A missionary shared this in a recent letter sent to my family. I think it's a pretty good reminder of the urgency we, as Christians, must have.
"Just a thought: Last Friday robbers broke into a house just outside of Nairobi and murdered the missionary living there. He left behind a wife and two young children. I did not know these people, but it struck me once again how fragile life is. We could be called home at anytime. Any minute, for any number of reasons, we could lose this body forever. Why, then, do we get caught up in the petty disagreements and hurt feelings that plague the body of Christ? Why, then, do we have no sense of urgency to share with an unbeliever? Why do we hide our faith in the privacy of our homes, when we should be proclaiming it everywhere we go? Mother Teresa knew that the way we live our lives proclaims the power of Christ, but she also knew that speaking would become necessary. Often Christians today say that they are sharing the gospel through their daily lives, but they don’t follow through with the spoken word. People can see that your life is different and that your priorities are different, but how will they know why unless you also speak. Life is fragile, have an urgency, share your faith."
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Integrity is not cliché.
I'm an RA and a member of the Student Life Committee, so following the rules is something I've kind of committed by sophomore year at Dordt to. For those of you not sure of what these two roles include, I'll give you a short explanation.
RA stands for Resident Assistant. I'm a member of the Residence Life Staff, a student staff committed to promoting community growth, Christian life, and respectable morals on campus. This means that my lifestyle ought to reflect all of these. My actions should be admirable and fall in perfect line with Dordt's campus guidelines. Now of course, I'm still a sinner. I still fall completely short of the unattainable perfection. I still turn in assignments late every once in awhile and skip class because I was "sick" much too often. And I should work on these, because really, they aren't reflective of the Christian lifestyle one should live.
The Student Life Committee is basically the committee that decides whether or not to kick people out of Dordt. It sucks. Really, I kind of hate the committee. I leave every meeting feeling crappy because I just had a part in messing up someone's life plans. Fortunately, there's definitely some reassurance and hope in our committee's purposes for kicking students out. Never, EVER do we kick some one out simply because they have messed up one to many times.
When we dismiss students, we dismiss them because we see their absence from Dordt as being better for them. We see it as the place God may be calling them to be in order to reflect on their past mistakes, learn from them, and hopefully grow into a better son or daughter of God. Realizing that we may have messed up their plans but instead are (in a way) forcing them to follow God's plans for their life is just as reassuring as it is when we do not end a meeting with a student dismissal.
Because of these two campus involvements, it's probably now pretty obvious why my upstanding conduct is important. The writing of this blog comes from thoughts on both a few recent Student Life Committee meetings and a conversation I had with a classmate after an English course today. Because the meeting information is confidential, I can't share any of those details, but I can share about the conversation.
My fellow English major and I were discussing summer plans, and she was commenting on her desire to find a cheap place to live while working one of many possible jobs in Northwest Iowa. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessfully finding a place to live and planning on living on campus instead. When I mentioned to her that you could only live on campus if you worked an internship or worked on campus, she became frustrated. Neither of those were included in her job possibilities, and she had no intention of adding them to the list.
"Oh, I'm sure there are ways around that," she said. "I'll just claim that my job is an internship, fudge a few of the hours, and get the free housing. I'm sure people do it all the time."
I held my tongue, but her few sentences really irked me. The hard part is that I'm sure similar words have come out of my mouth more than a few times. People skip class all the time. The professor won't care. I'll just say I wasn't feeling well. Heck, I remember doing this last week. Ironically enough, I'm supposed to be in photography class right now as I type this. (That's a class I'll give you a million excuses to skip, though, especially when I'm pass/failing it...)
Anyways, the overuse of excuses and support like above point to a lack of integrity in our current society. In middle school, I remember the greatest example of integrity being Abraham Lincoln. We studied how his policies and treatment of others made him a perfect example of a man who lived a life of integrity. We were encouraged to "do what is right, even when no one is looking." Integrity is not just for old, dead presidents. Integrity needs to still be alive today.
I wonder how many of us can actually say we ever consider this. Is everything we do right, regardless of whether it will be noticed by others or not? Is our integrity deep enough that we will even pick up the gum wrapper that missed its target of the garbage can? I imagine most of us can remember the last time we didn't portray a character of integrity, but can you remember a time that you did?
RA stands for Resident Assistant. I'm a member of the Residence Life Staff, a student staff committed to promoting community growth, Christian life, and respectable morals on campus. This means that my lifestyle ought to reflect all of these. My actions should be admirable and fall in perfect line with Dordt's campus guidelines. Now of course, I'm still a sinner. I still fall completely short of the unattainable perfection. I still turn in assignments late every once in awhile and skip class because I was "sick" much too often. And I should work on these, because really, they aren't reflective of the Christian lifestyle one should live.
The Student Life Committee is basically the committee that decides whether or not to kick people out of Dordt. It sucks. Really, I kind of hate the committee. I leave every meeting feeling crappy because I just had a part in messing up someone's life plans. Fortunately, there's definitely some reassurance and hope in our committee's purposes for kicking students out. Never, EVER do we kick some one out simply because they have messed up one to many times.
