Unfinished: Believing Is Only The Beginning
Several of you have asked, “Why were you up with World Vision last week?” It’s a fair question, and honestly, I wondered the same thing myself (How did WE get to be here?) Here’s the quick scoop, and a sneak-peak at the fabulous book to be released May 7, 2013.
About 2.5 years ago, God began taking us on a journey. For me, it was a journey of Filling In My Blank. Although I had long been seeking to follow Christ and shape my life around His mission and truth, I’d somehow missed the part about loving the WORLD. That portion of my life Mission Statement had somehow remained blank. We found ourselves living a comfortable life–a great salary, a brand new house of our dreams, a great big thriving church and everything we needed. Slow, however, God started poking holes in our dream life. I still remember driving home from Lowe’s after buying the materials for our sprinkler system, and being overwhelmed by the reality that we were spending almost $400 to automatically spray drinking water all over our lawn, while millions of people are dying because they have no access to clean water. We returned everything the next day.
Then we read The Hole In Our Gospel. Even though I was dreading it, I read it. It was the tipping point for us, the thing that tipped us from our self-serving “Christian” lifestyle into seeking a more globally-minded life living our Christ’s great commission and seeking to make everything part of God’s glorious gospel mission. We certainly haven’t arrived, that’s not what I mean, but the book is what tipped us over into taking our life that direction, instead of going our own way.
Because of that, we put our dream house on the market. It took a year to sell, but when it did, we were thrilled. We lost $50,000 but knew we’d save and be able to give 10 times that over the course of our lives, by choosing to live simply and give more.
When the house sold and we were preparing to move, KATU Channel 2 contacted us about doing a story on the Downsize and choosing to live frugally. A lot of people downsize and a lot of people live a lot more frugally than we do (!) but we were thrilled at the opportunity to talk about Jesus on TV, so we went for it. A fabulous crew came and filmed our move, and we were able to talk about The Hole In Our Gospel. Channel 2 did a great job sharing our heart in the clips they showed, thanks to Shelley Bailey-Shah.
Well, World Vision saw the news clip. So, when Richard Stearns wrote his new book, they decided to film a DVD curriculum to accompany it. Although our story is certainly not as dramatic as MANY others, perhaps ours is “ordinary” enough that it will connect well with people, so they asked if we’d be part of the DVD by sharing our story.
Um…go to Whidbey Island and meet Richard Stearns and the World Vision crew and be part of a DVD talking to people about Jesus? Yes please!!
So, there you have it. I have no idea what or how they will use it, so who knows, it might come out and we won’t be in it at all! No guarantees. But it was such a joy to just be a tiny part of it, to meet everyone and get to be a fly on the wall watching the filming and all the work that goes into producing something like this. We came home refreshed, renewed, and encouraged more than ever to keep living this adventure of faith.
So that’s the deal. The book and DVD come out May 2013, and you can pre-order your copy here if you wish. I’m hoping to snag some early-release copies and do a giveaway! The book is fantastic and I’ll post more about it as the release date gets closer. The book/DVD together would make a great discipleship curriculum for a church. Check it out!
Thanks for caring, and for joining us on this life-adventure of faith. I know you ALL are taking risks and following Christ’s story throughout the world. I always love hearing from you, so drop me a line when you have a chance. Thanks for reading.
Week's end with thanks
- Playing My Little Ponies and addressing Christmas cards … at the same time.
- Road trip with my man.
- Time alone.
- Rest.
- Unfinished.
- Baking pumpkins.
- Roasted pumpkin seeds–yum!!
- Them, crawling all over me, all the time. Thankful to be alive and enjoying this, even when I sometimes feel like I’m going crazy!
- Working together.
- My best friend–my husband.
- Prayer, lots and lots of it.
- Learning.
- Conviction. Even when I hate it, it’s so good.
- People who don’t like me. Yes, we can be grateful for them too because how would be know our weak spots unless people pointed them out??
- People who do like me. Really grateful for them! 😉
- The kitten and puppy-breath of my kids that makes me melt! There is nothing in the world I love more than the smell of my kids’ breath!
- That He’s given us breath.
- His grace that’s amazing.
- Encouragement from high up.
- Happiness sitting down low.
- Amazingly blessed by the World Vision crew.
- Richard Stearns.
- Girl’s Night. Oh those girls are life to my soul!
