More Thoughts on Lent... on fear, on babies getting heart surgeries and on saying yes

Literally just two mere days after I wrote this blog post about my thoughts on Lent this year and made this declaration...

I want that — I want to be counted as People of the Cross, carrying around the Cross in my head — because that’s the only way there will be real love in my hands and feet and heart.

So the People of the Cross will pray that our faith in our Saviour is worth laying down our life for our Saviour. We will pray that we don’t live lives of cheap grace but of costly Christianity.

Too long The People of the Cross have crusaded for safe lives, too long we’ve wished for comfortable lives, too long we’ve wanted easy lives of Vanilla Love instead of Cross-shaped Love.

But the People of the Cross — we are done with safe lives of comfort instead of living dangerous lives that speak of the comfort found in Real Love who hung on a Cross."

~ Ann Voskamp.

... that God made my path cross with an opportunity to serve the least of these that is so outside my comfort zone that I literally cringed in fear. And then, I heard Him whisper, "My daughter, this is how I am leading you to make good on your word. Just trust me and follow my heart... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Yes, that oh so familiar unforced rhythm of a grace that can only come from Him.

You see, I might not have made plans for what our family would do for Lent this year, but my Heavenly Father had a plan already in place for us.

Friends, please meet Undrakh and Ochirkhuyag...

So, that opportunity to serve that made me cringe in fear? Yes, it's to take on the role of "hospital mom" for these two adorable baby boys from Mongolia, for these next eight weeks, as they come to Canada for heart surgeries via the ministry of Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project.

Will you join our family in praying for these two and also for the other children who have heart issues who are listed on this webpage? The surgery dates have since been changed... Ochirkhuyag's surgery is now scheduled for Tuesday, March 24 and Undrakh's is still unscheduled. {Update: Undrakh's surgery happened on March 26 and Ochirkhuyag's surgery was on April 21. Both boys are doing very well after surgery.}

For more up-to-date information, you can follow Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project on Facebook as well.

So, let me explain the cringing part...
I asked, "Why me, God?" Why did that appeal-for-help email have to land in my inbox? Isn't there someone else more qualified to do this than me?

You see, those who know me in real life would tell you that I am an introvert... that being around people all the time de-energizes me. Saying yes to this will require me to be constantly interacting with people, and lots of them, in these next eight weeks!

Also, driving all over this big city of ours isn't my most favourite thing to do. Saying yes to this will require me to be driving all over this big city a lot in these next eight weeks!

I get easily queasy dealing with and hearing about medical procedures, let alone details about heart surgeries on babies. Saying yes to this will require me to attend all the medical meetings and be in on all of these details before, during and after the surgeries during these next eight weeks!

I have literally not been sleeping well this whole week just thinking about these next eight weeks... it literally feels like as if my own child is going to have heart surgery. 

Yet, God gently whispered this... "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

And to that I say, "Yes! Here I am... Lord, send me."

Our yes to God should scare us.

Not to keep us immobile, but to keep us dependent on the One who asks us to say it in the first place.

Fear keeps us moving towards God.

Yes, there is fear in obedience. But peace keeps us on the journey.

And the joy that follows our yes to God is wild.

~ Kristen Welch.

Honestly, I am just a small, small part of an awesome team of God's people who have come together to make these babies' surgeries a reality.

As I take on the role of "hospital mom", on the ground here in town is an awesome family who is hosting both babies, their mamas and their translators... six people whom they hardly know, strangers really, in their home, for these next eight weeks!

Now, that is something that's off-the-charts out of my comfort zone. I am blown away by this host family's generosity, compassion and lavish love.

I am also deeply grateful for the people who are on stand-by to help me with transportation, for our pastor who is willing to provide pastoral care, for people who have lent us baby car seats, for the hospital staff who has been so awesome already, and for an army of prayer warriors!

My thoughts wander to more of Ann Voskamp's words that I quoted in that same blog post that I wrote about my thoughts on Lent...

The People of the Cross repent of wanting to be greatly known for anything other than for loving greatly.

The People of the Cross repent of loving our agendas more — instead of interrupting our agendas because we love Jesus most.

We repent of loving You, Lord, so little because we have loved ourselves too much.

What if... The People of the Cross do more than Give Up something — but to Take Back something?

