Faith & God

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Compost!

“Sweetie, you threw away your apple core again! And [gasp!] there’s a banana peel in the trash!” My long-suffering husband had once again run afoul of the compost fanatic in our household—me.

As my family can attest, I’m pretty rabid about recycling. Plus, I love to garden. Add those together and it’s no surprise that we have a compost pile. In fact, until recently I had a worm bin in the pantry. It was so convenient to dump my kitchen trimmings in with the wrigglers and let them convert wilted lettuce and carrot peelings into worm castings. (Pete did not like having worms in the kitchen but he was incredibly patient with my enthusiasm.)

Not only am I keeping plant waste out of the landfill, recent research from Colorado State University’s soil lab concluded that homemade compost is the best soil amendment. They tested 40 commercially bagged products on the market, and homemade compost surpassed all of them. Plus, it’s free!

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Happy Earth Day, God

Maybe it’s because Earth Day is this weekend. Maybe it’s just that I’ve added some new friends on Facebook (one of whom posted this card). But lately, I’ve noticed a trend—Christians are under attack for their lack of involvement in the environmental movement. For the most part, I think we deserve it.

I know there are Christian environmental organizations (Google “creation care” sometime), and they’re working hard and making a difference. I wonder, though—why aren’t there more? Why don’t we hear about them? Why doesn’t anyone care?

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What Does the Lord Require of You?

I don’t have a purpose-driven life.

Yes, I know God made me. And I know He has a wonderful plan for my life. It’s just that He has never shared that plan with me.

I’ve written on this topic before. I’m revisiting today because I have suddenly realized that it no longer bothers me.

Pete and I are currently attending a staff retreat for the mission group we’re associated with. It’s a wonderful time of connecting with the 45 or so associates who form Paraclete, a group of experienced missionaries and professionals who come alongside various churches and mission organizations. In some cases, both spouses are “associates” of Paraclete. In our case, I’m the spouse of an associate.

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Good Deeds: Medical Mission

A couple of missionaries in Cambodia wanted to do something to encourage the church they had planted, give them more credibility in their community, and provide opportunities for evangelism. Seeing the health needs around them, they decided to bring a team of doctors and nurses from the United States to serve the Cambodians.

The medical team arrived, and everything when according to plan. They visited Cambodian families in their homes, treated their medical needs, and shared the Gospel. May responded, accepting Jesus and agreeing to come to church.

I’m sure the Americans went home and gave a glowing report about the great work God had done in Cambodia.

However…

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Amazing God, Amazing Friends

God is so amazing!

I hope you know how incredible He is. Let me tell you what He just did for us.

On March 23 I mentioned that we had no money to pay the end-of-month bills. That’s because we haven’t received a paycheck since the end of January. This happens pretty regularly, especially lately. In this economy, supporting a ministry is low on most people’s priority list—after essentials like food, shelter, and taxes. We used to have an emergency fund, but after six years of erratic income, that’s gone. That’s all right—God is faithful. He’s also creative.

So, the end of the month was coming, and I had enough money to pay the credit card bill (food, fuel, some utilities, medical bills, and the like) or the mortgage—but not both. After years of practice, I don’t often stress over situations like this. I get excited. God’s going to come through, and it’s going to be awesome!

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What I Gave Up For Lent

In the last few years, at least among those I know, there seems to be a renewed interest in the liturgical calendar and various spiritual practices, and observing Lent is once again on the radar screen. Several friends have asked me what I gave up for Lent, not to assess my spiritual maturity, but rather to get some ideas for their own observance. With no standard practice, we are pretty much open to anything—meat, TV, Facebook… whatever.

Last year I “fasted” from computer games. While I don’t think I’m addicted, I was surprised at how strong the urge was to play just a few rounds of solitaire, maybe to unwind, maybe to stay distracted while waiting for something. But I managed to resist temptation and instead used the time to read my Bible and pray. What a good idea!

This year I had in mind to do something similar, but Ash Wednesday came and went and I did nothing about it. I’m sure I can come up with a list of excuses if you email me and ask.

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Toilet Paper Prayers

Praying is as easy as talking to your best friend but it’s not always that simple. Even after years to talking to God, I have a lot to learn. I was asking a good friend to please pray for us, as our ministry is once again out of funds and we’re not getting any paychecks. Agreeing to pray, she also told me this true story:

Katrina had recently devastated the Gulf Coast, and my friend joined a team from her church that was heading for Mississippi to help in the recovery. They were partnering with a church near the coast that had been acting as headquarters for a whole series of similar church groups.

Hundreds of people were coming through the Mississippi church, sleeping and eating in the church buildings, but supplies were still hard to come by. At one point, one of the church elders approached the pastor: “We’re out of toilet paper! What are we doing to do?”

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Fear-Mongering

Not today!

It’s 9 a.m. The weather prediction for the rest of today reads… “Cloudy. Snow in the afternoon. … Highs 24 to 30. North winds 10 to 20 mph.”

I’m looking out my window at a pure blue sky, the sun is shining, and it’s already 30°. At least today’s forecast is more accurate (they did say 50%, not 100%) than one last summer that confidently proclaimed sunny skies and high temperatures, while outside a chill wind drove the pouring rain horizontally. You’d think the weather folks would look out their window before hitting that “publish” button!

Meteorologists are easy to pick on, but lots of people predict all sorts of things—cataclysms, wars, epidemics, economic disaster or economic recovery—usually with a tremendous amount of self-assurance. In fact we’re so sure we’re right, we invite the media to the show.

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Good Deeds: Orphans

It’s getting harder and harder to do a good deed anymore. This month and over the next two months, we’ll look at some case studies of good deeds gone wrong, and what we should do differently next time.

Africa is home to 15 million orphans and “children at risk.” Most Americans are very aware of this crisis, largely caused by the spread of AIDS. We also are familiar with James 1:27—“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress….”

Clearly, the church needs to step up and come alongside these children, but how? The traditional answer has been to build thousands of orphanages. But is that the right answer?

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Go Listen to Skye Jethani

One of the blogs I follow is SkyeBox, written by Skye Jethani. All his posts are insightful and worth reading (or listening to). This one is even better than that!

He recently posted:

Last month I spoke at the Lumen conference at Mariners Church in California. They asked me to talk for 18 minutes about why there is an exodus of young people from our churches. Rather than focusing on the sociological data, I used my time to talk about how the way we understand the gospel may actually be inoculating young people to genuine faith.

When the church presents a less than biblical understanding of how to relate to God, it leaves young people with a powerless form of Christianity predicated on fear and control. When this way of life proves ineffective, they may abandon both their faith in Christ and the church. So, our first job is to get the gospel right. Check out my talk and the brief Q&A afterward. Much of the content you see is based on my book, WITH.

His talk was so good, so right on, so insightful, that I am hoping everyone will listen.

I’ll be back next Tuesday with some thoughts about good deeds and orphans.