Still Saturday::to stop scurrying about...

One of the reasons we invest our lives in some insignificant ways is that we never become still enough to let the great realities hit us. We are always on the move. Always in a hurry. Or when we do stop, we flip on the radio or the TV and let somebody else's hurry fill our minds.

Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still [or cease striving, cease hurrying, be still, be quiet] and know that I am God. I am [or: will be, it's probably a promise] exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

What that text says is that the life-revolutionizing impact of God's supremacy in the world and his inevitable triumph over the nations, and the coming of his glorious kingdom of righteousness and peace—the impact of this awesome reality doesn't hit us and hold us and shape us unless we become still, and quiet before God. GOD hits home in the stillness. If you want your life to be significant, you've got to stop running, and stop scurrying about, and turn off the TV and the radio, and get alone, and be quiet, and let the mammoth realities of human lostness and eternal judgment and never-ending joy and God's universal triumph take hold of you and change your life. 

John Piper, God: Refuge for His People, Exalted Among the Nations

Please keep Sandra and the rest of the Compassion team in prayer as they travel to the Dominican Republic this weekend.

When you want to make a difference...

For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them..
Ephesians 2.10

Long before I surrendered my life to Christ, my heart was tender to the needs of others. My earliest memories include a desire to find a cure for leukemia {a lofty goal, I know - especially considering my less than stellar academic accomplishments} and the hope of traveling to Africa to care for sick and hungry babies. The closest I came to either of these childhood longings was when I became a registered nurse and years later when I watched my daughter board a plane on a mission trip to Rwanda.

Though I never realize those early ideals, I'm convinced that the goals of my youth were evidence of God's sovereignty in my life - that He fashioned me with extra measures of compassion and mercy, preparing me to walk in the works for which I was created - just not exactly in the way I had envisioned.

My career in professional nursing ended when I chose to stay home with our children, but the opportunities to show compassion have only increased. We've been able to sponsor several children through Compassion and World Vision and other child sponsorship ministries. We've also had the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and several other local agencies and ministries, but I know that we can do more.

As followers of Jesus, we are compelled - both by scripture and our love for Jesus - to do something to alleviate the suffering of others and share the love of Jesus. Our salvation is the gift of grace by faith alone and not our works, but we were created for the works that bring glory to God (Ephesians 2.8-10), and our faith is manifested in those works (James 2.14-26). 

There is a direct relationship between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor.  Tim Keller

We do long for justice and to make a difference, that's not the problem - it's knowing what to do when the social justice issues we're confronted with daily can seem overwhelming and insurmountable. The needs and concerns are so great that we don't know where to begin or if there's anything we are capable of doing that could or would make a difference.

Activist Faith: From Him and For Him, by authors Dillon Burroughs, Daniel Darling, and Dan King, perfectly answers many of those questions about what we can do and provides information and links to resources so we can begin doing something now.

Activist Faith: From Him and For Him covers 12 social justice issues of our day: slavery, immigration, poverty, environmentalism, disaster relief, homelessness, abortion, war/terror/genocide, religious freedom, family/sexuality, crime/punishment, and orphans - with a chapter dedicated to each one.  

Each chapter contains detailed and factual information, describes obstacles and difficulties that have been encountered in the past, real-life stories and examples of successful interventions, scriptural support for action, reflection questions for individuals or groups, and a list of tools and resources for research and action. 

Most importantly, each chapter includes a variety of answers to the question, "What can I possibly do to make a difference?" by offering multiple proven, practical and winsome ways each of us can begin to make a difference in how we live as disciples of Jesus.

Activist Faith: From Him and For Him, is an excellent resource for individual, family, and group study. I'm thrilled to have this book in our home. 

There has been a huge need for a book to give the theological background for why Christians should engage in social justice. Activist Faith fits that need perfectly. It provides solid biblical reasons we should care about the poor, immigrants, and modern-day slaves as well as practical steps for how to take action. Sean McDowell, educator; speaker; author of Apologetics for a New Generation

Weekends {are for} wanderings...

Weekend Wanderings on Pollywog Creek 

~ with photos that didn't make the cut

I don't remember sleeping last night - only endless painful hours of rearranging pillows and blankets and the heating pad - and the still dark hour when I woke Louis to help me out of bed to take meds and find comfort elsewhere.

But I've got it good. So. Very. Good.

So good, it's embarrassing. I have a clean dry bed, electricity and air-conditioning, running water (hot and plenty of it), access to health care and medicine for every need, a husband and daughter who wait on me, and pick up the slack, grandlittles to love on, and the best praying friends.

We have a stocked pantry and refrigerator, a house with more square footage than three adults need, and more books(a dozen Bibles or more) than we'll ever be able to read.