Take Back taking up our Cross,

Take Back our time so we can turn back to our First Love,

Take Back our hypocrisy and our complacency and our apathy and Love Lavishly,

Take Back our excuses for not committing to Give Back every day in some tangible, real way — to the local food bank, to a woman’s shelter, to the refugees and the foreigners and the Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and to the forgotten neighbour next door with her meowing stray cat.

Maybe now is the time —

Now is the time to Take Back what it means to humbly and genuinely live the love of The People of the Cross.

~ Ann Voskamp.

Ah, yes... yes, I remember what I wrote... Lent is not going through the motions of the supposed-to-dos... of eating pancake dinners and of reading devotionals and of giving up something.

It is more than that. Way more than that...

It is a time to repent, of loving myself too much... and loving God so little.

Two more days and we will be at the airport to meet Ochirkhuyag and Undrakh and their mamas and their translators. As I run around today and tomorrow doing errands in preparation for their arrival, I am relishing in the fact that God would invite unqualified people such as our family to join Him in doing His work, to be His hands and His feet to the least of these.

It is sinking in now, truly it is... that this, this is exactly what it means to observe Lent and to live as People of the Cross... {and I am paraphrasing Ann Voskamp}:

When we want to be greatly known for nothing else but for loving greatly.

When we interrupt our agendas because we love Jesus.

When we repent of loving God so little because we love ourselves too much.

When we take back taking up our Cross.

When we take back hypocrisy and complacency and apathy and Love Lavishly.

As my son and I spend a big chunk of his March Break next week at the hospital with Ochirkhuyag and Undrakh attending a flurry of pre-op appointments, I will be holding on to this truth...

... that "the joy that follows our yes to God is wild."

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!

Thoughts on Lent...

Lent kind of crept up on me this year...

Ash Wednesday fell on the same day as this young lady's 18th birthday. We celebrated this milestone birthday by going out to dinner at a fairly new Korean-style restaurant in town. 

As we started chowing down on kimchi fries, mocha pork belly and Korean tacos... it dawned on me that it was already Ash Wednesday. In fact, Ash Wednesday was almost over by that time.

The day before, on Shrove Tuesday, I read a blog post by Ann Voskamp and posted this excerpt on my Facebook wall:

On this Shrove Tuesday before the start of ‪#‎Lent‬... this is my prayer and the confession of my heart...

"People are dying for the faith we take for granted, that we take and hide under a bushel, that we take and paint vanilla — so we don’t get persecuted.

Are we people who humbly take up the Cross and take our faith seriously — or people who seriously take and hide our faith under a humble bushel?

That’s what we get to decide and carry home, carry in our heads, carry around in what we read, what we watch, what we support, what we cheer: Cheap Plastic Commercialized Feel-Good Love?

Or Wood Passionate Cross Made-New Love? Worth humbly laying down our lives for.

I want that — I want to be counted as People of the Cross, carrying around the Cross in my head — because that’s the only way there will be real love in my hands and feet and heart.

So the People of the Cross will pray that our faith in our Saviour is worth laying down our life for our Saviour. We will pray that we don’t live lives of cheap grace but of costly Christianity.

Too long The People of the Cross have crusaded for safe lives, too long we’ve wished for comfortable lives, too long we’ve wanted easy lives of Vanilla Love instead of Cross-shaped Love.

But the People of the Cross — we are done with safe lives of comfort instead of living dangerous lives that speak of the comfort found in Real Love who hung on a Cross."

~ Ann Voskamp.

We read the entire blog post as a family after eating hubby's home-made pancakes for dinner... because that's what you're supposed to do on Shrove Tuesday right? Eat pancakes for dinner. :)

As I read aloud, in my heart I said, "Yes! Yes, I want to be counted as one of the People of the Cross..."

Early the next day, on Ash Wednesday, I read Ann's next blog post, one meant to kick-off this season of Lent... The Call for the Next 40 Days: To the Nations and People of The Cross, but I didn't take the time to really absorb its message due to the busyness of that day.

In fact, it has been such a busy season... that I hadn't even thought about what we should be doing as a family for Lent this year.

It wasn't until Thursday when I really had the time to sit down and absorb this powerful, powerful, powerful Lenten message...

On an Ash Wednesday, The People of the Cross repent of wanting to be greatly known for anything other than for loving greatly.

The People of the Cross repent of loving our agendas more — instead of interrupting our agendas because we love Jesus most.

We repent of loving You, Lord, so little because we have loved ourselves too much.

What if the next 40 days is asking The People of the Cross to do more than Give Up something — but to Take Back something?

