sunday brain candy

this past Sunday, church was chock-full of interesting and challenging ideas for me. our Bible class discussion centered around this article from Times Online ("As an athiest, I truly believe Africa needs God" by Matthew Parris). after listening to some interesting comments and opinions, I left the class considering the term 'evangelism' and what that means, how we use it, what we intend it to mean, etc. one of the views expressed noted how different evangelistic efforts are when they're accomplished by persons actually committed to living in the areas they're trying to reach over a period of time and are accompanied by quality of life improvements... building infrastructure, educating, feeding and clothing, etc. when we speak of evangelistic efforts stateside, my mind tends to jump to stranger-focused goals of special events and tracts, structuring of churches to appeal to seekers, etc. in speaking with husband later, however, I decided that maybe that's my issue - my view of evangelism might be way too myopic. evangelism isn't just funding someone else to fly across the ocean to teach people about Jesus, or having a huge rally, or hiring someone to deliver persuasive sermons and plan events, or an event to feed the community twice a year, or fish symbols on my car, or... insert whatever images pop into your head. evangelism is telling about what God has done... not just what He did once, back in the day, but what He's done in me and in my community, and what He's continuing to do and what I hope He does, and we all have ample opportunity to talk about such things every day, with all of the people we already know in and out of our faith communities. and we should probably be sharing God's work and the mystery and wonder and victory and struggle of it all with both sets of people, right? I think that's the real trick... just living as though you're a believer of what you believe, and that it has great, life-changing value, and talking about it as we attempt to walk humbly with our God. that maybe sharing the gospel with people includes the necessity of my learning to communicate what God has done and continues to do in me to the people who already know me, as though it is important to me. as though I'm dependent on Him, and curious about Him, and grateful to Him. maybe that's where it starts, actually. I hope to reflect more of this sentiment as I journey through this next year.

which leads into Mike Mc's sermon about praise, which convicted me in my guts. to paraphrase, his simple premise was something like, 'we praise things all the time... we praise the things we value.' it's true - as this blog proves, we can't wait to tell people about movies, or books, or recipes, or this beauty product we love, or our favorite sports team. we praise these things because they have value to us that is intrinsically personal, and it makes up the fun, multi-colored collage of "me" and the things I choose. I confess that I tend to view God more as either my conscience or my inmost-wish-granter, and I spend very little time in real praise of Him. which is honestly embarrassing, considering I have so much to be outrageously thankful for. don't misread me... I'm laughing ruefully on my end, not brow-beating, because along with the embarrassment comes a gratefulness for the patience of my Father, who doesn't need my praise, but would certainly like to bless and communicate with me through it. Mike also pointed out more than a few examples in the new testament where Jesus did something incredible, wonderful... and the response of those around Him was to criticize and look for fault rather than praise the extraordinary and miraculous. the point being that perhaps the problem with malcontents is faulty perspective - that through eyes looking to praise and search out God at work in the world, it becomes more difficult to remain a critical jerk. I think this is why gratitude is a regular topic at meetings... when you're busy concentrating on things you're grateful for and progress made thus far, the list of things that are bothering you almost pales to nothing.

Dearest God, I praise you today for your wisdom and goodness, for your patience and character, for correction and blessing, and for your constant Help.