Fear Not!

I’ve almost decided to newly-devote this blog to theological reflections–a fancy term for “deep, insightful, spiritual truths discovered in the everyday and mundane.”  Movies especially catch my interest–probably because I like them so much, and watch them often.    Most recently, I had the pleasure of watching The Tale of Despereaux, the story of a mouse who was a gentleman.  I mean, in a nutshell, that was the plot.  (It would also make a great tagline.    )  It had a few real gems buried beneath its deceptively simple storyline; for example, it gave me a new perspective on offering a “sweet-smelling aroma” to the Lord.  No, really.

But that was an obscure little side note, which I will gladly explain if you really wish to know.  Probably more relevant, however, was all the stuff about fear. 

See, this mouse, Despereaux, was not timid like mice are supposed to be–that is, like the other mice were.  Instead, he was bold, almost fearless, refusing to cower at pictures of cats and carving knives.  And the other mice, including his family, tried their very hardest to teach him to fear things, to be “normal,” to live a life of timidity.  His father had one of the greatest lines in the whole movie:  “There are so many wonderful things to be afraid of, if you will only appreciate how scary they are.”  But Despereaux failed miserably at such lessons, opting instead to practice bravery, honour, and truth, like the knights in the stories he read.  And, need I say it, Despereaux becomes the hero of the movie. 

What keeps us from being heroes in our stories?  Could it be fear?  Have we come to appreciate how scary things are?  Do we essentially live timidly, like mice, afraid to try new things because they might not turn out right?  Afraid to explore the unknown because it might be dangerous? 

Do you see how limiting this mindset can be?  And unnecessarily so, for the Christian, because we have someOne on our side who is all-powerful, One who has conquered the grave–whom, then, shall we fear?  Paul writes that God doesn’t give a spirit of fear, but power–power like when He raised Jesus from the dead, calmed the storm, or performed any number of miracles–both through Jesus and the prophets, in the Old and New Testaments.  As Hillsong rightly sings, “The same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me.”   

Whom then shall I fear?

Even the Bad Guys

Even the bad guys have a purpose in God’s scheme. 

How have I come to that ridiculous conclusion?  Well, in the Bible when God speaks to Pharoah through Moses, He pretty much tells him that, though Pharoah has thought all along that he was in control, God has been using him for His own purpose, that He might be glorified.  You can read the exact quote here. 

Now, we obviously can’t know exactly how the bad guys fit into the big picture until God reveals it, as He has done here.  Like, what was the purpose of Hitler?  And Osama bin Laden?  Somehow, God is going to use even what they (and other bad people) have done for His glory.  It’s just hard for us to see how right now.

And, lest we begin to feel grand about our holy selves, consider that the sins of the worst people in history are just as much sins as the “little” ones that we commit day by day.  When compared to a truly holy and perfect God, even our best deeds are ugly.

The good news is, if God uses the bad guys for His purposes, then chances are that He’s using you and me, too.  After all, we were created to give God glory.  It’s just better for you when you do it on purpose.

A Lesson from Jonestown

CNN recently aired a documentary about Jonestown, that doomed community formed by Jim Jones and his cult back in the late 1970s.  It was not a good thing.  A lot of people were deceived into thinking that he was all that he said he was and that he had their best interests at heart.  He may have, at one point–but certainly not at the end of his ministry.  And though I don’t know the precise reason for his actions, and though I’m no psychoanalyst, I have come up with something that we can take from the disaster that he left in his wake:

Check your motives in everything you do, especially when you’re in a leadership position.  If what you’re doing is not for the glory of God, don’t do it.  Because, ultimately, that is our purpose as human beings:  to bring glory to God.  If we do anything contrary to that purpose, then, we’re living for no good purpose, which in turn leads to nowhere good, fast. 

And, may I suggest that this principle should extend not only to you, but to the ministries and/or churches in which you are involved.  Make sure they have the right perspective and exist for the glory of the true God.  If it’s not, perhaps you should get out of it…or do something to change it, before the damage becomes irreparable. 

Because the legacy of Jim Jones does not only consist of those who died; a few survived, but have been scarred for their lifetimes by the things that they witnessed.  As a result, some even fear to enter church buildings for the memory of their last doomed attempt at “religion.”  Please, fellow believers, may we do our best to keep this from happening to someone else!  Test everything… 

My heart goes out to the deceived of this world.

