• Home
  • About Me
    • Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts

    The Little Drummer Boy

    12/5/11

    Labels: , , | 0 comments


    I have some songs that I will regularly listen to, that bring comfort to my soul, no matter what the season. If I had to say there is a theme song for my life, it would be the "Little Drummer Boy." As much as I would like to say it’s the rhythm of the "pa-rum-pa-pum-pum" that I love; the words to the song are really the essence of what I want my life to be known for. (Please remind my family to sing this at my funeral!!!)

    "Come they told me... A new born king to see..."
    The invitation. I did not initiate a relationship with the Lord; He called me to Himself. The grace in my life has been defined by walking towards that call. I heard "come" and I am no longer living my life by my own agenda. It can make things a bit uncomfortable at times but I would rather trust His wisdom than mine. 

    "Our finest gifts to bring... to lay before the King... so to honor Him... when we come."
    If I had to sum up what I want my life to be counted for, I want to be able to look back on the time I have had on earth and be able to present it to the Lord as well stewarded. This line of the song expresses what the goal of all that we do really could and should be: to honor someone greater than ourselves.

    "Little Baby... I am a poor boy too... I have no gift to bring... that’s fit to give our King."
    The sense of inadequacy has marked my life from the beginning. I can even remember at age 4 thinking that if I were to meet Jesus, what could I possibly give Him to express my gratitude for all that He has given me.  The call is greater than what I feel like I have to offer in return. He always calls us up higher and to something greater than what we can think or imagine. 

    "Shall I play for you on my drum?"
    The Lord doesn’t ask for what we don’t have but asks us to give what we do have. So many times I will wish I was this or that; or wish I had this or that. But what the secret to joy in life is to express our lives through who and what we are. The little drummer boy drums. He doesn’t play the French horn. He expresses freely who he is and the way he was made.

    "Mary nodded... The ox and lamb kept time."
    As I express who I am, I can influence those around me. The world is crying out for the sons of Glory to be revealed. The lack of rhythm and hope we see in the world, I believe, is because many times, we are not willing to play our own drums. We spend so much time complaining about how we wish we had a different instrument or we simply don't practice the instrument we have. 

    "I played my drum for Him. I played my best for him."
    This is what life is all about. Playing our drums. Playing with all our heart. Living.

    "Then He smiled at me... Me and my drum."
    The joy in life, which at times seems so elusive, is found in this... He smiled at me. 

    Grace and Peace,
    Wendy

    Rosa Parks & Stewardship

    10/18/11

    Labels: , , | 0 comments


    “The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.”
    Niels Bohr

    How do we know what is our responsibility versus God’s? 
    I think we can see a great example of this in the life of Rosa Parks.

    Sewing, church, and civil rights meetings. Those were the main activities of Rosa Park’s life. For the first four decades of her life, she modeled stewardship: 

    Rosa Parks, 1955
    Sewing- it was a skill that put food on the table.

    Church- spending time with her Lord and community.

    Civil Rights- her heart’s desire for justice. Ten years before the infamous bus incident, she was living her life, doing her thing, and in the midst of that, experienced rude and unacceptable behavior of a certain bus driver. In her heart, she made a commitment to never ride his bus again.

    Her goal in life was not to be famous but to be faithful. Integrity marked her words and her actions. When they were in the process of figuring out what would be the best method for bringing justice and equality, she wasn’t looking for a fight or to be "the" person in the spotlight. As I listen to her story, I hear the principles that framed her decisions just as the banks of a river will determine its course. She lived the well prepared life of a good steward and look at the outcome.

    Many times I worry about am I fulfilling God’s call on my life. Am I living to my full potential? I look around and see so many others “doing” so many great things to impact others, and I compare myself them and look at the drudgery of my stewardship. I am regularly haunted by the thought I may have missed the opportunity God has for me. 

    But in the example of Rosa Parks I see the grace of the tension of our role and God’s responsibility. We are called to be faithful stewards. Faithful to the talents we have been given. And He is faithful to arrange our circumstances to ignite or not what He wants to accomplish through our lives. 

    Rosa Parks wasn’t looking to stage an act of disobedience that evening. Even months later, she and the people around her were not even looking to de-segregate the entire bussing system; they just wanted to be allowed to sit in the middle of the bus. But God had so much more for her than she even realized. That fateful night, she was tired from working hard but she was faithful to expanding the picture of what true, healthy, reconciled Christian community could be like. She was also tired of the day-to-day injustice she saw and experienced and then she happened to get on the bus of that rude driver from 10 years ago, who, well…. hadn’t really changed. She stayed true to who she was and God ignited the rest. 

    A few weeks ago while eating at Ollie’s  Noodles in NYC, I read my fortune cookie at the end of dinner. It said "the prepared speaker is the only one who can be confident." My role is to be faithful and to prepare. God’s role is to set up the circumstance of my life so that faithfulness can shine where He sees fits. As a flower blooms wherever it is planted, so must I be faithful whether I bloom in the hidden field for only God’s delight or in the arboretum for everyone to see.  Be faithful and steward what He gives you. 
    Then let Him do the rest.


    Blessings,
    Wendy

    Maturity versus More or Lots of Seed versus a Tree

    7/7/11

    Labels: , | 0 comments

    This summer I have opened up my home for 4 college girls to stay with me while they complete an internship.  The experience has been both a delight and a mirror. In to their conversations, I hear their dreams, ideals, passions, struggles, and their hope to impact the world. They are just beginning their journey and wondering about the next steps still to unfold. Their hearts are still tender- much more tender than I usually see in people my age.

    Besides a place to live, fun lessons to learn, and opportunities to be grossed out by whatever my "princess warrior" cat brings in, I have contemplated about the one thing I can impart to them this summer and I've decided that it’s modeling a continued soft, tender heart throughout the journey of life.

    I have been able to share with them of dreams that unfolded into nightmares...which then turned into platforms of opportunity. I have shared a commitment to cultivating a tender heart despite many opportunities to choose otherwise throughout my life. I was able to share with them a small group of neighbors- who even with the twists of life- are coming together for community and prayer and to fervently cry out for true change in the foundations of our neighborhood where pain and brokenness runs deep.

    Having the students stay with me, reminds me of when I was their age and had my experience with a mission trip in South Africa.  During the first course of dinner (calamari!) one night, the husband of our host family shared the unlocking thought that had marked his life. He described how we always think we need to have MORE faith but the Word says we need faith only of a mustard seed. A tiny mustard seed grows and develops into the largest tree in the garden. Instead of asking the Lord for more faith, we need to ask Him to mature our faith. 

    And as I am attempting to garden, I am captured by what must a seed do... It must surrender to the process of the soil, water, sun, and time. If it hardens, then it can never grow. My prayer is that these girls will see the matured fruit of a "life surrendered" and that will give them the strength when the water comes and the beating heat of the sun, that they will stand in the midst of the process and allow it to grow their mustard seed of faith into a tree.

    Blessings,
    Wendy