Take Back taking up our Cross,

Take Back our time so we can turn back to our First Love,

Take Back our hypocrisy and our complacency and our apathy and Love Lavishly,

Take Back our excuses for not committing to Give Back every day in some tangible, real way — to the local food bank, to a woman’s shelter, to the refugees and the foreigners and the Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and to the forgotten neighbour next door with her meowing stray cat.

Maybe now is the time —

Now is the time to Take Back what it means to humbly and genuinely live the love of The People of the Cross.

~ Ann Voskamp.

Ah, yes... yes, I do know it... I do! Lent is not going through the motions of the supposed-to-dos... of eating pancake dinners and of reading devotionals and of giving up something.

It is more than that. Way more than that...

It is praying this prayer... it is repenting of loving God so little because we love ourselves too much.

{Please press the "play" button to hear this powerful prayer.}

Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise that Lent kind of crept up on me this year. There are no meal plans prepared. There are no devotional plans ready. There are no plans to give up anything. There are no plans of any sort lined up at all.

Except for the above prayer. A call to repentance...

One I am badly needing to pray. Everyday, for the next 40 days of Lent. In repentance, of loving myself too much... and loving God so little.

Refreshed anew with the right perspective on Lent...

Our family got ready to head out for the weekend. We were scheduled to serve as Compassion Advocates at two events over the weekend, including a huge conference for youth and youth workers.

#1000gifts ~ This SUNSHINE as we drive across the city to represent Compassion Canada at the Today's Teens conference this weekend!

Upon arriving at the event on Friday night, we were surprised to learn that my girl has been invited to speak the next day about Compassion's ministry and to promote their upcoming youth curriculum, True Story {#TrueStorySeries}, of which she is the host.

#1000gifts ~ Excited to be promoting @compassionCA #TrueStorySeries at Today's Teens conference this weekend! Check out www.compassion.ca/truestory to watch the trailer. You just might recognize someone. :) #proudmama

As I watched my girl share her heart with hundreds of her peers that day and as I thought about why we have chosen to spend our entire weekend advocating for children living in extreme poverty, it dawned on me that this, this is exactly what it means to observe Lent and to live as People of the Cross... {and I am paraphrasing Ann Voskamp}:

When we want to be greatly known for nothing else but for loving greatly.

When we interrupt our agendas because we love Jesus.

When we repent of loving God so little because we love ourselves too much.

When we take back taking up our Cross.

When we take back hypocrisy and complacency and apathy and Love Lavishly.

Post by Aimee Esparaz.

Let it be so... 
Let me be counted as one of the People of the Cross... one who acts justly, loves mercy and walks humbly with the God of Justice everyday and in all of my ways. This is my prayer.

I recently came across this song, God of Justice by Tim Hughes. I love these words...

We must go, live to feed the hungry,
Stand beside the broken, we must go.
Stepping forward, keep us from just singing,
Move us into action, we must go.
To act justly everyday.
Loving mercy in every way.
Walking humbly before You God.

Have a listen here...

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!

Lent Ponderings {Resurrection Sunday}

{Edited and updated on Easter Monday, April 21.}

That day 20 years ago, when he became "Papa" to me...

I will miss him dearly... though hard to accept that we aren't able to see him when we visit the Philippines just two short months from now, I am deeply thankful that he is no longer suffering and is now resting in Jesus' everlasting arms.

Just a few hours after publishing this blog post yesterday, on Resurrection Sunday evening, Papa went home to be with Jesus.

Though unknown to me at the time of posting, I am thankful that this blog post has now become a tribute to a man who lived a life well-lived.

Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those Christians who have died so you will not be sad, as others who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of him, God will raise with Jesus those who have died. What we tell you now is the Lord’s own message. We who are living when the Lord comes again will not go before those who have already died. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died believing in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NCV.

Some of our last photos with him...

:: :: ::

It has been...
a roller-coaster-like, emotionally-draining, tough-to-face kind of week for our family... this past week leading up to Resurrection Sunday.

One who is a dearly beloved of ours lays suffering in a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, half a world away, battling pneumonia while fighting stage four lung cancer. Hard of breathing, loss of consciousness, suspected blood clots.

The fragility of life hits close to home. Its brevity, its fleetingness all too real.

Our hearts break. Our tears fall. 

And we wait for news... we wait, wait, wait. 

Waiting is hard. Waiting from afar, even harder.

