Salty Zebra

 No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.  John 15:13-14  How am I laying my life down for my friends? Jesus clearly did this for me. He laid down His Heavenly life, deigning to come to earth and live as a human. He laid down His opportunity for earthly fame and stature, instead choosing to do the right thing over the popular thing. Then He gave up His earthly life, choosing to die a horrible death on the cross, to pay for my sins, so that I could be with Him forever. He did this for me while I was still His enemy, before I was even born, knowing all that I would do apart from and against Him. That is true love. How am I to love like that?   Jesus left His comfortable, perfect place to come down to earth. Where I live is certainly comfortable though I’d hardly call it perfect. My husband is presently in the bathroom stripping and recaulking everything in an ongoing battle wi...

“Praise the Lord! How blessed is the one who obeys the Lord, who takes great delight in keeping his commands”    Psalm 112:1  Sometimes God’s commands are hard to follow. Sometimes, at least initially, they don’t seem like what we want. We explored last week God’s command to respect our husbands. I reiterate, it does not say “Respect your husband when he is being respectable,” or “Respect your husband when he loves you.” It simply says, “Respect your husband.” Even more than telling us to respect them, it says to submit to them. Yes, this means obey, but it means so much more.  Obedience can be done begrudgingly. We can do something with our bodies and still resist it in our minds. It’s like a child we tell to apologize to their sibling for hitting them. Yes, they may say, “Sorry,” but do they mean it? Perhaps that’s where punishment came from, to help us feel sorry for what we’ve done. In any case, to submit, or submission, is not just obedience, it’s buy...

   This incredible trip has taught me so much, and I feel like I'm just beginning to unpack it. I'm certain that these lessons will overflow into future posts as well, but I wanted to give you an introduction to the  Community First! Village  here in Austin, Texas. As shared on their website: Community First! Village is a master planned neighborhood that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness. A development of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, this transformative residential program exists to love and serve our neighbors who have been living on the streets, while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. This is the actual truck originally used in street outreach, now retired as a decorative memorial  This amazing endeavor began over twenty five years ago. As a part of their street outreach,  Alan Graham  and his partne...

  “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; he has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty.”   Luke 1:52-53 The American Dream was originally proposed by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America , written in 1931, as, “not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” Essentially, it is getting away from the old hierarchical structure where you were born into your status and there was no other way to attain it. But the root of this “dream” is a pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make it happen mentality. It attributes a person’s situation in life to how hard they have, or haven’t, tried. One of the first key problems...

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest-ready fields.”   Matthew 9:36-38 When the kids were younger, they got to participate in ministry with us in lots of ways. They served as helpers at Sports Camp and VBS at church. They acted and directed in our church’s dinner theater. As a teen, my daughter got to go on a mission trip with my husband to the country she was born in, Liberia, West Africa. Most of them have served at the homeless mission with my husband both in the kitchen serving dinner and out on Search and Rescue visiting the homeless camps. One of our sons even got to serve in the -3 degree freezer alongside my husband for a day sorting it out. They grew up in an atmosphere of service, seeing its importance and getting to experi...

       As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Luke 21:1-4 NIV     This passage was presented on my Pray As You Go devotional this morning and it struck me in a different way.  I don't know how many times I've studied this passage.  It's so meaningful to me that I often wear a "Widow's Mite" on a necklace to remind me that no matter how little I have to give God can use it.  Today what stood out to me was that while I cannot identify with the widow's financial poverty, I have a poverty of my own.  I have so little energy and ability to be physically present that I have, in the past, written off my ability to be of service.  The truth is,...