- Volviendo. As horrific as it is, it’s worth seeing. There’s hope in the gospel!
- Blessed saints who care.
- RENEW. Growing together.
- Christine.
- New friends.
- Laughter.
- People who give you space to be imperfect. People who just cover all your faults with love. Oh Father, thank you for such people!
- Learning to be one myself.
- Melody’s popcorn.
- A new sewer line for our new-old house!
- One day at a time.
- Computer math-games for kids.
- Mary Auxier.
- Bailey Bremer.
- Parents who put life on hold to help us.
- My dad, amazing beyond words, caring for mom, my kids, everyone. Words can’t convey how grateful I am for him.
- A full week, a good week. Thank you, Father.
Have a blessed weekend; thanks for reading.
Gift-Giving Guide 2012: 4 Proven Approaches
{Continuing Kris Zyp’s Gift-Giving Guide from last Friday … enjoy!}
Malaria Prevention: Save Lives, Proven, Short Term
Let’s consider one of the simplest objectives of giving: save lives. Protecting lives is one of the most obvious ways to help others. Rescuing others when we can is clearly Biblical, and certainly there is nothing in life as tragic as losing a loved one.
One group that has done extensive research on various charities, with a focus specifically on how efficient an organization saves live with their funds is Givewell. Givewell has done extremely in-depth reviews of a number of organizations and activities. While they are continuously researching and revising, they have consistently recommended malaria prevention through bed nets, specifically the Against Malaria foundation.
Nearly 750,000 children around the world under the age of 5 die from malaria each year. Bed nets cost about five dollars a piece. It is estimated that one life is saved for roughly every 400-600 bed nets. This means $2500 donation is basically equivalent to literally saving some one’s life. This is quite simply a remarkable impact (who wouldn’t give this to save a friend or loved one’s life?)
Recommendation:
World Vision partners with Against Malaria, so if you want to contribute to a Christian organization to save lives, you can give directly to World Vision’s bed nets fund here.
Education: Improve Lives, Proven, Long Term
For the long term poverty reduction, education is key to a productive and thriving next generation. While health services save many lives, education is necessary for the next generation to be able to sustain health services without relying on western aid. The downstream impacts of education are numerous. Children grow to take higher paying jobs, girls are able to become mothers who can focus and do more for their children, and they are able to become greater contributors to society. This economic increases and health knowledge ultimately also lead to lives being saved.
One of the great injustices of today is sex slavery and other oppression of females. Many fighting these battles have turned to education as the best tool to protect women from a life of prostitution or ills that beset those trapped in the economic bondage of poverty.
Recommendation:
There is more to education that simply getting children in classes. In fact we are increasingly in situations where most kids have access to education, but that education is sub-par. One organization I have read some great reviews on is Pratham, which has been doing some very innovate work with remedial, community-based education: http://www.pratham.org/
Alternately, you may want to consider a health-based approach to improving education. Deworming not only has immediate health benefits, but is considered to be a critical part of school attendance (many children miss school due to health). This is also a recommended initiative by Givewell and Innovations in Poverty Action (http://www.poverty-action.
Or you can go with a Christian organization, WorldVision has an assortment of health services that have high levels of matching/multiplication, and include deworming, here.
Clean Water: Save and Improve Lives, Proven, Medium Term
Water-borne diseases are known to be one of the greatest plagues of poverty. More than 1 million children under 5 die each year from diarrheal disease. Consequently, there has been a lot of focus on safe water initiatives, generally focused on building wells. However, the cost effectiveness of building wells, in terms of saving lives, doesn’t seem to be as good as buying bed nets to protect against Malaria. But, there is an approach to ensuring safe water that does seem to show similar high levels cost efficiency: communal chlorine dispensers. These chlorine dispenser, strategically positioned at water sources, appear to have a similar life saving rate as bed nets. And of course, ensuring safe water has benefits far beyond just saving lives. Safe water provides better nutrition, resistance to infection, growth, and improved performance at school.
Innovations in Poverty Action is leading this innovative approach to safe water. You can donate or learn more here.
