Some people have encouraged me to write again, so I have an intention* to write more frequently here now. *the disclaimer is that "intention" does not equal "goal" - if it was a goal, it would have a place on our 2017 Goals spreadsheet where I would be able to track it having thought through the SMART goal process and where I would see my percentage of progress versus the percentage of the year gone, etc etc (seriously, we have that and it's awesome). But it's just an intention so I give myself the wiggle room to be a bit flaky with it. Perhaps next year it will make the Goals spreadsheet. For now my intention is to write a bit more and, if nothing else, it will make my mom happy. Hi, Mom :)
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I had the opportunity to go to the Colour Conference in London at the beginning of May with some other women from my church, where we met up with about 12,000 other women from around the world -- I believe they said there were 42? 49? countries represented -- pretty awesome.
I was really looking forward to having concentrated time in smaller groups with women from church with the hopes that I'd be able to create new and strengthen preexisting friendships now that my french is so much stronger. I'm grateful to say that that happened. For the conference in general, each speaker was strong in different ways and I need to finish going back over my notes and relistening to the voice recordings I made of the talks (I meant to do that the week after the conference, but was not disciplined. I'm getting better at discipline slowly but surely.)
But where God really met me was the idea of being found in the field as the "everyday" woman that I am.
We've been in France for about sixteen months and it's really been a time of growth and change. Recently, though, I've struggled again with "but what is my goal, my purpose here?" (I always know I'm looking to people again for my worth when I start struggling with that question, but it's still hard to shake sometimes. Fixing my eyes solely on Jesus is a learned choice and I have to relearn it with my wandering heart often.)
The Lord reminded me during the conference, with the speakers, with a conversation with a dear and true friend, and then with my Bible study when I got home, that there is such worth in being faithful in my everyday life. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Paul talks about the stuff in a house and how there are things that are made for a special purpose and there are other things that are made for everyday/common purposes. But with the sanctification of God, the things prepared only to be common can be used for extraordinary purposes.
And that is my life. I am an everyday woman and there is SUCH WORTH in my choice to do the things in my life -- the things that seem sometimes just too little to have importance -- the interactions with the people who are found just in front of me at each moment -- even if no one else even sees it, there is such worth in my choice to do these things with faithfulness. And that gives glory to God.
____________________
Today is Pentecost - the birthday of the first church - the day that the Spirit descended on the apostles and first followers, coming on them in power in a way that changed their lives (and all of ours) forever.
God is in the process of teaching me about prayer recently -- I'm reading A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller and I highly recommend it -- and when I was thinking about Pentecost this weekend the Lord organised some thoughts for me to share at church this morning (just at a briefing of the teams during setup, not before the congregation):
Prayer is a mystery - we cannot understand really the process, how it works, etc. But in Daniel 10:12, we see a clear example that prayer in fact causes things to move -- it says: "Then he said to me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.'" This was probably not the response that Daniel had been expecting to the situation, but his words caused things to move, something was put into motion by his praying: "I have come because of your words"!
In the Old Testament, we learn stories of the rare people who were as faithful as possible without Jesus, and how God chose to use them -- and he spoke with and listened to these people.
But that is the thing that Pentecost changed!
When Jesus died and resurrected, the giant, heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the people was destroyed and the obstacle between all of us and the Lord was removed.
When Jesus ascended and sent the Spirit to anoint the first believers, that gave us the new method of communication! The obstacle was no more, we are ALL the ones that God chooses to speak with and listen to because the Spirit is our power to pray. I especially love the reminder in Romans that, it is not only by the power of the Spirit that we pray, but the Spirit also prays for us when we don't know what to pray -- interceding for us when we have nothing but groans. (Anyone else been clinging to that when our hearts groan brokenly at the news of more lives lost too frequently?)
Our words are heard by the living God and these words cause things to happen. It may not look like we expect, we don't know how it works, but prayer puts things - in me and in the world - in motion.
Wow. What a reminder I need to actually do it.
____________________
French update:
Fun fact - both the section about everyday faithfulness and the section about Pentecost I had to translate into English because both of those are things I shared in front of groups of people, writing and delivering them in french!
And related to that fun fact - my english brain is becoming mushier as my french mush becomes slightly more solid. So forgive my weird sentence structure at times, and I tried to catch it if I ever used french words mixed in but might have missed some.
