What Really Matters?

July 18, 2012 By 7 Comments

Laundry to fold. Dishes to wash. Beds to make.  Meals to cook.  Floors to vacuum.  Bathrooms to clean.  Children to encourage. Husband to love.  These are the routine of most of my days.

What Really Matters www.avodahcoffee.com

It’s not glamorous, this day-to-day existence of mine.  In fact, it’s a very ordinary, fairly mundane life.  I’m a wife, a mom, a Bible study leader, a friend, a blogger, and a missionary.

Wait?  A missionary?  Really?  Don’t they all live in Africa without internet and eat weird soups made of bugs and weeds?

That’s what we think, isn’t it?  Missionaries are those “super saints” God uses in huge ways to impact thousands of people.  Most of us are nothing like that.  Our greatest accomplishment on any given day can be just fixing a meal everyone in our family will eat.  That doesn’t seem very life changing.

I’ve been co-leading a group of over 350 through The Bible in 90 Days this summer.  Last week we read Ecclesiastes.   If you haven’t read it, here’s a synopsis:  Life is meaningless—everything from work to wisdom, pleasure to personal fulfillment—none of it really matters, according to Solomon.  He concludes his contemplation with these words:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.  Ecclesiastes 12:13 – 14 NIV, emphasis added

Three little words jumped out to me:  every hidden thing.

Does it ever feel like no one sees, notices, or cares what you are doing?  As parents we spend our days wiping noses and instructing in godliness.  As spouses we invest in one another and our life-long covenant.  As friends we listen and encourage.  At work and at home we do so many hidden things, words and deeds never brought into recognition.

But God knows … He sees and it will all be brought into judgment.  Not just the ways we’ve failed, but also—and even more beautiful!—the ways we’ve succeeded, the good things we’ve done.

The little things, the unnoticed actions, the ignored words, the unrecognized deeds, each one matters.   For nothing is hidden from Him.

How does this truth encourage you?

 

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Crisis in South Sudan and Living the Avodah Life

July 11, 2012 By 2 Comments

Sometimes we can make a difference across the street … but sometimes we have the opportunity to make a difference across the globe.  Avodah Coffee offers you that opportunity every time you purchase a bag of your favorite blend.

Choosing to live an avodah life requires that we choose to be aware of the needs around us and then be prepared to act on behalf of those who need our help.

Jessica and I are both advocates for Samaritan’s Purse, an incredible organization led by Franklin Graham.  Most people know about Operation Christmas Child but perhaps you are not aware of the countless other ways Samaritan’s Purse is helping meet the needs of people around the globe.

Currently, one of the greatest areas of need is South Sudan. Consider this information I received earlier this week from Samaritan’s Purse:

June 6 marked one year since the Sudanese government began attacking its own people in the Nuba Mountains. The situation has become dire as hundreds of hungry and weary Nuban people fleeing the fighting arrive in South Sudan on a daily basis. Samaritan’s Purse continues to meet critical needs at two camps that have become home for nearly 200,000 refugees. 

These trends are particularly troubling:

The number of malnourished children receiving outpatient therapeutic feeding has increased by 30 percent since May.

The number of severely malnourished children admitted to our inpatient stabilization center increased by 181 percent.

The highest number of inpatient admissions (73) in a single day was Tuesday, July 3.

south sudan project by samaritans purse

Refugee Relief, Food Distributions ©Samaritan’sPurse/2012

Despite the dire conditions, spirits are high as God’s grace covers the people here.  Will you join me in praying for the people of South Sudan and share these needs with others in your sphere of influence?    And, if you are able, will you join with Samaritan’s Purse in their efforts to support these refugees?   Learn more about the crisis in South Sudan, and how you can help: http://spsocial.org/NYE.

 

As we explore how our lives become one seamless movement of work, service, and worship, I believe one of the greatest gauges of our avodah hearts is our connectedness to those in need.   

 

In what ways do you stay informed and educated about the needs of those in your community and around the world?

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What if We Were the Fireworks?

July 4, 2012 By 2 Comments

Today in the United States, we celebrate Independence Day.  We’ll mark our separation from England with parades and flag-waving, homemade ice cream and fireworks.  Families and communities will gather and, hopefully, spend a few moments contemplating the reasons for our Declaration of Independence.

As believers we too experience an independence day in our lives: a moving from the slavery of sin into the freedom of life in Christ.

Peter reminds us that this freedom, like all freedoms, comes with responsibilities:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  1 Peter 2:9 ESV

avodah life - light in the darkness www.avodahcoffee.com

image via flickr

Perhaps this day set aside to celebrate the birthday of our nation is also an opportunity to contemplate this life to be lived in the light.

Like many other American families, we’ll be watching fireworks tonight.  We’ll see the sky explode with bright demonstrations of pyrotechnic wonder.   We’ll hear the thunder-like boom and feel the earth shake with movement.

I wonder what our communities would look like, what walls we could build, if we took seriously this call to be a holy nation – not as the United States, but as the Church, the Bride of Christ.

  • Imagine communities where the believers were bright lights of hope and encouragement to those who were living in hopelessness and desperation.
  • Imagine neighborhoods where the actions of believers thundered loud with relationships built on mutual respect and a willingness to serve.
  • Imagine homes where every movement was grounded in a desire to build up and nurture.

So, what about it, how can you be the fireworks in your community?

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