Contraceptives: Reduce Deaths, Proven, Long Term (and controversial)
If one’s goal is defined specifically as reducing deaths, I would be remiss to not include the intervention that has shown by far the highest rate of death reduction per dollar spent: improving availability of contraceptives. I am certainly not unaware of the controversial nature of such a recommendation. Many have strong objections to supporting organization working on population control. And we can’t rightly say that these efforts are primarily “saving lives” in general, since the principle means by which most deaths are reduced is by avoiding the birth of those bound to die in the first place. But, the well established and spectacular efficacy of birth control access in reducing abortion rates, childhood deaths, and even maternal deaths (which does fit the more narrow category of “saving lives”) means that a dollar spent on access to birth control in developing countries, reduces death more effectively than any other aid effort, on the range of $7 to $177 per death averted. Nothing else comes close.
The most broad and concerted efforts in the area of access to birth control for developing countries have been undertaken by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). You can donate to them here.
{Lots to consider, yes? Thank you for thoughtfully weighing these different giving options and committing time to pray, asking God where He would have you devote His resources. More to come; Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.}
The Annual "Stealthy Ninja Christmas Angel" Tradition
We’ve done this the past few years and it’s a blast!
{12 Days of Christmas: As a family you pick another family or couple or single person, perhaps who has gone through a hard time or could just use encouragement, or just whoever God places on your heart. (This would be an awesome way to build a bridge with an unbelieving family in your sphere of influence!) You secretly put tiny gifts on their doorstep for the 12 days preceding Christmas (1 candle, then the next day 2 packets of hot cocoa, then the next day 3 of something, all the way to the 12th day giving them 12 of something like fresh cinnamon rolls on Christmas day).
Each day you include a verse or something encouraging that goes along with the gift.The point is not to get complicated, but just to have fun thinking creatively about one other family and encourage them from God’s Word. It’s helpful to pick someone who lives near you since you’ll need to go by their house every day for 12 days! You can reveal who you are at the end or keep it a secret, depending upon the situation. Just a little idea to spark creativity as we learn to love our neighbors and celebrate the greatest gift–the Giver Himself.}
A few years ago we chose a super-fun family (that always helps), who lived a few miles away. Christmas morning it was such a joy — we pulled up around 9am and their whole family came bounding out onto the front porch to “catch” us (we wanted to be caught at this point) and we all laughed ourselves silly recalling all the ways we’d sneaked around their house, how they’d wanted to catch us, and how they couldn’t figure out who it was. (They’d made a list of suspects!) They’d left pumpkin bread out on the porch and a note for the “Stealthy Ninja Christmas Angel.”
Last year we kept our identity a secret, but then on Christmas left them a card (along with the cinnamon rolls) with a QR code at the bottom. When they scanned the code it brought up a silly picture of our family. That was fun!
So, if you’re game for an adventure, do a bit of pre-planning, enlist the help of your family, and have fun doing a little secret-blessing this year.
You too can be a stealthy ninja Christmas angel. {Thanks, all, for reading!}
PS I know the “official” 12 days of Christmas are technically after Christmas. You get the idea. It’s more fun to end on Christmas day!
When you're just plain irritated …
There’s nothing wrong with the words, it’s just the way she says them. Write those words out in pen and ink and they’d look just fine. But why spoken into the air do they feel like little jabs? I can’t put my finger on it, but somewhere in my heart there’s a bee sting. I can feel it.
I come in out of the cold, kick off my boots and check the fire. It’s still lit but it’s cooled. I can see glowing embers down below, but the logs lay heavy on top and not much heat is coming out.
I grab the poker and remove the screen. This is my favorite part of wood-stove heat. Stoking the fire. I wield my poker and shove it deep under the logs, flip them over and poke around at the glowing embers beneath. Instantly heat rushes out, envelopes me in warmth. It’s so hot I have to put the poker down, replace the screen and sit back a bit. I lean against my old quilted pillows, close my eyes, remember these words:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
Of course.
We know this verse, know we’re called to spur one another on, but do we understand what it means to spur?
That word, translated “spur” is paroxusmos which literally means “to irritate.” Consider: How do you spur on a horse? By nudging it with your spurs! That is, applying just enough pressure, or irritation, to get its attention and make it move.
Isn’t this how I’d just stoked the fire? By poking it. By digging, jabbing that poker down into the embers, flipping over the logs, stirring it up a bit with some strategic irritation.
Every day I partake in my beloved stoking ritual. I poke and prod and stir up warmth to keep our house heated.
To keep the fire burning.
