Archive for Christian Community
Five Tangible Ways to Show You Care
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Following the tornadoes of April 27, story after story after story of the pain and devastation is being told by Alabamians, from newspapers to facebook to one on one encounters. I was privileged this week to have an opportunity to listen to some of those traumatic stories as survivors struggled to put words to their emotions.
Trauma.
We might define it as an event outside the range of normal human experience which has the potential to cause long-lasting effects.
Such an ‘event’ was April 27, 2011, when my home state of Alabama was hit unrelentingly by a series of tornadoes. It was the worst deadly tornado outbreak in U.S. history affecting seven southern states leaving at least 350 people dead and some still uncounted for.
Damage estimates are upwards of 5 billion dollars. More than 20,000 homes lost in Alabama alone. The American Red Cross rates such disasters on a scale of 1-6, with 6 being the worst. They have rated the devastation in Alabama at a 6 and are considering making a new category, a 7, to describe what has happened here.
What can we do when others’ lives are affected by such traumatic experiences, whether they are natural disasters, accidental disasters, intentional disasters, or events such as war, kidnapping, the suicide or homicide of a loved one, sexual or spousal abuse?
The following is an incomplete list of thoughts and not listed necessarily in the order of importance. I am not including prayer because I will assume that you all know prayer is appropriate and important.
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Use This in Case of Emergency
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A little over three years ago, God challenged me with a particular scripture. It was one of those times when I ‘heard’ the scripture reference spoken to me by God, not knowing its content. When I opened my Bible and read this verse, I knew intuitively by God’s Spirit that it was what we might call a ‘Now Word’ for me and my church family.
The verse was Isaiah 30:15 which states “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved: In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’ But you would not.”
In the historical context, Israel was being invited into a place of rest with God where she would allow God to do what she could not do. She was being invited to access God’s help without going back to her slavery mentality. She was being challenged to lean upon God and not look to any other source for her help.
Isn’t it easy to look at such Bible passages and clearly see how a nation or an individual made huge mistakes? As we say, hindsight is 20/20.
Much more difficult is for us as individual believers to ‘get it right’ when we are faced with challenging circumstances. Our emotions rage and our minds whirl.
God offered me, and I believe He offered my church body, a specific invitation on that particular day. Some accepted the invitation at the moment. Some never even realized there was an invitation issued, and most of us passed for a day or two along the way and flunked many other days.
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Are You Ready to Take a Risk?
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To live is to risk, and it’s been that way since day one. God put Adam and Eve in the Garden and gave them a choice. Religion often finds this uncomfortable at best and unacceptable at worst. Oh, no religious system would declare openly that God was wrong, but their practices and rules say that they disagree with God on this matter.
Herein lies one of the differences of religion and spirituality. As I explore God and others and my own life through spirituality, I can risk. I can expand my boundaries. I can look at you and draw the good out of you and your life, apply it to my own, and still not totally agree with everything you are and everything you believe.
Religion, on the other hand, says, “You must be just like me.” Religion narrows our focus and our ability to take a risk.
I know a few of you are already ready to throw rocks at me, but stay with me for a minute or two. Take a risk.
We as Christian say that we place the ultimate value on freedom, yet freedom often makes us very uncomfortable. If we allow people in our churches to be free, they might do something or say something or believe something that is WRONG, something that makes us look bad, something that stains our reputations. Duh, that happens anyway!
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Mentoring Relationships
Posted by: | CommentsThe following thoughts on mentoring are from a devotional by Richard Rohr. I wanted to share this with you, my dear friends.
To be around your mentor is to be near the fire. A fire does two things. It warms you, but it also burns you. If you don’t allow your mentor to burn you once in a while—if you’re not willing to bear a little offense to your ego and to be stretched beyond your comfort zone—then it’s not a mentor relationship from your side.
But a mentor also warms you. They excite you. They fill you with the curiosity, the adventure, the possibility and the hope that you can be more of a human being. This is the thrilling part. This warmth gives you a sense of your true self—of your best self. That’s what you want. You want your soul to grow greater and your ego to grow smaller.
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Treasure Within
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I recently cited the following quote on my Facebook status: Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; your purpose when you are confused.
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