Trusting and waiting is hard. Pain and suffering, even harder.

Photo Credit: Red Letter Christians

Yet, in the places and circumstances resembling dark Holy Saturdays... there is nothing left to do but to trust and to wait.

In this past week's particular trusting and waiting, these words from Psalm 139 have been a balm for my aching heart...

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

Your thoughts - how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them - any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

Ah, yes! All the days of our dearly beloved's life have been prepared by God before he'd even lived one day. I came to be reminded that he isn't only a dearly beloved one of ours, he is God's dearly beloved child, his name inscribed in the palm of God's hand... what beautiful truth! 

And the reality of Sunday a-coming gives me Hope... because in Jesus, there is always Hope! 

And in that Hope, we are commanded to live as resurrection people. 

Our task in the present is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day. ~ N.T. Wright.

So we do just that. We trust as we wait. We hope for what seems impossible.

We reminisce and rejoice... of our dearly beloved who is always good-natured, joyful and happy, who is content to live a simple life, who is radically generous, who is uncomplicated, who is unconcerned about fame and wealth and status, who understands and lives this truth... “So the last will be first, and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)”

We give thanks for a life well-lived and pray for the grace of more time on this earth with him.

And in the living out our life this way, as people of the resurrection, even as we still wait... peace comes.

Just as Jesus said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)"

Just as it was on that first Resurrection Sunday...

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

On the eve of Resurrection Sunday...

We get that first bit of good news. Our dearly beloved one is breathing more and more on his own again. There's even talk of perhaps being discharged from Intensive Care Unit in the coming days!

A glimmer of hope. A flicker of light getting ready to break through the darkness. Joy!

I think... much just like how it was on that very first Resurrection Sunday!

The holy grail of joy's not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of wondrous now, joy might be - unbelievably - possible! The only place we need see before we die, is this place of seeing God, here and now. ~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts.

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!

Lent Ponderings {Start of Holy Week}

Last night at Home Church...
In reflection of God's great love for us and to prepare our hearts to celebrate this Holy Week, we broke bread together, in Holy Communion, around the table of thanksgiving.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them... ~ Luke 22:19, NIV.

It was a beautiful time... us all reflecting on the immense significance and impact of Grace, of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, for us as individuals and for humankind as a whole... and us all sharing, around that table of thanksgiving, the things that we have to be thankful for, even for those hard things and for those broken places in our lives!    

From page 32, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

We read excerpts from the book One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. It is no secret to those who know me personally and to those who read this blog regularly that this book has impacted me in a very deep way and has changed me for the better.

Since Ann's words on pages 32 and 33 are so relevant for this Holy Week, I wanted to share a snippet with our Home Church family last night:

Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo - the table of thanksgiving.

Is the height of my chara joy dependent on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks?

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible.

The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be - unbelievably - possible! 

Charis. Grace.

Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving.

Chara. Joy.

"The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live... He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything."

Last night's communion around the table of thanksgiving with our Home Church family was just the boost I needed to jump-start this Holy Week. It was life-giving, joy-inducing, soul-lifting!

During this season of Lent...
As I go through daily readings from A Place At The Table by Chris Seay, I have been reminded once again that we really do have so much to be thankful for... and that it is utterly important for us as Christ-followers to live out our faith, to live out our thanks, to be bread for those in need... to give, to bless, to sacrifice.

For God loved the world so much that He gave... 

Jesus is our ultimate example. With outstretched arms, nail-pierced hands, thorn-pierced head... He suffered and gave us the greatest gift... a life abundant!

So, shouldn't we live fully? In response to Grace? 

Shouldn't we live out thanks? As an expression of our faith?

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well” — but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. {Read more from James, chapter 2.}

:: :: ::

As I continue to count grace-gifts, with unending thanks... these are the things I am thankful for... #3189 - #3207:

:: Our Home Church family! ♥ 

:: Abundant life in and through Christ Jesus!

:: Reading letters from our Compassion children.

:: Getting new passports... even before knowing that God is sending us on another wild adventure this summer. {More on this in a future blog post.} 

:: Access to free and world-class, top-notch medical care... a normal brain MRI result for my girl... and hopefully a confirmation of a diagnosis for eye migraines.    

:: Our whole family at a live Raptors game to celebrate my girl's 17th birthday. 

:: My new cast-iron pot!

:: March Break... and a short getaway to Montreal, for a speed-cubing competition {for my boy} and to visit a university {for my girl}.