Aren’t we supposed to do the same for each other? And truly, isn’t that what this person had done for me? I’d felt a little unnerved, a little irritated. And didn’t this stir me up a bit? Didn’t it flip over my log and expose the underside that desperately needed attention? Didn’t it turn a cold side over and let it find flame? White-hot purifying flame that burns the impurities away?
It did just that.
The problem is that I thought I loved that verse. But I don’t like the poking part. At least not in real life. Poking on the page is just fine — but poking in person? No thank you.
But if that’s the case then I don’t really love that verse. Then I don’t really understand that verse or obey that verse.
True Christian fellowship always involves irritation.
Our lives are purified by people-pokes. Dozens of them. Isn’t it the loving hand of the Father who wields the poker? And hasn’t He ordained that we would live, grow, be sanctified in community?
But all this poking is not what we had in mind when we signed up for “community” is it? In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
“He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”
Let’s be honest: Our dream Christian community don’t involve stokes, pokes, and irritations.
But real Christian community does. In fact, biblical Christian community does. Sure, some pokes are the result of other’s sin. But some are the sanctified spurs — one saint to another.
Do we want to be spurred? I do.
I don’t like the feel but I love the fruit.
–
{Revisiting this … Who has irritated you lately? How might this have been the gentle prodding of a loving Father? How can you be spurred on toward love because of it? Perhaps I’ve irritated you? Thanks for reading, for grace, and for sanctified spurs — one saint to another.}
Always something better. {Giveaway}
I can’t believe I’m here right now.
The ocean is lapping soft against the sand just below my bedroom window. We drove up last night to Whidbey Island, to join the World Vision and Thomas Nelson crew in the filming of a DVD curriculum for Richard Stearns’ new book. Yes, Richard Stearns, the man who wrote The Hole in Our Gospel and who–by the power of God’s Spirit–completely ruined my ordinary life.
I’ll be forever grateful.
Grateful that God inspired Stearns to write the words, “What’s in your hand?” To cause me to look down and take inventory of exactly what God had entrusted to me, that I could lay down at His feet in worship. I’m so grateful God equipped him to share the stories of children–millions of them–all beloved by God, and dying by the thousands every single day. It was this book that served as the Tipping Point for us, and tipped us over into a life of living head-over-heels for the Kingdom (or at least trying to!). It was more than two years ago, and so much has changed.
Most of all, my heart.
It’s a simple truth, but it bears repeating: Whatever we “give up” for God He always replaces with something so much better.
And by “better” I don’t mean what the world means. Not merely health, wealth, and popularity. Not a bigger house or a higher-paying job, although He might toss that in just for fun.
We give up addiction and we get freedom in return.
We give up an empty pursuit of the American Dream and He gives us the life-changing adventure of the Kingdom-of-God-Dream.
We give up control and He takes us on a wild ride.
We give up our money and He provides for us in intimate, personal, unimaginable ways that woo us, make us dizzy with His love, bring us to our knees.
Really, God? I get to meet the man who you used to influence my life so greatly? I get to stay in a beautiful house on Whidbey Island, with my husband, and discuss the truth of how glorious you are and how you’ve changed our lives? Really?
And more than this. Really, God–we get to live this life, this adventure and watch you do greater and greater things, as you build your Kingdom and proclaim Your glorious gospel here on this earth?
Note to self: Remember this when all you can see if what you’ve left behind.
We all have those times. When all we can see is what we no longer have. Or what we never had but wish we did. Or what we’re asked to give up. When all we can see is the hill ahead and all we can feel are the burning legs and fatigue and Oh God, Why is this adventure so hard?
It is hard. But so worth it.
Because there’s always something better. God can always one-up you. He can always out-give you. He can always out-bless you. And although I am not there yet, I truly believe if we throw ourselves with reckless abandon, at His feet and enlist ourselves in His service, obeying His commands at all cost …
There will be something so much better. Suffering, probably. Loss. But also hope. Strength. Joy. Peace. Abundance.
Life.
(Lose it to find it.)
What is God asking you to give away? Status? Control? A habit? Money? What is there, in your hand, clenched tight with white-knuckled grip?
What would it look like to lose it, give it, let it go? What glorious thing might He have for you? Lose it to find it. There’s always something better.
