Prayer Reflections...

A few thoughts I jotted down after a recent time of prayer.

I find that I often pray, “God give me strength…”. Although God is the source of all strength, I think we often confuse God’s promises and our responsibilities. I am convinced that when we pray for God’s strength we are sometimes looking for a fallback if things don’t work out. As if God didn’t meet His end of the bargain. In Judges 6, God calls Gideon to simply “Go in the strength that you have”. Dare I be bold enough to come to God, ready to respond and pray, “God I will…” instead?

God then spoke to me on His unconditional love. I hear followers of Jesus all the time, talking about how they have blown it with God. How they feel worse off than when they first began, because now they know that there is a loving God that longs to transform them –and they still find themselves steeped in sin. God’s heart pressed into mine and it resonated the words “your continued sins do not diminish my love for you one bit.”

An explosion set off inside of me, as I felt the love of God pouring in and erupting out of me because it could no longer fit inside my tiny heart. I took a breath and realized that my very breath was a testimony of God’s great compassion. That each day that I woke was evidence of God’s forgiveness, patience, and purposes in my life.

I did not ask God for more strength, but I declared… I will not let the air in my lungs go to waste. I will not let the precious days He gives me slip by without being seized. I will be a light to those around me. And I will honor Him in all that I do, because He is worthy of it.

One last thought in hindsight… I’m not one to talk about conviction of sin all of the time, but Yvz and I have been challenging each other not to condemn people… we find we do it subtly when we comment on those who have more than us and those who have less than us… it could be financially, spiritually, whatever. This experience affirmed to me that there is no condemnation when we realize we are incredibly loved despite the depths of human depravity within our own hearts

For my fellow Erwin McManus ‘fans’…
Videos at the APU chapels (3 in the archives, and 2 coming in October)
Video service at Onnuri in Korea
WillowCreek 2003 – This one’s an oldie but a goodie that they've kept on their site.
Audio Sermon at Richland Hills

Homeless in the city...

I joined the university kids for The Lord’s Table sandwich run ministry downtown yesterday. It’s been a while since the last time I’ve spent a night directly in contact with the homeless.

Many of them were lying up against the office buildings. The images of cardboard shelters, tired looking faces, and dirty hands - against the backdrop of office cubicles and flat screen monitors lit by fluorescent lighting, burned in my mind. It is insanity that such a thin piece of glass divides the sanitized corporate world from the stained reality that surrounds it.

At least they have blinds. That way, office workers can get back to the task at hand when the lights and sights that invade cause any form of uneasiness.

The truth is that it’s supposed to rob us of our peace of mind. We are designed to naturally feel tormented in our gut when encountering other human beings in distress. Suffering has a face, and poverty has a name.

That night his name was Vince and I could feel in my bones that God had created him for so much more. I tried to be a voice of hope, but I knew that I was up against years of him having accepted his place in life. I’d like to think that as our team of four sat around him and let him speak his mind and listened to him, for a moment in time, he experienced validation as a human being, respect, and even love.

I find it fascinating how in this early career stage of life, it is often difficult scheduling a time to meet up with other busy friends. Yet with those on the streets, I left with a sense that I could count on them being there anytime I chose to visit. There's something wrong with that, in more ways then one.