From Battlefields to Breakthroughs

As a disclaimer, I know this idea is not original to me, but it just clicked for me tonight, and I feel that it’s worth sharing.

When you feel the most spiritually attacked, it’s probably because you’re in the best position for growth.  The enemy, Satan, wants only to steal, kill, and destroy, so if he sees the potential for blessing and growth, he’ll do his worst to keep it from becoming a reality.  But, let me clarify: he does not see the future, at least not perfectly.  He just sees enough potential to give him reason for concern–and that’s a good thing.  That means that you’re in a position to grow in Christ; don’t let Satan drag you down again.

For, though Satan is more powerful than we are, God is more powerful than He is, and His power is in us, according to Ephesians.  Find encouragement in that thought.  And when you feel a battle beginning in your soul, surrender it to the One who has already won the war.  It may just be time for us to grow a little.

Worth and Company

Recently, I have been made aware of just a few of the crippling lies that Satan feeds us to keep us from being used by God to our full potential, as Christians.  And not only are such realisations limited to within my group of Christian friends and conversation; in fact, I find examples of them even in the literature that I’m reading for class!  Satan is cunning, probably more cunning than we give him credit for.

I never realised, for example, how masterful he can be at getting girls (and probably boys, too) to think that they are worthless.  But he’s pretty darn good at it.  The Bible says otherwise; the Bible says that you are, in fact, so worth it that God was willing to sacrifice His Son just so that you could live with Him forever.  The best part is, He did that before you even knew about Him, much less before you even cared–while you were still doing displeasing things, He loved you.  He created you, He protects you, He knows you by name; just read Psalm 139 for a picture of His love for you.  

Unfortunately, Satan is also pretty good at using us to corroborate the idea that a person is worthless.  If you have never thought about how the way you treat people, even people you don’t know, can affect the way they see themselves, then I beg that you do so.  The smallest things can make huge impacts.  Be careful what you do, and very careful what you say…because, dare I say it, someone’s very life could hang in the balance.

This morning, as I read “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I was struck with another lie that Satan effectively uses to crush some Christians into lethargy:  “You are alone in this struggle.”  Poor Goodman Brown took this idea to his head, and the narrator described the end of his life, his last moments, as “gloom”.  And what had he done for God to that point?  Nothing.  He’d been a sourpuss, condemning his fellow men because he assumed them all to be devil-worshippers, and of course he was holier than they.  But he was also lonely.  The Bible says that no one is tempted with something that someone else hasn’t also faced, so you’re not alone in your temptation.  And, believer, let me assure you that you are not the only one trying to live for God in today’s society.  Even Noah had sons helping him build his boat, and when Elijah despaired of being the only one left God reminded Him of a remnant of prophets hidden away. 

But, even if you were alone, what excuse is that to not share God’s love with someone else?  Is it not even more reason to do so?

Finally, let me say this:  though Satan is cunning, he is also the loser.  God has demonstrated (as if He needed to!) that He is more powerful than the devil when He raised His son from the grave.  He has already won the war. 

You are not worthless, and you are not alone.

Greater Things Have Yet to Come

Who knew that God could work through a group of clueless college students to change lives?

I suppose that we all knew it, technically–but did we believe it?  Okay, maybe we did that, too.  What I’ve neglected to do, then, is to claim it. 

Our InterVarsity chapter here at Charlotte is in an interesting epoch of its existence.  Our staffer recently underwent a kidney transplant, so he’s pretty much unable to come to most of the events that we host until his immune system recuperates a little more.  (Along those lines, he’s suffering from strep throat these days, so please pray for him to heal.  His immune system is not exactly where it should be to handle such an illness.)  This means that these events are essentially student-run–which is great, in one sense, because it lets us know that we really can do it.  (With a load of help from God!)  But it sometimes seem like such a grown-up task that I often feel as if we’re absolutely incapable.

But praise God, when we are weak, He is strong.  And last night He used our lowly college intellects and abilities to do what we can’t:  to change lives.  Through two simple testimonies and an invitation, led by a sophomore college kid who admitted himself that He had nothing to do with it, people surrendered their lives to Christ. 