{Have you read The Hole in Our Gospel yet? Want a free copy? Leave a comment and we’ll pick one reader to receive a copy, but only if you promise to pass it on to another friend when you are finished reading. Deal? Deal! Thanks so much for reading.}
Why brokenness is a blessing…
“Nap time, babygirl! Come here, please.” From across the room I could see her stiffen, prepare to protest. I gave her fair-warning. “Make a good choice. Will you say ‘yes’ or ‘no” to Mama?” There was no need to remind her of what a ‘no’ response would earn. She knows.
She stiffly, and slowly, walked over to me. Her mouth said yes and she made her feet move, but her face and demeanor were “no-ing” all the way. I picked her up, took her to the potty, and told her to go before her nap. She sat down, didn’t go, said she was done.
Outwardly obedient but deep-down defiant.
I took her into her room for the rest-time routine. Rock, snuggle, sleep. I pulled her up on my lap in the rocking chair, but she pushed away. Again, silent, but stiff as a board and at arm’s length. I carried her over, crawled under the quilt at her side. She lay still for a moment, then a mischievous look came across her face.
“I need go potty.” I knew it. Kids will use anything to control. To defy. I was choosing this battle and wouldn’t lose. She’s beautiful, but manipulation is not a beautiful quality when it’s all grown up. I kissed her cheek and looked her in the eye.
“No. Mommy already told you to go and you didn’t. You’re not getting back up.” She fussed again, insisted she has to go, begins to pitch a fit. I think to myself how I don’t want to change wet sheets.
But I’ll change her sheets in order to change her heart.
“No.”
Her eyes widen as she realizes it’s a lost cause. She can’t win because I won’t budge. And almost visibly, right before my eyes, I can see the cracks, then the crumble. I can see her break.
She’s broken. She sobs.
And almost in the same breath-sob she reaches both arms out, wraps them around my neck.
She clings hard, pulls me close, and cries,
“Mama, I wan’ keep you.”
She wants to keep me. These are the words she uses at night when she longs for me to linger. She squeezes me tight round the neck and holds on, says she wants to keep me. Won’t let me go.
I, of course, don’t pull away.
I draw her even closer into my arms.
She’s soft. Pliable. She rests, relaxed in my arms. I hold her, my arms all the way around her little body as she rests in her bed. Even though I’m crouched over, quads burning, I stay there, my head on the pillow next to hers, kissing her cheeks.
Within two minutes she’s sound asleep.
That’s me, I think. That’s me.
Why often do I stiffen, proud? Willing my feet and mouth to say yes to God but protesting no within my heart? Every time I choose myself, my own way, I push Him away, hold Him at arm’s length. He seeks to rock me gently, I stiffen and push Him away. He draws near to hold me. I talk to Him perhaps but my prayer is still just grasping for control. But then something jolts, cracks, crumbles.
This is how we break. This is why brokenness is a blessing.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Ps. 51:17)
Of course He won’t! Of course He never will. The same way that I hold my broken-spirit daughter, envelope her completely, engulfed in my love until she falls sweetly asleep. Until she rests in my love.
Why do we push Him away? Our pride, the God-repellent, it stiffens within us, incites us to rebellion, but we must make it bow. Must make our feet and mouths and hearts say “yes” to God.
Then, no matter how far away He feels, He will envelope us in His love and let us rest secure. And resting secure we discover the truth:
Brokenness is the only path to wholeness.
–
{Remembering this from last year. Praying blessed brokenness–and wholeness–for you and me this week. Can you let go and rest in His arms? He loves you so!! Thank you for reading.}
Week's end with thanks
- Early-morning snuggles with this girl.
- Faith & Culture Writer’s Conference.
- Sewer scopes. (Yes, thankful for them.)
- Rest.
- JJ Jump.
- Joanna.
- Being able to just put everything in His hands because it’s there anyway.
- Praying through.
- Early mornings.
- Fires.
- Quilts to keep warm.
- Runs with Danielle. With her, I don’t even notice the cold.
- Praying big.
- Believing.
- New friends.
- Connections.
- That God uses us to do His work. Craziness.
- Looking forward to way-cool World Vision oppportunity next week. Thank You, Lord!
- My brother’s research.
- My daughter’s gospel-growth.
- My son’s tender heart.
- Daddy day.
- Afton Field Farm’s delicious goodness every month.
- Clean sheets.
- Humming dishwasher.
- Antioch interns and lots of laughter.
- A basset hound that eats diapers (!).
- God’s grace to give us so much humor in this world…
- Sharing Volviendo with our church family.
- Growing together in grace.
