Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (my first musical)

When I was 10 years old, I saw my first musical - "Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." I went with my Mom. I got to dress up. And we drove downtown to the Fox Theatre. We ordered snacks for the show, and my Mom even bought me a cassette tape with the songs on it.

I've been reading up on the story of Joseph and his dreams. It seems that we might be wise to act on our dreams, but also to keep some of our dreams to ourselves. Here's why:

(1) If our dreams are from God, then it doesn't matter what others think, so why share them? When Joseph had two dreams with the same message it meant that "the matter had been firmly decided by God, and God would do it soon." (Genesis 41:32) So why consult others? If there is doubt in our minds, the doubt is irrelevant if we can determine that the dream is from God.

(2) Keeping a dream to ourselves allows us to determine whether the dream is really from God. God's exaltation of a man is never for the man himself; it is for the glorification of God and the edification of others, so if the dream is one that God intends for us, we need to determine whether it is for ego (read: not from God) or for God and others (read: from God). There should be no self-promotion to our dreams. A good test of this is whether we can applaud another person doing the same thing with the same skills. If we can't, then it's about us - not God and others!

(3) We are called to "check on the shalom (peace) of our brothers." (Genesis 37:14). If sharing our dreams makes others feel bad, then we probably shouldn't do it.

The Meaning of Marriage

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and give himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless" -Ephesians 5:22-28 [condensed]

The difference between a secular marriage and a Christ-honoring marriage is that in a Christ-honoring marriage your mission is to make each other better servants, to focus each other on your true vocations in life. The marriage is not between the bride and groom, but between God, the bride, and the groom. Hence why in most Christian ceremonies the minister asks the bride and groom a series of questions which they answer facing the minister and the altar (making their commitments to God). Then they recite their vows to one another either by repeating after the minister or by reading vows they have written down(making their commitments to each other). That entire first half of commitments is completely missing in a secular ceremony. Are secular marriages legitimate? Yes. Are religious marriages legitimate? Yes. But each serves an entirely different purpose. I've struggled with this, being a Christian who was dating a Jew up until a few weeks ago. I think it would be, well, impossible to have a Christ-honoring marriage with someone who does not believe in Christ (or was just raised with no real concept of Christ). Then I look at the  religions comparatively, and both believe in God (arguably the same God? God of Isaac) - I am wondering if a God-honoring marriage is the same as a Christ-honoring marriage. What do you think?

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!!