When we dismiss students, we dismiss them because we see their absence from Dordt as being better for them. We see it as the place God may be calling them to be in order to reflect on their past mistakes, learn from them, and hopefully grow into a better son or daughter of God. Realizing that we may have messed up their plans but instead are (in a way) forcing them to follow God's plans for their life is just as reassuring as it is when we do not end a meeting with a student dismissal.
Because of these two campus involvements, it's probably now pretty obvious why my upstanding conduct is important. The writing of this blog comes from thoughts on both a few recent Student Life Committee meetings and a conversation I had with a classmate after an English course today. Because the meeting information is confidential, I can't share any of those details, but I can share about the conversation.
My fellow English major and I were discussing summer plans, and she was commenting on her desire to find a cheap place to live while working one of many possible jobs in Northwest Iowa. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessfully finding a place to live and planning on living on campus instead. When I mentioned to her that you could only live on campus if you worked an internship or worked on campus, she became frustrated. Neither of those were included in her job possibilities, and she had no intention of adding them to the list.
"Oh, I'm sure there are ways around that," she said. "I'll just claim that my job is an internship, fudge a few of the hours, and get the free housing. I'm sure people do it all the time."
I held my tongue, but her few sentences really irked me. The hard part is that I'm sure similar words have come out of my mouth more than a few times. People skip class all the time. The professor won't care. I'll just say I wasn't feeling well. Heck, I remember doing this last week. Ironically enough, I'm supposed to be in photography class right now as I type this. (That's a class I'll give you a million excuses to skip, though, especially when I'm pass/failing it...)
Anyways, the overuse of excuses and support like above point to a lack of integrity in our current society. In middle school, I remember the greatest example of integrity being Abraham Lincoln. We studied how his policies and treatment of others made him a perfect example of a man who lived a life of integrity. We were encouraged to "do what is right, even when no one is looking." Integrity is not just for old, dead presidents. Integrity needs to still be alive today.
I wonder how many of us can actually say we ever consider this. Is everything we do right, regardless of whether it will be noticed by others or not? Is our integrity deep enough that we will even pick up the gum wrapper that missed its target of the garbage can? I imagine most of us can remember the last time we didn't portray a character of integrity, but can you remember a time that you did?
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
I won the match.
Life just keeps getting even more darn complicated.
Sure, it seems like it's finally settling down, figuring itself out, and all that good stuff. Some beautiful friendships of mine keep deepening like I'd never imagined. I'm a CDA next year (this helps support the financial side of college pretty well). God's blessed me with a pretty awesome boyfriend. I'm 99.99999 percent sure about my major. I finally almost, sort of, kind of, maybe have a summer job. I've got a few legit post-graduation options in mind. Life is good.
But there's still the other side of things. My life's good, but so many people don't have it as good. So many people are starving. So many people can't read. So many people are dying from AIDS-related causes. So many people don't have clean water. So many people can't even afford an education. So many, many people need Jesus. SO many people simply are IN NEED. And with those needs, I'm only thinking of and addressing developing countries. Our good ol' United States is in pretty bad shape, too.
Today, I read that on any given Sunday in an African country such as Uganda, Kenya, or Nigeria, more Africans are attending church in that one country alone than in the entire United States combined. What. the. heck? Here I was, thinking America was some religious capital of the world, when really, Africa's kicking our butt. Okay, actually, I realized my country has been going down the tubes since forever ago, but seriously, I was pretty surprised at that fact I read about church-going Americans.
So here's my question...
Why do we send so many missionaries to Africa? I mean, if Africa is really so religious and America is sucking, why not send a bunch of those missionaries around our own country?
That being said, if you know me at all, you also know that I am hoping to student teach in Africa, want to spend at least a portion of my life teaching or serving in some mission-related way overseas, and constantly dream of meeting Katie Davis someday. So, from the perspective of someone interested in being one of those missionaries to Africa from the United States, why don't we keep our missionaries here?
I've wrestled with this question numerous times. Perhaps it's because I've seen the damage short-term missions can do. Maybe it's because I also see the help I've done on short-term service projects. But maybe (probably) it's because God's trying to make me discover the purpose for my big dreams. Maybe, just maybe (most likely), God's asking, "Hey, Kristin, so you want to serve me...awesome... but you're sure it's not just because Katie Davis has an awesome heart and 14 adorable children and is famous?" And for sure, it's because God's a fan of this wrestling thing. He's got this awesome plan for my life, and He's going to make sure I know how and why I'm going to be doing what I'm doing for His glory.
And after wrestling, this is what I've concluded: I've failed, yet again. I've spent months wrestling over that question, and I never once looked for God's words on the matter. Sure, I've prayed about it, but He definitely didn't come down out of the clouds, stand next to my bed, and say, "This is why missionaries should go to Africa..." The good news is He doesn't need to. He already answered my question, over and over and over and over again in His Word. Google "Bible verses on missions" and you've got enough reading to last you the rest of the night. Everywhere you turn, it says "Declare His glory among the nations!" (1 Chronicles 16:23), or something pretty similar to that. Heck, the Great Commission uses the words "all nations." I'm pretty sure the United States is not "all nations."
