Accessible

"Condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their vitues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their frienship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowest offices to the lowest of mankind."-William Law

A friend of mine and I were talking last night about the importance of truly being a friend. I struggle with actually what it looks like and we discussed several important aspects of it. This quote above being the backbone of my beliefs, accessibililty and anticipating needs would be core values I believe encompase the essence of true friendship. Even in regards to seasonal friends the same values should still be applied. Accessibility to me is so key to being a friend- someone that you know you can get in touch with fairly quickly if you need them; someone you can rely on; someone you know is willing to drop less important (in an eternal mindset) things and come to your aid if need be. But, as my friend pointed out, you can be too accessbile to people. I think I've never realized that before until he said it last night. I think that's one of my biggest problems- I'm either unaccessible or too accessible. When I start out being friends with someone I'm all about helping and being useful. I'd do just about anything that person asks and I'm more than willing to overlook any misgivings or inconsistencies. But over time I think it's either because I take that person for granted or because I stop overlooking their errors (and who doesn't make them?) and I am less available and willing to that person. Maybe I'm admitting something to you that causes you to cringe because you haven't had this happen, (it's not this extreme!) but I think we forget how much love the savior has for us that we should be liberally applying to our friends. And this is no short list of people, but how do you love everyone equally, yet be allowed to have an inner-circle?

Wisdom

"For whoever finds me [wisdom] finds life and obtains favor from the Lord" (Prov8:35)..."The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (9:10) These verses fit to me. Look at the pattern- there's such concrete, workable answers to be found. I always am thinking or saying things like I want to be wise or I want to be kind, nice, humble. But how to I "do" that? What does being wise look like, how to I get there? Even more than that what do we all want? Well I can't answer for you but I want life. I want freedom to be so content with myself that I'm always comfortable, always joyful. I want to live fully and with abandon to whatever I love and however things are working out to be happy. So on that note, that's how these verses stuck out to me. I was reading proverbs the other day and this is where I came across these two verses. It works itself out in reverse order so follow me. 8:35 Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord... ok so to find life, since we've established "finding life" as the big goal here, the highest place of joy on earth, to find life we've got to find wisdom. Ok, so then if you go on to 9:10 it says The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.. ok so we have to fear God to gain wisdom. Then it says the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Insight into knowing how to fear God is knowledge of God. Well we obtain knowledge of God by reading scripture and spending time in prayer or just in God's presence. Being in God's presence is just sitting, clearing our heads of our stuff and trying to concentrate on who God is.

SO there's the answer to life. We want to gain life and God's favor. We start out by reading the Bible, spending time in prayer and just sitting, literally, with God. By doing that we gain insight which is the knowledge of the Holy One. By gaining this knowledge we start to fear God and gradually begin to obtain wisdom. Then we find life because For whoever finds wisdom finds life. I think God has given us such a great tool in the Bible that I often don't take advantage of. I also think that a key to understanding the Bible is being willing to be open, to not come in with preconceived notions on what we think God is but to be willing to let it mold our opinion.

Ubuntu

I learned this today in my African Religions class and since I really enjoyed it and I have a few Africa lovers who read this I thought I would share.

Ubuntu stands for the African anthropology and cosmo-vision of life in community. The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu in the following way:

"It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them."

Although I do not have time to unpack this statement to you as I would like, I think it is brilliant that so many things scream God in some many ways. Not to say that this statement is Christian or totally right, but to say that it's a great thing to strive to be this person who has proper self-assurance that does not feel threatened when others thrive. We can learn so much from other cultures and peoples that can make us better people by taking the time to listen to their wisdom.

Doing Good

I went to Camp Norris this weekend, it was one of the most reviving weekends I've had in a long time. It was the kind of weekend that awakens the soul and motivates you to strive harder to live more fully and to realize that this life is so great. Camp Norris is a friend of mine's lake house, a cute little name we put on it because it's such a fun place.

I came into the weekend with a lot on my mind. I know that doesn't shock you, when am I not comtemplating something, but recently I've been thinking about the complexity of leading the Christian life IN this world but not OF this world. I live in a college setting that begs to be loved, to be cared for, to have someone to depend on. I live in a setting that needs stability, that needs to know that there is a God that is so great that He's worth giving our lives to because there's joy there and eternal satisfaction. "But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God;" (ps 73:16-17a) This is where I am, and when I read this I sympathized with Asaph a great deal when he speaks of our great envy of the rich, the "happy", the outgoing- you know in a college setting they would be the people who go out a lot, the ones who always have something to do and we envy them because of the number of friends they have and the number of phone calls they get. It seems so lame reading it here on this screen, but it's such a huge struggle I have. But what great comfort that Asaph had the same struggle and you know what he did? He took it to God, he took it all to God and realized that in God we have everything we need. I think a lot of our tasks can seem wearisome when we realize how much we need to be doing to really make a difference in the world around us, but when we take it ALL to God it makes it much easier to bare the burden and our laundry list of good deads doesn't seem so draining, it seems filling. If in dealing with one who does not respond, I weary of the strain, and slip from under the burden then I know nothing of Calvary love. Amy Carmichael