I'm rich and spoiled and I my heart is broken over the malnourished children and cholera house in Haiti and the crisis in the horn of Africa - embarrassed that I ever complain (even silently) about waiting in line to buy groceries or about the cost of gasoline or that it's too hot to leave my air-conditioned house to go outside. Embarrassing.

I'm thinking today about Ann's post yesterday and the resources she recommended. Like my friend, Margie, I just might order one of those cookbooks...and like Ann, slip out of my shoes...because of grace.

~ ~ ~

Yesterday I followed a Martha Stewart recipe to bake a fresh peach and blueberry pie, only I didn't have enough of the sweet Georgia peaches my friend, Jane, gave me so I supplemented with frozen peaches that probably didn't thaw adequately, and had to substitute corn starch for tapioca, and the store-bought pie crust fell apart. The end result was more like a peach-blueberry cobbler, so that's what I told everyone we were having, and we ate every last bite. Next time I'll use all fresh peaches, tapioca and home-made pastry and maybe it'll really be pie.

~ ~ ~

I must take a nap. I keep falling asleep at the computer with my fingers on the keyboard and then waking up to find a long row of sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss typed into this post, but before I do, would y'all please tell me what breaks your heart this day? Where do you see the richness of your life compared with poverty and suffering - and what do you think should be our response that truly makes a difference and eases the suffering?

Beautiful hearts...

...that flame bush in the backyard




...that's supposed to be attracting hummingbirds




...but all I've seen




...are spiders and insects.

Taking a little break from watching the College World Series (It's Great. To Be. A Florida Gator) and working on a guest post for (in)courage. (I'll let y'all know next week when it's up.)

I do love those girls over at Dayspring's (in)courage, and I'm jumping-up-and-down thrilled to be able to write for them. If you're ever in need of a little encouragement from your sisters (which for me is daily), I highly recommend spending time reading and commenting and letting those beautiful sister hearts speak to yours.

Speaking of beautiful hearts, Shaun Groves new release 3rd World Symphony is ready to preview and pre-order, and I wasted no time doing both. I can't listen without thinking of my beautiful friend Ann and my family's adorable Compassion child, Diego, from Guatemala.

Third World Symphony by shaungroves

 Jeff Goins, Writer, is one of my favorite new reads. His blog is a wealth of information for writers, bloggers, and other creative thinkers, and the guest post on his blog today, The Clean Water Crisis, reveals his beautiful heart of compassion, as well.

The gift of compassion...

...for two little boys.

One for each of them:

Guatemala ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Guatemala - to read and learn about Diego's home

Window On The World - to know there are children like Diego all over the world who need prayer, who need Jesus, who need compassion

An inflatable globe - to trace the distance across the Gulf between us and Guatemala

A copy of Diego's first letter to us - colored drawings, slick with crayon wax, and a fingerprint we can touch

And the adorable Diego - the very same age as those two little boys - standing tall against the paint-pealed wall - his photo framed for each of them

The little boys will open their packages, inflate the globes and find the place Diego lives. We'll take a photo and print it off, draw pictures and send love in a letter - to Diego from Mason and Gavin and their papa and mimi.

And when grace and blessings are said over our food, and we light the last candle on our journey to Bethlehem, we'll pray all together for Diego and his family, grateful for the opportunity to nurture the gift of compassion in the hearts of those two little boys who call me mimi.

Child sponsorship, through various Christian organizations, has been a way of life for our family for over twenty years, but the inspiration for sponsoring a child as a Christmas gift for our grandchildren came as I traveled vicariously with Ann Voskamp to Guatemala with Compassion International  late this past summer.

If child sponsorship seems too overwhelming, there are still many other wonderful ways to give the "gift of compassion" to others this Christmas through the Gifts of Compassion Catalog - an on-line catalog of gift alternatives. No crowds, no lines, no stress, and no returns - just a gift that will help make a difference in the life of a child living in one of the poorest communities of the world. Gifts that help to provide clean drinking water, medical treatment, disaster relief, food supplies and much, much more for Compassion-assisted children and their families.

There is a gift and price-range for nearly every budget. Gifts include mosquito nets, soccer balls, chickens, goats, water filters, farm equipment, clean water and more, and range in prices from $10 to $5000.

Meet real needs and bring real joy with a Gift of Compassion to someone you love this Christmas.

Full Circle...

At the heart of frugality is contentment, don't you think?

And generosity, as well. The more I save, the more I have to give away.

The more I have to give away, the greater my joy.

The greater my joy, the more my heart swells with gratitude and I'm back to a greater contentment with the abundant grace and blessings of God. 

So, if contentment with generosity brings joy and gratitude and ultimately greater contentment, it seems to me that I deprive myself - not by living frugally - but when I avoid faces and stories, and offer numerous lame reasons why I can't respond.