So yep, go proclaim God's love anywhere and everywhere. Stay in Iowa. Move across the country. Leave your entire life behind and move to Africa. Paraphrasing the words of Kevin DeYoung, a pastor and author I'm a huge fan of, "Live for God, obey the Scriptures, think of others above yourself, be holy, and love Jesus. This is what it means to be walking in the will of God."
"Well shoot" was originally the name of this post, pointing to my frustration with my almost-figured-out-but-not-quite-yet life, but I changed it to reflect what I've learned from simply typing this blog while searching the Scriptures. "I won the match." I wrestled, was losing by points, almost pinned, and had but a few seconds before the final buzzer would sound. When I opened the Bible, God picked that question up, threw it on the ground, and pinned it just in time for the referee to slap the mat and the crowd to jump up and cheer as I sat back and tried to figure out how in the world I'd wasted so much time avoiding God's direct answers.
As usual, lesson learned? The Bible's pretty legit. I definitely need to spend more time in it.
Sure, it seems like it's finally settling down, figuring itself out, and all that good stuff. Some beautiful friendships of mine keep deepening like I'd never imagined. I'm a CDA next year (this helps support the financial side of college pretty well). God's blessed me with a pretty awesome boyfriend. I'm 99.99999 percent sure about my major. I finally almost, sort of, kind of, maybe have a summer job. I've got a few legit post-graduation options in mind. Life is good.
But there's still the other side of things. My life's good, but so many people don't have it as good. So many people are starving. So many people can't read. So many people are dying from AIDS-related causes. So many people don't have clean water. So many people can't even afford an education. So many, many people need Jesus. SO many people simply are IN NEED. And with those needs, I'm only thinking of and addressing developing countries. Our good ol' United States is in pretty bad shape, too.
Today, I read that on any given Sunday in an African country such as Uganda, Kenya, or Nigeria, more Africans are attending church in that one country alone than in the entire United States combined. What. the. heck? Here I was, thinking America was some religious capital of the world, when really, Africa's kicking our butt. Okay, actually, I realized my country has been going down the tubes since forever ago, but seriously, I was pretty surprised at that fact I read about church-going Americans.
So here's my question...
Why do we send so many missionaries to Africa? I mean, if Africa is really so religious and America is sucking, why not send a bunch of those missionaries around our own country?
That being said, if you know me at all, you also know that I am hoping to student teach in Africa, want to spend at least a portion of my life teaching or serving in some mission-related way overseas, and constantly dream of meeting Katie Davis someday. So, from the perspective of someone interested in being one of those missionaries to Africa from the United States, why don't we keep our missionaries here?
I've wrestled with this question numerous times. Perhaps it's because I've seen the damage short-term missions can do. Maybe it's because I also see the help I've done on short-term service projects. But maybe (probably) it's because God's trying to make me discover the purpose for my big dreams. Maybe, just maybe (most likely), God's asking, "Hey, Kristin, so you want to serve me...awesome... but you're sure it's not just because Katie Davis has an awesome heart and 14 adorable children and is famous?" And for sure, it's because God's a fan of this wrestling thing. He's got this awesome plan for my life, and He's going to make sure I know how and why I'm going to be doing what I'm doing for His glory.
And after wrestling, this is what I've concluded: I've failed, yet again. I've spent months wrestling over that question, and I never once looked for God's words on the matter. Sure, I've prayed about it, but He definitely didn't come down out of the clouds, stand next to my bed, and say, "This is why missionaries should go to Africa..." The good news is He doesn't need to. He already answered my question, over and over and over and over again in His Word. Google "Bible verses on missions" and you've got enough reading to last you the rest of the night. Everywhere you turn, it says "Declare His glory among the nations!" (1 Chronicles 16:23), or something pretty similar to that. Heck, the Great Commission uses the words "all nations." I'm pretty sure the United States is not "all nations."
So yep, go proclaim God's love anywhere and everywhere. Stay in Iowa. Move across the country. Leave your entire life behind and move to Africa. Paraphrasing the words of Kevin DeYoung, a pastor and author I'm a huge fan of, "Live for God, obey the Scriptures, think of others above yourself, be holy, and love Jesus. This is what it means to be walking in the will of God."
"Well shoot" was originally the name of this post, pointing to my frustration with my almost-figured-out-but-not-quite-yet life, but I changed it to reflect what I've learned from simply typing this blog while searching the Scriptures. "I won the match." I wrestled, was losing by points, almost pinned, and had but a few seconds before the final buzzer would sound. When I opened the Bible, God picked that question up, threw it on the ground, and pinned it just in time for the referee to slap the mat and the crowd to jump up and cheer as I sat back and tried to figure out how in the world I'd wasted so much time avoiding God's direct answers.
As usual, lesson learned? The Bible's pretty legit. I definitely need to spend more time in it.
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