A Jewish Take

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
And, if not now, when?”  –Hillel

This girl does what I do, but with Jewish texts instead of Christian ones! Here is the link to her post on the quote above!

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully." -Romans 12:3-8

I'm continuing to think about the concept of vocations and ministries. What or who are we called to minister to?

God has given each of us gifts to use to minister to those around us.  No matter what our vocational calling is, if we will be obedient and use our gifts to encourage and lift up others, we will minister wherever we are. 

A lot of my ministy in 2013 will focus on orphans and youth. I am going through the training with Bethany Christian Services to become an approved foster parent. I am also collecting items for Children's Village, and planning a Twilight Party for Children's Village and Vista Maria. When Autumn and I are done with Angelica & the Attic Bears, the proceeds of the book will go towards helping kids in abuse and neglect situations.

Nevertheless, I am wondering what my calling is in my day to day life. How am I ministering to family and friends? How am I ministering to neighbors and colleagues? How am I ministering to strangers? The impersonal service to a non-profit actually feels significantly easier than the daily callings. In the daily callings, I may be called to do things that require greater sacrafice, that require working with someone I don't like, biting my tongue when I want to make a point that may actually be hurtful, or developing patience and perseverance in the face of disagreement.

In pursuit of the higher goal of finding my calling, I've established the following four resolutions:

(1) Deactivate facebook -- I've never used facebook as a ministry. I've used it as a forum for airing my grievances, bashing political candidates, and expressing my views shamelessly. I am challenged to write, speak, think about the good in my life - not the problems. I am challenged not to compare my life to others' lives. So I am deactivating my facebook as an initial step in this pursuit.

(2) Get rid of the "but" -- I am always dreaming big. But then I am always shooting myself down with all the "why not's" (i.e., "this guy I am dating is really amazing, BUT he's Jewish and a Democrat and we don't agree on XYZ," "it would be great to leave Accenture, BUT I can't because I might not make as much money and I won't have the job security," or "my house is great, BUT it doesn't have a hot tub or a panic room.") I do it because I am pragmatic, but nevertheless, the result of this verbiage is chronic unfulfillment, chronic glass-half-empty-syndrome. I have a great life. I am extremely blessed. PERIOD. NO BUT.

(3) Figure out the vocation -- Initially this was "figure out my career." I wanted to decide when to leave Accenture, and whether to leave for a position with another firm or my own firm, whether to pursue law or consulting. All of these big questions lay in front of me, and I haven't done anything with them. I need to figure out what I want, and map out a plan for how to get there. The plan needs to be a vocation, because it needs to consider my professional goals, my personal goals, and my ministry.

(4) Don't take the bait; stop living a reactivated life -- With the 2012 Obama v. Romney election in our recent past, I have allowed myself to get so worked up. People ruffle my feathers and then I ruffle others' feathers. I am done with feather ruffling of any kind in my life. As soon as I get my feathers ruffled, I am now taking it as a cue for a timeout. Reevaluate, calm down, don't take the bait, and react in the way that is best for the long term -- sustaining the relationship, stating my point without allocating blame, talking about ideas not people, etc.

Those are the resolutions. I pray that through these resolutions, I will be able to better prioitize and lead as a Christian in my day to day life -- not just when I am emerging freshly-minted from church or bible study. Why are we put here? To serve! How are we to serve? That's the next question....

Seeking my vocation

“Stop stealin other peoples’ blessings!” –Beth Moore

This came up in our girls' bible study group this week. How often do we see someone's facebook status update and compare our life to theirs? How often are we unhappy at other peoples' happiness?

Like it says in 1 Corinthians 12, God blesses us with different things, so we should stop stealing other peoples' blessing and start counting our own! The fingers, ears, and nose are three different parts of the body that each have different traits and do different things, but each is capable of contribution and service to the body as a whole. Likewise, we are each given different talents to serve in different ways. We need to look for our vocation, our calling, to find out how best to serve.

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessolonians 5:18

No matter what happens to you, it's part of a greater plan. Period.

Falling in Love with Myself

How would the next year of your life change if you were madly, truly, deeply, passionately in love with yourself?

What if I truly fell in love with myself? Got the butterflies in my stomach just thinking about the thought of being around me? Looked forward to taking care of myself and impressing myself? Saw these things as opportunities, joys, blessings instead of obligations, habits, routines?

How often do we wait for someone else to put us up on a pedestal instead of just knowing that we are doing right and that we have perfect hearts and that that is greatness?

A quote from Thessolonians: "If you constantly look to other people for answers and validation, pray about that and ask the Lord to help you stop doing that and instead look to Him." -1 Thessolonians 2:4

I do that often. So I prayed on it a bit, on how to better love myself without needing someone else's love, but I came to this conclusion -- there is no commandment that says "love yourself." Many passages speak of being humble, loving your Lord, and loving your neighbors, but I couldn't find even one that says to love yourself.

Then I realized this. WE are truly blessed because WE are created in HIS image. We are photocopies of God. So just like you love the Jonas Brothers and would get excited about a Jonas Brothers poster, you would love God and get excited about a carbon copy of God!

When we are feeling down on ourselves, we need to remember that hating yourself is hating God. Hating the painting is a criticism to the artist.

No matter what our specific calling, our calling as human beings is to glorify our artist, our maker, our Heavenly King. The glory goes up to Him and the blessings fall down on us!!

Take up the Cross & Follow Me

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." -Mark 8:34

How often do we want our resurrection without our crucifixion? How often do we pray to God to change certain things, without being willing to make any sacrafice on our part to effect the change?

I am really stumped about what my cross is. What does my Heavenly King want me to be sacraficing?

I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, that the sacrafice is marriage. I think God wants me not to find someone and not to be with someone so I can better carry out His work. I am not sure how exactly this would help me to better carry out His work. So why do I have that feeling?

Unappreciated Acts of Kindness - Worth It?

"Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed." - Peter 3:13-14

I was looking up the scriptures for this week in the lectionary. I was having trouble connecting with any of them. I meant to flip to James 3:13, but it is a short book, and I mistakenly ended up at Peter 3:13. God works in mysterious ways!

I was struggling with something interesting this week. There was a guy I once dated. His brother had passed away. And, at the time I had been dating him, I had pre-arranged to send flowers for his brother's birthday just to say that I was thinking of him and was sorry for his grief.

Well, I had debated whether to cancel the flower order. Is it strange to get flowers from a former lover? We didn't go out for that long, will he think I'm a stalker if I send flowers? Why send them for the anniversary of his birthday instead of his death? Am I really the person he would want to hear from on such an occassion? Would he question how/why I even know/remember his brother's birthday?

That being said, I was ready to call up the flower shop and beg to cancel the order.

Then I found the passage from Peter. And I thought... what was my goal in sending the flowers? To let this person know I was thinking of him and was sorry for his grief! So is that still the goal, regardless of the relationship status and without want for anything in return? Yes! So I should still send them... because it is from a place of righteousness and goodness.

Peter is a great book, a great guiding compass to those who are lost.