Normally, when things like that happen at IV, there’s a pastor there giving the talk and the invitation–a pastor who knows what he’s doing.  So that’s what we’ve come to expect, is that the pastors do the actual nitty-gritty work of invitations.  Not so this night.

So, amid the chaos of embarrassing games, hilarious videos (search “mullet ninjas” on YouTube), broken guitar strings, and abbreviated music sets, God moved.  To Him be the glory.

And greater things have yet to come.

Excitement is Catching

Excitement is absolutely infectious. 

I have the privilege of serving God through InterVarsity here at school this semester as a women’s small group leader, and I’m excited.  But, see, I catch a lot of my excitement from my co-leader.  Starting this week we’re working through this book that she read over the summer which helped her grow a great deal in her Christian walk (in conjunction with the Bible, of course!), and she simply cannot wait to begin sharing it with the young women who will join us.  And I, who have not read the whole book yet, am beginning to feel the same way.  Her excitement has rubbed off on me, praise God!  Because if I weren’t excited about it, it would be so very easy to become bogged down in the logistics or in worrying that no one will show up or that the discussion will completely bomb.  And if I weren’t excited about it, there’s a good chance that the members of the small group wouldn’t be, either.   

This infectious excitement usually–not always, but usually–starts at the top and trickles down.  Elevation is an exciting place to be because the staff is excited to see lives changed.  InterVarsity is exciting (at least, I think so ) because our leadership team is pumped about the semester.  It was exciting to help the Christian Union last semester because they were so excited about the opportunity they had to shine a light on their campus.  Crossroads Summer Camp is an exciting place to spend a week because the staff jumps around and acts crazily from Day One. 

In other words, one way to create excitement wherever you are is to be excited about what you’re doing.  Try it; it’s contagious.

You Know My Name (!?)

No, I haven’t left the country recently.

What I have done, though, is return to college.  The summer is past, the winter is coming, et cetera. 

So, I’ll be taking a slightly different approach with this blog for the next little bit–don’t really know for how long yet.  I don’t even know how often I’ll post; for now, it’ll just be whenever I have something relevant to say.  If you get tired of checking and finding nothing new, I totally don’t blame you–but I would hate to post a bunch of silly, false nonsense.  So what I do post will be issues I’ve been thinking on a lot lately.  For the time being.

So, to start in this new direction:

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (my homeland CU) has officially begun holding meetings with the advent of the new school year; as always, we begin the year with a series of outreach events to let freshmen know that we exist and even, hopefully, to show nonbelievers why we’re different from the world.  So, I have been doing a good deal of thinking about outreach.  May I share a couple of things with you?  Nothing too deep, honest.

Last night, we hosted what we like to call an “Ice Cream Social” outside of the highrise dorms here on campus.  We set up a table outside, provide about 30 gallons of ice cream and a multitude of condiments (no ketchup or mustard, of course), and we serve it to anyone who stops by the table.  For free.  We don’t ask them for any donations, and we don’t even ask them to sign up for anything.  We just handed out ice cream.  (Now, if they wanted to learn more, we would gladly point them to our flyers–which are wicked cool, let me tell you!–or tell them about our small groups and things.  We answered their questions, in other words, but we didn’t force anything on them.)  About halfway through, we had this group of incredulous guys come over to the table asking what we were selling.  “We’re not selling anything,” we answered, “we’re just giving away ice cream.”  They smiled at us as if we were joking, but when they saw that we weren’t, their smiles faded into bewildered stares.  “Really, what’s the catch?”  This went on for a couple of minutes, no joke, until a couple of them actually finally decided they wanted ice cream for totally free.  And, guess what?  Not only did they take the ice cream, but they took a couple of flyers without our even pointing them out. 

The point of my story:  it’s effective, sometimes, to just give stuff away for free.  People won’t believe it.  They’ll wonder what’s the catch.  But, when they find out that there really is none, they’ll be grateful that you supplied their need and may desire to know more about what you’re all about.  (Not that ice cream is a need–but on a muggy summer night, it can certainly seem to be!)  Besides, remember salvation?  It’s free–to us.  Jesus paid the price for you and me to enjoy eternal life with Him, and there is no catch.  There’s nothing you can do to make yourself more Christian than you are when you trust Jesus to take away your sin and lead your life.  Give it away.

