September 2015 (25x25) - Loving Well

Yes, I do realize that it is the middle of October BUT I wrote this in the middle of September...I just didn't post it. I was thinking about what love is and how hard it is to truly love other people well - people who are broken, just like me. So this is a very different post than my usual.

Loving Well

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

Love is not an easy thing. It is a really hard thing. Loving well and whole-heartedly means being vulnerable and real. It means talking about the hard things and being able to be yourself no matter what. Love looks for what you can give to the other person, rather than seeing what you can get for yourself.

The world's definition of love is entirely different than God's definition.

The world says love is all about me.
It is a transient feeling.
It asks “What I can get from this relationship?”
It says, if I don't feel it anymore or I'm not getting what I need, then it's time to move on.

God says love is action.
It's a choice.
It's sacrificial.
It's focused on giving.
It doesn't give up.
It forgives.

Only God can love perfectly. If you're looking for true love, it looks a lot like Jesus dying on the cross to make it so that we could be in a relationship with God forever. The rest of us just have to keep trying to imitate Jesus and looking for his love to fill us and overflow to others.

At the same time, though, we have to choose wisely who we love. Because loving someone who is just using us or who is totally lost in their own brokenness isn't healthy. At that point, that person needs to experience God's love to be able to love himself or herself and learn how to love others. We can't fix a person by loving them. God has to do that work of healing and restoration in them.

Fall in Maine. I wish I was there. Don't you? Photo credit: my mom

A Not-Random God Coincidence

This is a story of how God likes to work out crazy coincidences, that aren't really coincidences to him.

I spent this weekend with my mom and youngest sister in and around Biola University in Southern California. We had an awesome time together and there will be pictures and stories from that coming in the near future. For now, though, I'm going to stick with writing about church on Sunday morning.

Since my youngest sister is a freshman, she's still looking around and visiting different churches near Biola. This spring, my parents went to a marriage retreat in Rhode Island run by our friends, Paul and Virginia Friesen. The Friesens had a couple speak at the retreat who were pastors of a church in a town near Biola. So this weekend Charlotte suggested we go visit their church, since it was on the list of ones she was considering.

When we got to the church we began worshipping God with everyone else, first through singing and then listening to the sermon. After the sermon, the pastor said that today was a special day because the church was celebrating the retirement of a Wycliffe missionary couple. I immediately became curious!

When he called them up on stage to have a question and answer time about their 55 years as Wycliffe missionaries, my brain began to have an inner conversation.

"Wait. Dick and Saundra Watson. I know that name. They're retiring. That means they get a commemorative plaque. I've been helping keep track of all the orders for designing and printing certificates like that over the past month."

I pulled out my iPhone (quite a handy piece of technology) and pulled up my Wycliffe emails (yes, I was kind of distracted). Sure enough, there was the email for the certificate for the Watsons saying that it needed to be at the church for this Sunday.

BUT WAIT. It gets better. The Watsons served in several countries over the years, but one of the places they served was Sudan...which is where one of my Houghton professors (Dr. Jon Arensen, who ran my semester in Tanzania) served with Wycliffe for years. Turns out they know each other very well. In fact, Dick used to go hunt buffalo with Bwana Job. [Side note: Bwana just published his third book, The Red Pelican. I got to hear his stories in Tanzania. They are good!]

In summary, of all of the churches we could have chosen to visit on Sunday near Biola, we chose the one celebrating the retirement of a long-term Wycliffe missionary couple. My job over the past month and a half involved helping make sure certificates were ready for events like this. And the couple that was retiring knows my professor from Houghton really well.

And here's a photo to go with it.

Biking, Baking, Beach Time, Traveling

This is a two-week post, since I didn't post last week. Let's see...what's newsworthy? Well, here are some highlights:

I bought a bicycle. This fact in itself makes me super happy because I've been saying that I want to buy a bike since January. Now that I live in Florida, it's perfect that I waited until the fall to get a bike because it's way too hot to go bike riding here during the summer and now I will be able to use it all winter long. True confessions: I hate running. I don't care what you say, running is a form of torture. I love being outside and getting exercise, though, so now I can do that on my bike. And there are even several bike trails in Orlando so I can go use those. Life is good. 

When one of my coworkers left our department in September to go to grad school, her absence made everyone sad for several reasons. One of those reasons is that she's an awesome person. Another reason was that every Thursday she would bring in cupcakes or some other delicious form of baked sugar so that we could have a Sweet Thursday. Luckily, I like baking for people - and it's always better to know that other people will be there to help eat the deliciousness - so I've taken up the continuation of Sweet Thursdays upon myself.