A Prayer

"God teach me to be constant but not overwhelming, uplifting but not pedistaling, encouraging but not flattering, challenging but not demanding, honest but not forceful, gentle but not soft, meak but not lame, joyful but not overzelous, motivating but not nagging, peaceful but not oblivious, and above all to love friends the way I ought to love them and not for personal gain." I don't know if you go through hard times, I'd imagine you do, but I'm going through one. I have this crossroads of how I want to love a friend and how I should love a friend. I won't go into detail, but I bet you've been to that crossroad, even if not in the same story. It's this great desire that we have to be care about, loved and honored by other people. Sure affirmation and care are vital from people in our lives, why would God show us such community in the Bible, but there is always a point when you get close enough to a friend that you have to choose to love them over keeping them. What I mean is the hardest thing about friendship is being the friend you need, they need you to be above what they want you to be. We can be feel-goody, affirming friends all the time which is always great to have an encourager, but we also sometimes have to love them in a hard way, a way that you must choose to be ok with that person not taking well what you have to say but you know that you still have to say it. It's a choice, do you love them enough to choose the path that's best for them and maybe not seemingly best for you, or do you go on not loving them fully because you're scared to lose them? It's a general statement, I realize, but maybe you understand what I've saying.

Shields Carried Away

"So Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze and committed them to the hands of the offices of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard came and carried them and brought them back to the guardroom. And when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction. Moreover, conditions were good in Judah" (2 Chron 12:9-12). I look at these verses and the preceding ones and resonate with Rehoboam. Verse one of chapter twelve says "When the rule of Rehoboam was established, and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord." That's where he went wrong- How often do good things happen in my life and I no longer "need" God? Sadly, I'd say it happens a lot. I'm walking into a new setting- a restaurant, a party, a new class or something else and I'm nervous, feeling self-conscious about my personality or looks and my instinct is praying that God would make it all ok. Then when I am comfortable or I find lots of happiness in that setting I lose that initial dependence on God and go about no leaning on Him until I "need" Him next. But God is not a God to be used at our pleasure, He is the God of plans and great purpose. So He levels Rehoboam and Judah in this part of our history. That not to say that God will level us, as though He's the grumpy Father who has a great temper for punishment, oh no, but to say that He knows how to bring us back to His side. But of this story what stuck out to me was the shields- these precious and very valuable shields his father made had now been taken away; he desperately makes bronze shields but he is forced to humble himself to God. Isn't this exactly like me? I cringe as I think of all the defenses, all the shields I put up around my life daily, putting out a stiff arm to vulnerability. I use all my own strengths and draw them together to war on my personal enemies taking up the meager shield I have made. God continues to pull those shields down but I keep making new ones, even pitiful ones of far less strength and worth. How sad. How truly sad that I CAN reach Rehoboam's ending of this story so much quicker by allowing the Bible to teach me its wisdom. Look, "when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him." He wasn't destroyed, although he should have taken his own lesson to heart later in life. But we can learn from him- In God's presence there is FULLNESS of joy and without God the situation is not pretty, read it yourself.

Held in Awe

For Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be held in awe above all gods. (1 Chronicles 16:25) This verse struck me tonight, after the line of other verses preceding it. I wonder because what do I hold in awe above God? I was thinking along those lines tonight as I sat talking with some friends about ministry and having the time in college to devote to working to specifically spread knowledge about Christ. In early years I thought I was on earth to enjoy life and soak up all it had to offer. Then in more recent years I've adopted this I'm here in college to study and have a little fun on the side for sure mindset. But you know? That's still not why I'm here. Sure I can glorify God in my studies- that's a common misconception that I don't think we all realize- that in ALL things we can glorify God. But I'm not here to study, I'm here to Glorify God. That means allowing Him to reign and control time. Control the hours in my day to devote toward where He would have me be, not where I think is best. Am I holding in awe getting an A in that class over Glorifying God? Am I holding in awe trying to hang out with friends as much as possible over being where He would have me? There are so many things that are great things to do but still can be held in awe above God if we are not totally looking to him for our daily necessities- right down to the core details of what to do with each moment we have. Seek the Lord and His Strenth; seek His Presence CONTINUALLY! (vs.11)