:: Another successful AIDS Care season at our church!

:: Visiting our friends at Camp Freedom and touching base about some summer plans.

:: Another sandwich run for the homeless... and the opportunity to partner with my boy's school on packing the care packages.

:: A lunch with some girlfriends.

:: Tax returns filed on time! Phew!

:: Celebrating a family wedding.

:: A great team of leaders to serve alongside with at our church. Blessed! ♥

:: Spring update from our Lead Pastor... thankful that God chooses to partner with us to build His Kingdom.

:: Coffee time with my sister... 

:: A great youth retreat for my kids just this past weekend.

:: God's peace in the midst of our stresses, worries and troubles. 

In counting grace-gifts...
I am learning to let be and be still... and to pay more attention to my Jesus... and to be ready to act on the things that He has in store for me to do... because "all there is to see is Jesus."

Gratitude is the only appropriate response to Grace.

~ Bruxy Cavey, Part 2 of Life 2.0 teaching series at The Meeting House.

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!

Lent Ponderings {First Feast Sunday}

It's feast day...

Yes, it is... and a chicken is currently roasting in my oven as I compose this blog post. For this season of Lent, I am taking on the challenge of cooking all of our family's meals and refraining from eating out or buying take-out, even during feast days. On feast days, I have decided to make special meals instead... thus the roast chicken!

You see, we love eating out... and at times, it has become excessive... many, many, many dollars spent in restaurants that can be and should be spent helping the least of these. Now, don't get me wrong... I am not saying that eating out is wrong. What I am saying is that, at times it can be!

When it becomes "I deserve to..." or "I am entitled to..."

It has also become mundane... un-special. We eat out and consume without even giving it a second thought anymore... like it's a normal part of life... when in fact, it isn't!

The goal isn't to not set foot in a restaurant ever again. Far from! Rather, the goal is, that after this season of Lent is over, we will see eating out as a treat... as something that is special, to be enjoyed, to be thankful for... and to be mindful of many of our brothers and sisters who are the least of these, who don't even know what a restaurant is, let alone set foot in one!

As I read through A Place at the Table these past four days and practiced the discipline of cooking simple meals at home each and every day... I have become very aware of my own vulnerabilities. As Chris Seay wrote on Day 1:

... when we strip away the many comforts of our dietary pleasures, we may not like what we see in ourselves. 

In time it will become painfully clear that we are not the pilots of this ship. Submissions to our King is the only way forward.  

The only way forward...

Yes, in just four shorts days, I have realized that submissions to our King is truly the only way forward. As Chris puts it, "How will you stand up to your Pharaohs on this journey?"

Yes, we are slaves to many Pharaohs... including to our many comforts. The thing is... there are many of our brothers and sisters who are the least of these who, not unlike us, still live in slavery today... yet, there is no way they can stand up to their Pharaohs without our help.

I sincerely believe that it is through our submissions to our King, through our daily giving up of our many comforts, through our standing up to our Pharaohs... that we can, in turn, effectively help to free our brothers and sisters from the slavery that they are prisoners of.  

Chris writes about this on Day 2: 

When I look at the shelves of chocolate in my local convenience store, I know that much of the cacao farmed across the globe comes from children who are forced into labor due to unjust debt. But I ignore it.

Modern-day slavery --- it is what's been pressing on my heart these past few days. Cacao farming is just one example of many forms of slavery. How about the coffee and tea we drink? The sugar we sweeten our coffee and tea with? The clothes we wear? Let's not even talk about human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution and pornography!

Friends, modern-day slavery is real. A crisis and an atrocity that we can no longer ignore! 

The thing is...
There are extremely simple things that each and everyone of us can do to help in the fight to eliminate modern-day slavery.

Such as buying only fair trade chocolate products. The Camino products are regulars in our home and I highly recommend them!

Such as switching to fair trade coffee... a staple in our house! We buy coffee from by Level Ground Trading, a company not only committed to "investing in job creation and organic initiatives," it also "provides school scholarships for over 200 children."

Such as checking this website first to learn how our favourite brands relate to trafficking and other labor abuses. I've found this website to be extremely helpful when buying clothing and footwear. Speaking of which, how about wearing our clothes and shoes until they are totally worn out before buying more so as to minimize our slavery footprint?

And how about human trafficking?

Just last week, on February 27, was Shine a Light on Slavery Day organized by End It Movement.

