Keep Walking

I have a wonderful friend who I meet every week to talk together, encourage each other, and challenge each other.  We usually try to add a little structure to our weekly meetings by reading through a book together.  We've gone through all kinds of reads together, and right now we're tackling Believing God by Beth Moore.  One of the chapters I read for our meeting today really resonated with me, so I thought I'd share a little about it here.  Maybe it will have an impact on you, too.

The chapter is called "Believing God When Routine Follows Revelation."  Sometimes we have big moments with God.  But usually we don't.  Most of our lives are made up with the "normal" times in between the A HA! moments.  Most of the time we just have to keep going with what we know we should do without any major indicators we're on the right track, just trusting that we are being faithful and that it will ultimately be rewarded.  While talking about Joshua leading God's people in their fight against Jericho by walking (seemingly for no reason) over and over around the city walls, Beth says:

Sometimes God requires us to follow a fair amount of repetition for a considerable amount of time until He deems a season complete.  Then all of the sudden He seems to do something profound or miraculous, and we can't figure out what changed.

We may not see any value in the repetitive walking around the wall, but there is value in it because God told them to do it.  The great thing about this specific example from Joshua is that God told the Israelites the outcome.  He gave them a seven-day plan to follow with the guarantee that if they followed the plan, they would win the battle and overtake the city.  Unfortunately, however, we don't usually get such a prescriptive outline from the Lord about the battles we face.  We don't get the timeline for when we'll have this need met or that longing fulfilled.  We just have to trust that we need to do what the Lord has called us to do right here, right now, and he will take care of knocking down the wall that is in the way.  To this Beth says:

God often directs us to keep walking around that Jericho day after day, repeating the same fundamental steps while nothing seems to happen.  Oh, it will.  We must never stop believing it will.  But in the meantime, we've got to keep walking and keep circling no matter how many times we've done it before and no matter how many times we're yet to do it.

She goes on to discuss that regularity and repetition are not bad things but are important fundamentals of our faith.  Nor do they require that creativity and passion are set aside.  She explains:

God likes order.  He likes repetition.  A God of fundamentals, He brings up the sun every morning and the moon every evening, but His creativity within that order is gorgeously displayed in the changing sunsets and sunrises surrounding them.  The same is true for us.  Faithfulness in our Christian walk requires order, some black-and-white fundamentals, but within that order is glorious room for color and creativity.

Being faithful can seem mundane or tiresome at times, but it is always worth it.  The reward may be just around the next corner or may not be revealed on this side of eternity, but it will be rewarded.  Remember these words from Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

I needed this truth today.

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Bookshelf Report

I love to read.  But it hasn't always been that way.  I enjoyed books alright while I was growing up, but I wasn't usually the kid who hid a flashlight and the lasted story by my bed to read at night.  In high school and college, I disliked my literature classes because they told me what I had to read and when to read it.  Where's the enjoyment in that?

A couple years ago with determination to become more cultured and well-read, my roommate and I came up with a reading list of 50 books, mostly classic novels with a few other things thrown in there.  While she valiantly read the 50 books in a year, I didn't quite make it through the list.  Actually, I did terribly. I started well and went strong for a couple months, but I got stuck on Gone with the Wind (which I did end up finishing) then Three Cups of Tea (which I did not end up finishing).  From there I deviated from the list and just read whatever I felt like, lacking much discipline at all.  

All that to say, I like to read now though it has been inconsistent at best.  And though I have failed on the finishing-a-book-list front, I have been reaching the back cover of several books lately.  I do a lot better without a here's-what-you-have-to-read expectations.  Here are a few of my recents reads:

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures.  Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things!  Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them.

I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neighbourhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found.

I read this one because I wanted to see the movie already knowing the story.  I'm very glad I did because I was able to actually enjoy the film (instead of falling asleep like I have for ALL of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  I have yet to see one of them in their entirety.  Maybe reading the books first would help.).   Though I don't usually pick fantasy books, I do enjoy getting caught up in a good story, and The Hobbit was just that. 

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives.

You do not need to preach to your pastor or congregation; you simply need to live out in your daily life the love and obedience that God has asked of you.

I read this one with my accountability partner.  She and I like to read different books or do different studies together, so this was the one we finished up right before Christmas.  We were challenged by it and appreciated Chan's perspective.  It is a big part of what inspired this post last fall, and the principles of it continue to challenge my mindset on a daily basis.

Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World by Carolyn McCulley

To live according to biblical principles today requires women to be bold enough to stand against philosophies and strongholds that seek to undermine God's Word and his authority.

Our brains confirm what Scripture tells us: men and women are equal in essence but are created to function differently.

I picked this one up at the Desiring God conference I attended last September.  Carolyn McCulley was one of the speakers, and I was curious to know more about her ministry.  She's also written Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? Trusting God with a Hope Deferred, but I decided not to get that one since I feel like I been overloaded by singleness books and kinda over that as a book-topic.  

I enjoyed Radical Womanhood because it addresses our culture in light of the recent waves of feminism and how our thinking can be subconsciously impacted by this mindset without even being aware of how we have strayed away from God's perfect plan for women and how we should relate to men.  Definitely an interesting read.

So there are a few of my recent reads!  I'm in the middle of a couple more now and have a pile waiting to be read.  But that doesn't stop me from wanting to find more that I'd like to read!  I just got a kindle, so I'm sure I'll be filling it up with books waiting to be read. (Aside: My jury's still out on the e-reader, but I'm giving it a go.  I think my challenge will be paying money for a book that I don't get to hold in my hands or put my book stamp in.  I'll have to get over that, me thinks.) 

