you see life. The lava dome is growing at a rate of six feet a day. There are shurbs growing back and flowers, beautiful purple, yellow and white wildflowers. There is life, but it looks different and looks like a desert, though it is no way a desert.

To Write Love On Her Arms

www.twloha.com. Go there. Check it out. The story behind it is difficult to read but eye-opening for some perhaps.

I am so thankful for this new non-profit. One guy was confronted with the brokeness and pain of a hurting girl, a product of the fall, and instead of shrugging away in fear, disgust or ignorance he responded with love and is still responding with love. Not just for her but for so many others. Renee, the girl who inspired it, was a druggie and a cutter, and he and his friends reached out to her and are now reaching out to help others. I love this and I am so thankful for it. As one who has struggled with cutting I am overjoyed that someone is bringing out into the open and creating a place of help for those struggling, resources, and more than that a heart to love them. And to boot, the guy behind it isn't a cutter, he isn't depressed, he isn't sucidal, he's acting like Jesus, loving and doing something.

It seems all to often in secular and Christian circles cutting exsists, you know someone (whether you are aware or not) who is a cutter. Its common but silent. Its so hard to understand why someone would inflict such pain on themselves, sometimes I don't even understand it and I've been there and sometimes still have the impulse to go there again. There are psychological and physical reasons, personal stories of why and how but really the reason is spiritual. And so the best I can offer is that we see most clearly in this the great depravity of mankind. We see it in so many other arenas of life as well. And in all of these, it doesn't make sense. Our mind can't comphrend it. But our sinful nature lashes out regardless.

Please check out this new organization and do what you can to support it, check out the links, educate yourself. You never know when you will come accross someone who struggles in this area. And whatever you do, please don't recoil in disgust or confusion...love the person.