So far I've made beaver houses (you might know them better as no-bake cookies), chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate chip banana muffins, and pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting. Tomorrow's treat is brownies, half of which have coconut. I'll put a picture up if I make anything particularly interesting looking - then you can all drool and wish you worked with me.

Last weekend my church had their young adult retreat at a hotel in Cocoa Beach. The retreat was an awesome time on many levels, particularly on the levels of 'getting to know other people' and 'God being SUPER awesome like he always is.' The theme verse of the weekend was Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Interestingly, this was the theme verse for New England Camp Cedarbrook my last summer working there. What if followers of Christ actually took time to think about what this verse means and intentionally lived with it in mind each day?

One thing I noticed this weekend is that, in my mind, a retreat equals cabins, woods, lake, hills, and probably cooler weather. Not so in Florida. Here a retreat is hotel, sand, beach, flat, and sunny blue sky days. Not bad, just different.

And to close out with a super happy thought, in about 36 hours I will be Southern California with my mother and my youngest sister! Why? you might ask. Because I have the best job ever. A Wycliffe missionary couple, John and Bonnie Nystrom, who worked in Papua New Guinea, wrote a book called Sleeping Coconuts, and I'm going to be traveling with them around SoCal next week selling books while they speak at different college and church events as part of a book tour.

When I found out that I might be going on this trip, I called my lovely sister, who is a freshman at Biola (one of the colleges the Nystroms are speaking at), to ask her what she was doing the last weekend in October, she said, 'Oh, that's the weekend Mom's coming out to visit me.' Mini family reunion coming up!

Because of this trip, it is possible that I might not write a blog post next week - we'll see. I'm sure a post-California post will have lots of good stories, though. 

P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, I've been to California once before, but I was only six years old. I went with my paternal grandparents to visit my aunt, her husband, and my baby cousin. We stayed in a time share in San Diego. Mostly what I remember is my uncle teaching me how to do handstands in a pool. And having a tea party with my aunt and my grandmother.

Way Down Upon the Suwannee River

I'm going to start this post with a promise: Next week I will write about what I've been learning at work and how my job is changing. It's all good news, so be excited.

Tonight, though, I want to write about my weekend. On Thursday after work I ran away up north...to Dowling Park. Never in my life did I think that I would live somewhere where I would travel north and be in Florida. And yet here I am.

Anyway, I left behind my big city life and traveled to the land of Florida's first retirement community on the banks of the Suwannee River. My grandparents are up - truly north - in Maine for the summer, so I actually went to spend the weekend with my grandmother's cousin.

This picture doesn't do the Suwannee River justice. It gives you an idea, though.

We had a lovely weekend. After I finished working remotely on Friday, we talked, went on adventures, and told stories. Having grown up with my grandmother (their fathers were twins), she has lots of good stories about my grandmother as well as many other relatives and long-time family friends. :-)

One of my favorites is about her great-granddaughter: While on a visit to Dowling Park a while back, this little girl was quite excited to see the Suwannee River. When everyone walked out on the dock, though, she turned around and said, "Excuse me, I have a question: Where are the swans?"

I also have a friend up there that I was able to spend some time with over the weekend. We made delicious pumpkin pie ice cream, and I helped him and his dad haul chicken manure as one step at the very beginning of his plan to start an all natural farm.

One of the evenings, he and I also had a long conversation about God, Jesus, the Bible, Christians, the Church...and all the frustrating messiness that goes along with all of that. I don't have nearly enough space or time to cover our discussion here right now, but I do pose to you this question: If I truly claim to love God and say that because of his love I am able to love the people around me - no matter who they are - why am I not living a life consistent with this truth?

This summer, my new church has been going through the Not a Fan video series (and book of the same name) by Kyle Idleman. The foundational message of this series is that God has called us to be his Followers, not just Fans who cheer from the stands but aren't willing to participate out on the field. As Followers of Jesus Christ we have been saved by God's grace, but have we really allowed God to change how we live our lives?

Ultimately, "We know that we have come to know [God] if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did" (1 John 2:3-6).

This is no easy task, but I've found no other calling in life worth living for. So, step by faltering step, I choose to continue living life, learning how to love the messed up people all around me (including myself), and ask the hard questions that often don't have easy answers.