Personally, I once thought that human trafficking is just too big a battle to fight... that I cannot somehow do anything significant.

But, my girl has shown me the flaw of my thinking! In the Fall of 2013, she started an initiative called Freedom Creations. In this blog post, she writes about how Freedom Creations was born!

Because of Freedom Creations, my girl has taught this mama how to knit... for freedom! Last week, on End It Day, I posted this photo on social media... it made my heart skip a beat as I realized that there is nothing too small... nothing too mundane... nothing too insignificant that one can do to help in the fight for freedom!

Even something as small as one stitch... can fight for freedom!

You see, Freedom Creations in its short six-months of existence has raised over $1400.00 for International Justice Mission Canada! Yes, that's over $1400.00 to fight for freedom... all done one stitch at a time!!!

This is from Day 3 of A Place at the Table:

When we begin to take courageous steps to end poverty, modern-day slavery, and the water crisis, our actions easily multiply because of our influence on the people in our lives. When entire churches begin to feel a truly familial connection with the least of these, the world will never be the same.

The world becoming a better place... that, friends... is my prayer! Is it yours, too?

By the way, friends... this blog post has taken longer to write than anticipated. In between the time that it took to start and finish up this blog post, our family has had an awesome time of worship with our church family, celebrated with a brother-in-Christ who got baptized, and had the yummiest roast chicken we've had in a long time!

Chris wrote in today's reading...

... it will be a beautiful day of worship and an important part of our fasting journey.

Yes, today certainly was that... and more!

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!

Lent Ponderings {Day 1}

During Lent this year...

I will be reading through Chris Seay's book, A Place at the Table: 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor, with my fellow Missions Coordinators from over 15 different sites of our church, The Meeting House.

I love this community of Missions Coordinators, all of us volunteering our time, passionate about and committed to leading and encouraging our church family into being the hands and feet of Jesus to people living in the margins of our society, both right here at home and globally.

It is not my first time reading through this book. In fact, this will be the third time! I had to really sort out in my heart that I wanted to do this again... not because I have to, just because my fellow Compassion Coordinators are doing so. And, I've come to the conclusion that... yes, I want to do this again! What I am most excited about, in addition to reading it in community this year, is the fact that God transforms me in a fresh way each and every time. Exciting!

Another reason why I love this book is Chris Seay's partnership with Compassion International in writing this book. It's no secret to those of you who are regulars on here that my family and I love the ministry of Compassion. In fact, all four of us are fully trained Advocates!

What Lent isn't...

So, in pondering whether or not I wanted to go through this book again for Lent this year, it really helped me to think through what Lent isn't.

I've found this blog post by Eugene Cho to be most helpful in sorting out the motives of my heart. The title of the blog post makes me chuckle, every single time:

Umm, I didn’t ask you to give up coffee. I asked you to give up your life to me.” ~ God.

Witty, yes! But honestly... soul-searchingly well-said!

And Eugene posted this on Facebook yesterday:

What we need isn’t more religion.
We need Gospel.

And by Gospel, I’m not speaking of a self-help, pop spiritual psychology, but a Gospel that cuts into the heart of humanity with a grace that compels us to not just merely salvation but a life committed to justice, reconciliation, and redemption.

Isaiah 58 speaks of fasting but fasting that God is not pleased with. It’s a fasting that caters to our own eyes, flesh, and pleasure but not the kind of fasting that God invites us to:

a life broken and transformed by the things of God.

Yes, that is why I am observing Lent this year, yet again... it is to cultivate a life broken and transformed by the things of God... to be that pencil in His hand.

So, here's to the start of 40 days of solidarity with the poor.
Will you join me, friends? I love what Lysa Terkeurst writes in the Foreword...

... this journey isn't about our power, strength of character, or self-control. It is a journey of surrender to God that will usher us from rut dwelling to transformed living. 

In the process of being transformed, we will become more and more aware not just of our hunger but of the hunger of the world. 

We will sit down at the table more eager to ponder those we might serve instead of pouncing on the plenty to which we've grown so accustomed. So very tragically accustomed. God help us. 

A place at the table. Indeed, a place at the table for God and for remembering those less fortunate. But even more so, a place to stop the rut of constant inhale. Taking in, taking in, taking in. It clogs the soul. So for 40 days, let us learn to exhale with great thanksgiving. 

For pondering what God might bring close during this fast. For this place where our souls breathe and dream once again.

That, friends... is my prayer too! Join me?

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!