Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Marvels & Musings

"Understanding compassion- what it means to walk that out every instance. Choosing the right habit when it's easy, but then continuing to choose it the second it gets hard. Like where desperate joy for the things of God turns into straight up desperation. A crying out of, " God! I am in need!" Compassion for those you want to serve, for those you are serving with as a family, and receiving it from the one who sent you to serve in the first place."

I found this little unfinished blurb. A revelation from 'wandering' around Hilo with people I barely knew. Friends I can now call family. As I remember (what I like to call 'Team Asia's sketch faith journey'...you can ask me about it sometime if you have no clue what I am talking about), it reminds me of how much hope I can have. Because each and every day the things that I learned there are still true.

I am still experiencing the depths of what it means to have compassion and how it feels to embrace it.

I have been reading Romans lately. So many things strike me. The simple Gospel. God's promises. His goodness. How just He really is. Most of all his compassion on us. Gentiles. Slaves. People who get to be sons because the firstborn messed up. Grafted in, awaiting the original branches return. Oh man, and how glorious the fruit of Father's compassion on them will be!

I love when Romans turns back to Hosea, mostly because I love Hosea.
Concerning the Gentile , God says in the prophecy of Hosea, 
"Those who were not my people, 
I will now call my people. 
And I will love those
whom I did not love before."
And,
"Then , at the place where they were told,
'You are not my people,'
there they will be called
'children of the living God.'" *

Paul goes on to explain how Israel, the firstborn, will see the Gentiles partaking in their promise. Their jealousy will be roused by those who were not even looking for God but found him. By those who weren't even asking, yet God revealed himself to them. In the end, God is faithful to His people and good to those who in the beginning were not. His compassion rains down   . . .no. . . floods down upon them both (Romans10:19-11:15).

He is a compassionate God. Making us a compassionate people.
wow.

* Romans 9:25-26, The SourceView Bible

Friday, January 11, 2013

such a time


How many of us know that feeling when you don't get the answer you were expecting? Or not the way you were necessarily expecting it? That is life a lot of times right. Probably most times. That is what makes it wonderful! The way situations in life come together to complete pictures we could only imagine in our hearts. The way God births realities in ways we could never orchestrate of our own power. Nor would the routes He chooses ever fall under our natural will.

I am more cognizant of this, after a few weeks in Vegas have led to the realization that I am staying longer than I intended and without a date to say when it will come to an end (that is not months away). I have to learn how to live life here again. I have to adjust. I have to trust that the change in me and all the differences supercede the 'normal' routine of an old life. I have to be confident that I am present here for this season, for multiple reasons and continue seeking God's heart starting with what is most tangible. Because sometimes it really is that simple. 

I was talking to my dear friend Mrs. Rivka Bundra who is moving to New York with her husband and 5 kids (including a baby girl who is partying it up in her womb*) in just a few short days. The time that I have been able to spend with this woman -who has basically become the big sister I never had- before her clan heads across country is proof enough of how gracious and intentional God really is. And how He is in the business of making all things beautiful, especially the way we spend our time. Last night she suggested, "Look at what is right in front of you." Meaning adjust your sights to praying into what it looks like to let Holy Spirit lead you in pursuing relationships here at home instead of wildly chasing them. Partner your presence with those that would have it and running with those who are hungry for more in this life. Be available to those who are also thirsting to abandon the snares of the world and take up the freedom that resides in this joy-filled calling of Kingdom family. We we made for such a time as this.

Some days, I miss Kona and the relationships that I built and lived in there. Some nights, I miss Cambodia and the priceless investments planted in the rich soil there. I remember those days and nights when I missed Vegas, though. Here I am. Now, what am I going to do? Ms. Kortney Krugar (one of those lovely homes I found in the form of my sweet Awaken friend) put it so well the other day in a quick text, "...pursuing it back home, it's so easy to do it when that's the culture we were a part of and we had much encouragement along the way but now it's like: Home is where it begins. It's a challenge but I think without going for it at home, it will never become part of us!"

Shaka.




*Turns out this wasn't as accurate as we thought. Because, True Justice Bundra is very much a boy, we came to find out . Haha!