What are some of your favorite reads?  Any recommendations for me?  

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Kisses From Katie

On a day when there are so many things to distract me and discourage me, I am trying to keep my focus on what is true, on what is beautiful, on the hope I have.  So, this is what I thought of:  a book I recently finished.  I am notorious for starting books and losing steam about halfway through, but this one got picked back up at Lodge Weekend and actually got finished!

Kisses from Katie (Howard Books, 2011) is a beautiful, challenging account of a young lady's determination not to settle for the status quo and what would be expected of a bright, college-bound high school grad.  A year of ministry before she started college turned into a new life in another country where Katie Davis would impact others in ways she may not have ever dreamed.  What started out as a trip to Uganda to teach Kindergarten for a year turned into so much more.  After falling in love with the Ugandan people and seeing the extensive needs spread before her, Katie chose to stay there and continue to love people like Jesus has loved her.  Long story short, she dropped all the comforts and conveniences of her normal life in the States and exchanged them for a houseful of girls who call her Mommy, a community where she is a vessel of the love of Christ in practical ways, and a ministry Amazima that cares for hundreds of children in Uganda.

I got this book for Christmas last year, and looked forward to reading it.  But it took me months to crack the cover.  Not because I didn't want to, but because I was too busy.  My days were too full of commitments, running here and there, and trying to get some good sleep once in a while (and I do love me some good sleep!).  A beach trip this summer finally provided the opportunity to start the book.  Sitting in a lounge chair next to a pool at a huge beach house isn't exactly the most convenient time to be challenged about a lifestyle of excess and superfluous comforts.  Talk about conviction.  But the beach trip ended, and the book went back on the shelf, unfinished.    

When I finally finished the book last weekend, all the ways it had challenged me before came flooding back a hundredfold.  The "big" things in my life aren't really that big at all.  I am well fed, well clothed, well housed, well spoiled.  There are things I have to excess what so many lack all together.  If this doesn't impact my lifestyle, how can I call myself someone who walks in Christ's footsteps?  

And then this past Sunday was "Adoption Sunday," and a couple from my church who had recently traveled to Uganda and are now in the process of adopting a brother and sister from an orphanage there mentioned Kisses from Katie.  Coincidence?  I think not.  The Lord has put adoption in my heart more and more over the past year or so.  But I have always thought it was a waiting game since I'm single.  When I'm married I'll be able to adopt.  But does it have to be?  How in the world could I move this a long without trying to rush the whole getting married thing?  I don't know what that looks like, but just opening the doors of thought in that direction might be the start of something bigger than I thought was possible.  Maybe a little like Katie.  Maybe I just have to carefully listen the Lord's leading, follow Him there, and let him do the rest.

Beyond the ways Katie's life challenges my own, I have to fight the temptation to mimic her calling.  She's two years younger than me, but she's done so much more than I have.  Should I pack up and find some orphans to take care of?  Should I give up all that has become normal to me for the sake of an obedience adventure that's glamorous in the eyes of the Christian community? No.  Not necessarily. My obedience to the call of God doesn't have to look like Katie's.  The way she moved across the world to care for orphans makes me quitting my job this summer to live in the same place to work for a ministry seem much more insignificant.  But it's not insignificant.  My ministry matters.  And that's a way the Lord has called me.  But he's not done with me.  I can't just keep living my comfy life, working for a nonprofit, and calling that "following."  I can't settle for that.  I need to poor my heart and energy and life into Jesus and the ministry where he has placed me. I need to have a critical eye of my life choices and fight living in excess.  I need to support others' calls, but I need to follow only the one the Lord has spoken to me.  And I need to make sure I'm listening.

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Water for Elephants

My roommate Miranda and I recently crafted a list of 50 books we would like to read in the next year.  You can see the list (and read more about my wonderful roommate) here.  If we want to finish the list within a year, we're each going to have to read about a book a week.  That's a lot of reading, but that's also the point of the list - for us to read a lot.  We came up with the list on April 6.  So, we have until April 6, 2012 (with a little room for give or take) to finish 50 books.  I've already been able to check one off the list.

Unbeknownst to me, Miranda had already chosen to give me a book from the list for my birthday which was the day after we came up with our list.  Needless to say, I started with that one, Water for Elephants.  I finished it this week (within seven days, so I'm on a good pace for a book a week) and am looking forward to Miranda reading it soonish so we can talk about it.  (I say soonish because she started with the whopping 1024 page novel Gone with the Wind.)  Once we both read it, we'll see the movie.  One of my favorite things to do is to compare a movie to the book on which it's based.  And it's always more fun when there's a friend with whom to do the comparing.  

So, about the book.  Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is the tale of an accidental member of a traveling circus.  Jacob looks back on the events of his life from the nursing home where he lives.  After unexpectedly losing his parents just before completing his final exams for vet school, he stumbles (ok, more like leaps) upon a circus train and ends up traveling with "The Most Spectacular Show on Earth" as the circus vet.  Torn between his developing affection for one of the performers and his moral obligation to respect her husband, Jacob struggles with the lifestyle and culture of a traveling circus.  

I can't give away anymore of the plot (and I'm bad at cliffhangers), but I will say that the story didn't turn out the way I expected it to.  Not being sure what to expect, I was surprised at parts of the story and how the conflict was resolved.  I'm looking forward to how the movie will depict this interesting series of events and character development.  A bit of a warning - the novel is quite graphic in parts, so I can't fully condone it.  I hope the movie is more tasteful, but I'm trying not to set my expectations too high.  

Have you read Water for Elephants?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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