The second story is shorter, I promise:

Today, I went to the gym to exercise, because health is important.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been there very frequently thus far this semester (but I’m seeking to change that).  Anywho, I walked into the reception area where the guy swipes my card to prove I’m allowed to use the gym for free and, guess what?  Before I had even handed him my student ID, he called me by name.  He said, “Hey, there, Sierra” (or something like, but I was too shocked to really process the whole sentence).  I’ve only seen this guy once this semester, and already he knew my name.  (Not in a stalker way, okay?  Just in a friendly, you-really-matter way.)  I was super impressed.

The lesson here is probably more obvious:  people are impressed when you remember their names.  I’m not very good at it, I’m afraid, but I’ll try much harder to be better now.  Because it’s important that Christians develop relationships with people in order to open up an avenue for witnessing.  A great way to begin a relationship is to learn someone’s name.  Besides, it makes a huge impression.  And, hey, if you’re already really good at this, start using your skill in your church, learning visitors’ names and greeting them if they come another week.  Good news:  you don’t need a committee.  You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.  If you’re good at it, start using it to minister in your church.  We all have different gifts so that we can all work together to bring the world to Christ.  If you have the skill and don’t use it for God’s glory, we’re all missing out. 

Thank you for your patience; I’ll try not to have so much to say next time.  Until then, be seeing you!

Fiat Flyer Miles

To All Whom It May Concern,

If you weary of my prolonged silence, may I suggest visiting a blog literally relative to my own:  Fiat Flyer Miles.  A link can be found under my “blogroll” on the right-hand side of the screen.  This guy’s my brother, so I vouch for what he says–mostly.    And he has the fantastic opportunity to visit the UK this summer to study and stuff for a couple of months–but I won’t steal too much of his thunder.  Enjoy, and be seeing you!

“Here and Now” Versus “Then and There”

I know that I pretty much promised that I wouldn’t write here again for a while, but something’s come up that is so related to my study-abroad experience that it won’t rest until it has been mentioned here.

Because, you see, reacclamating has been a lot harder than I expected it to be.

For one thing, it’s really hot in the United States right now, so though I believe I could walk many places (or ride a bike at the very least!), it’s just not healthy to do so for risk of heat stroke or something.  That, compounded with gas prices (about which I didn’t have to worry while walking and riding public transportation in the UK) which have apparently skyrocketed since I left and now hover at the $4-a-gallon mark, have hit me quite suddenly and not altogether pleasantly.  And if there were a hope that America might someday implement an efficient system of public transportation it wouldn’t be so bad, but that’s a pretty hopeless case. 

Furthermore, I miss my friends.  Before you get too worried, let me assure you that yes, I do have friends here in the States, too, but we don’t all go to the same church or live within walking distance of one another (for the most part), so I don’t see most of them as often as once a week.  Besides, just as my CU friends didn’t replace my US friends, so my US friends can’t replace the CU friends, although seeing the US friends again will help a great deal (hint, hint…:)  ).  So that’s another pretty big reason that I’m having trouble adjusting. 

But all of that isn’t even the real reason I’ve had so much trouble–not the BIG reason, anyway.  I just discovered this one yesterday, and I’ve been mulling over it ever since:  I’ve been so focused on the future that I have neglected the present.  See, I’ve known for a little while now (which is to say probably a matter of several weeks) that I shall return to England some day–when, or for how long, is just a little sketchy at this point.  But as soon as my plane left English soil, I started wanting to go back and planning the next trip in my mind–the “then and there.”  It even crossed my mind, as we took my brother to the airport to send him to London, that I could just buy a plane ticket and return that very day!   

The only problem is, that’s not in the game plan.  Not yet.  Just as I am convinced that I’ll be going back someday, I’m also sure that, for now, my calling involves finishing college here and teaching for four years to pay back the Teaching Fellows for helping pay my way through college.  This year in particular, I have the privilege of serving InterVarsity as a small group leader, as well as serving Elevation Church in whatever capacity and serving Riverside in whatever ways I can.  My calling, for the next two years, is to serve my churches and InterVarsity as well as I can while completing my degree to the best of my ability for the glory of God.  That’s the “here and now,” and that’s where I am.  And until the “then and there” becomes the “here and now,” it will just have to wait, I’m afraid.  But it’ll come soon enough.