And I went to a baby shower for about 4 hours today and existed close to entirely in french, managing to follow most things, express myself almost every time I wanted to, and did not leave with a headache or feeling totally overwhelmed/spent!
Y'all. Such progress.
____________________
I had the opportunity to go to the Colour Conference in London at the beginning of May with some other women from my church, where we met up with about 12,000 other women from around the world -- I believe they said there were 42? 49? countries represented -- pretty awesome.
I was really looking forward to having concentrated time in smaller groups with women from church with the hopes that I'd be able to create new and strengthen preexisting friendships now that my french is so much stronger. I'm grateful to say that that happened. For the conference in general, each speaker was strong in different ways and I need to finish going back over my notes and relistening to the voice recordings I made of the talks (I meant to do that the week after the conference, but was not disciplined. I'm getting better at discipline slowly but surely.)
But where God really met me was the idea of being found in the field as the "everyday" woman that I am.
We've been in France for about sixteen months and it's really been a time of growth and change. Recently, though, I've struggled again with "but what is my goal, my purpose here?" (I always know I'm looking to people again for my worth when I start struggling with that question, but it's still hard to shake sometimes. Fixing my eyes solely on Jesus is a learned choice and I have to relearn it with my wandering heart often.)
The Lord reminded me during the conference, with the speakers, with a conversation with a dear and true friend, and then with my Bible study when I got home, that there is such worth in being faithful in my everyday life. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Paul talks about the stuff in a house and how there are things that are made for a special purpose and there are other things that are made for everyday/common purposes. But with the sanctification of God, the things prepared only to be common can be used for extraordinary purposes.
And that is my life. I am an everyday woman and there is SUCH WORTH in my choice to do the things in my life -- the things that seem sometimes just too little to have importance -- the interactions with the people who are found just in front of me at each moment -- even if no one else even sees it, there is such worth in my choice to do these things with faithfulness. And that gives glory to God.
____________________
Today is Pentecost - the birthday of the first church - the day that the Spirit descended on the apostles and first followers, coming on them in power in a way that changed their lives (and all of ours) forever.
God is in the process of teaching me about prayer recently -- I'm reading A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller and I highly recommend it -- and when I was thinking about Pentecost this weekend the Lord organised some thoughts for me to share at church this morning (just at a briefing of the teams during setup, not before the congregation):
Prayer is a mystery - we cannot understand really the process, how it works, etc. But in Daniel 10:12, we see a clear example that prayer in fact causes things to move -- it says: "Then he said to me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.'" This was probably not the response that Daniel had been expecting to the situation, but his words caused things to move, something was put into motion by his praying: "I have come because of your words"!
In the Old Testament, we learn stories of the rare people who were as faithful as possible without Jesus, and how God chose to use them -- and he spoke with and listened to these people.
But that is the thing that Pentecost changed!
When Jesus died and resurrected, the giant, heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the people was destroyed and the obstacle between all of us and the Lord was removed.
When Jesus ascended and sent the Spirit to anoint the first believers, that gave us the new method of communication! The obstacle was no more, we are ALL the ones that God chooses to speak with and listen to because the Spirit is our power to pray. I especially love the reminder in Romans that, it is not only by the power of the Spirit that we pray, but the Spirit also prays for us when we don't know what to pray -- interceding for us when we have nothing but groans. (Anyone else been clinging to that when our hearts groan brokenly at the news of more lives lost too frequently?)
Our words are heard by the living God and these words cause things to happen. It may not look like we expect, we don't know how it works, but prayer puts things - in me and in the world - in motion.
Wow. What a reminder I need to actually do it.
____________________
French update:
Fun fact - both the section about everyday faithfulness and the section about Pentecost I had to translate into English because both of those are things I shared in front of groups of people, writing and delivering them in french!
And related to that fun fact - my english brain is becoming mushier as my french mush becomes slightly more solid. So forgive my weird sentence structure at times, and I tried to catch it if I ever used french words mixed in but might have missed some.
And I went to a baby shower for about 4 hours today and existed close to entirely in french, managing to follow most things, express myself almost every time I wanted to, and did not leave with a headache or feeling totally overwhelmed/spent!
Y'all. Such progress.
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