Gift-Giving Guide 2012
The kids were quiet in the backseat, worn out from a long day of playing, as we drove home from the Civil War party at Mom & Dad’s. The newspaper lay on the floor of the car, so pulled it up and flipped through its pages. One section caught my eye:
Gift-Giving Guide 2012
I was curious. Since I’m a goat-giver and believe a few chickens bring holiday cheer, I was interested what “the experts” would list as the best gifts of 2012.
It was exactly what I suspected. Lots of Uggs, gadgets, and dog-sweaters.
I said to Jeff, Surely there’s something better than this?
There is. It was waiting in my inbox when I got home.
My brother wrote an extensive Gift-Giving Guide for making wise, informed, and strategic charitable donations. Yes! This is exactly what I wanted. Basically, my brother is a genius at taking things I don’t understand (and don’t have time to research and try to understand) and breaking it down to understandable information I can assimilate and make (relatively) informed decisions.
So, I share with you, in parts, each Friday from now to Christmas:
Gift-Giving Guide 2012
Question: I know I am supposed to be generous to the poor, but there are a ton of different charities out there. What is the best place we can give our money?
This is a wonderful question to ask. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul said, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. ” The love Paul is talking about is “agape”, which is the love where we look for the best for others, as if it was our self. Paul is saying that if we give based on our own self-interest without making any effort to actually benefit someone with our giving (and certainly there are ways to give that can even harm others), then our giving has no gain. So I believe this question of where to give in order to bless others most , moves exactly in the direction that Paul is commending us toward with our giving.
Likewise, Hosea 6:6 says “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. Again, the goal of our giving isn’t our ourselves, and our own sacrifice, it is to bring benefit to others. This is a compelling statement on how we approach giving.
If all charities were equal in their impact, this question may not be that interesting. However, I believe that the difference between one charity and another can easily be 5, 10, or even 100 times the impact. This can be encouraging. Someone who has an income $50,000 and commits to giving away 10% to the poor, and makes an intelligent and wise selection of recipients by investing some time in research can easily have a bigger impact than a millionaire who gives away the same percentage of their income. We have incredible opportunity to make an impact, even if we aren’t super wealthy, when we make smart investments.
This giving guide is intended to provide an objective analysis of different types of charitable activities, then recommend types of charitable projects that benefit the poor the most per dollar given.
First, there are different goals we can pursue in our giving, based on our values. Here are several questions to ask, that will guide you to the best donation choice:
- Do you want your donation to result in an immediate benefit to someone, or would you prefer for it be an investment that may not do as much right now, but could reap much larger benefits years from now?
- Do you want to save a few lives, or improve the quality of life for a large number of people?
- If quality of life, what is most important: Having food, being healthy, having freedom, or something else?
- Do you want proven programs, or unproven (but potentially more beneficial) efforts?
- Do you want the donation to be directly from yourself, or use it to push others to give?
- Do you want to donate only to Christian organization, or any organization?
I pray these questions can be helpful to you as you consider how to bless others in Jesus’ name this season. Thanks so much for reading!
On wholeness, CS Lewis, and paint colors.
“There are three kinds of people in the world.
The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.
In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them—the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society—and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time “on parade” and “off parade,” “in school” and “out of school.”
But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them “to live is Christ.” These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.
And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy. The tax which moral conscience levies on our desires does not in fact leave us enough to live on …
The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort—it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us one by one all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.” (C.S. Lewis’s short essay, “Three Kinds of Men,” from his collection of essays, Present Concerns pp. 9-10.)
In other words — to throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus in reckless abandon is to find life, wholeness, peace. The divided life, the sacred-secular life, that of nurturing the self-life and the God-life alternately, brings only frustration, exhaustion, tension.
Peace is found in finding our whole life in Him.
What does this mean in real-time? For me, today, Can I be at the feet of Jesus, living in wholeness and reckless abandon and still be picking out paint colors for my new-old house? Yes. I believe so. But it is with a recognition that the task is infinitely less important and infinitely more important than we realize. It’s less important because really, It doesn’t matter. But more important because it is an opportunity to commune with my Savior and ask Him what might be most pleasing on His walls and what might make people feel warm, comfortable, and welcome? It is an opportunity to ask for His provision, His leading … and a super-duper sale on paint if He were so inclined.
Sacred Mundane. May you, may I, walk in wholeness today. Thanks for reading.