Exotic vs Normal?

We all want to live an exotic life. We dream of traveling, seeing the world and having great adventures. Some say the grass will always be greener on the other side while others say that there's no place like home.
I have the great privilege of living what some would call an exotic life; I live in exotic countries, travel the world, have many adventures, and despite my young age I have seen more than most have seen in a lifetime. For me, this doesn't feel like an exotic life; for me it just feels like my life. For me, this is normal, mostly because it's the only one I've got.
What I consider exotic is what you consider normal. I think about moving to Georgia, to some small town, settling down and raising a family. I think about fishing on the weekends, having a career, a house, and a family. But then I remind myself that, as good as that is, it's not for me; it's not what God called me to...at least not right now.

I met a woman before I left for New Zealand who was in her late 60s; she told me that when she was 20 years old the Lord told her to go to India and she didn't, instead she got caught up in another kind of life. With tears in her eyes she told me that she has regretted not obeying God everyday of her life since. Over 40 years of regret!

Why live in regrets? Why not love the life the Lord's given you?

Waiting...

2Peter 3:9 -"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you..."

Why should He wait- why not act at once? Because something in us hinders. We cannot enter into spiritual blessings till we are made capable of them by faith...God has the right time for help...He never gives the wrong medicine. His waiting is full of work to fit us to receive His grace. It is not a mere passive standing by, till the fit conditions are seen in us; but He is exalted while He waits. He Who prepares a place for us is preparing us for the place. He who has grace which He is ready to give us here, is making us ready for His grace. The measure of all God's work in us is to form a character fit to possess His highest gifts...the waiting desire to which He responds is directed to something better and greater than any gifts from Him, even to Himself, for it is they who wait for Him...who are blessed. The blessedness of such waiting, how it calms the heart, brings into constant touch with God, detaches from the fever and fret which kill, opens our eyes to mark the meanings of our life's history and makes the divine gifts infinitely more precious when they do come...
- Alexander Maclaren's sermon God's Waiting & Man's

Why the South can make the best missionaries

Well the first and most obvious reason is good ole Southern hospitality; even a Yankee will admit that you just can't beat it. As a missionary you need to not only be hospitable but you need to be able to receive hospitality; this is absolutely essential especially when being received by other nations.

There is a level of manners and politeness that you can only find in a home-grown Southerner. We all say our "yes ma'am"s and "no ma'am"s, our "yes sir"s and "no sir"s. It has been deeply engrained in every Southerner by the belt, the soap, the switch, and the smack our mamas and daddys gave us when we forgot our manners.
Another part of this applies to strangers and people we can't stand. If you go down to the South you'll find you have people you've never met nodding a hello your way, people in the cars passing by will wave, and every person you pass on the street will ask you how it's going. This is something that you can't teach, it's just apart of our Southern DNA. When we Southern missionaries walk into a new place, you'd think we'd been there before cause of how friendly we are. Missionaries are also prone to live with groups of people but Southerners are the best community dwellers you'd ever meet, we may hate your guts but we ain't gonna let that stop us from being polite.

You can't scare us, no matter what food you put in front of us. Sure it won't be as good as mama's cooking but if our stomachs, arteries and bodies have survived all that grease, all these years then it doesn't matter what kind of scary ethnic food you put in front of us...we'll survive. We'll wash it down with a glass of ghetto sweet tea we had to make with these Red Coat's tea bags and sugar cubes.

Because the South is so warm and because once upon a time they won one little war (supposedly that gives them territorial rights), we are accustomed to dealing with Yankee foreigners. So when it comes to living with other cultures and having to cope, shoot we ain't got no problem doing that...been dealing with foreigners for years.

Now I could go into our hard, farm-driven work ethic, our thick family values, and so on; but y'all already know that you can't go wrong with the South.

Have we learned nothing?

I reflect today on what happened 10 years ago and I can recall the fear that stirred within me as I watch the concept of war come off the pages of history.
We take time every year to stop and remember what happened to our nation on that day and give little attention to the hate it re-kindles. Something happened to our country that day; yes we were attacked but we engaged in a war that had many different battlefields, one of which has taken place in our hearts.
The enemy of our time has shifted from the Nazi regime to the terrorist and the Muslim nations; propaganda has a new face, more clever and deceptive than before. Vengeance continually finds us as we feel an arousing need to pay "them" back for what they did to us. We celebrate the death of their leaders and honor those who carry their blood on their hands. And just like that we've forgotten everything; the lessons learned in history have faded in the light of our anger and fear.

Have we learned nothing? If we forget where we've come from and the battles we fought in our hearts so that freedom can truly be present in each of us, then we are doomed to repeat them and we will never have peace. Freedom can't always be protected by soldiers and wars, we must fight against racism and hate ourselves through our choices, speech and actions.
9/11 will always and forever be apart of our nation's past but it's never been, nor should it ever be, an excuse.

Do you love me?

I made this poster simply from playing around with a newly downloaded app but it has since left me speechless and has caused me to evaluate some things and revisit convictions, memories, and lessons. This poster says more than I can type, more than you can read. It speaks louder than I can raise my voice and further than any echo can carry. I can share what it means to me, but what is that to you? Take a few moments and find what it means to you.

Good Ol' Wisdom From Dr. Seuss

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.

If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

I’m afraid sometimes you’ll play lonely games too, games you can’t win because you’ll play against you

Accountable for Justice

Social justice is something that God has broken my heart for. Before the breaking, social justice was something that I saw as sad but I did not see it as my responsibility. So when the flood of conviction came there was no other option than to be wholly devoted to it.

Scripture talks about "the age of accountability" and there is much speculation and debate about what age that is but basically it's when you're able to reason and understand right an wrong, the time when you are no longer ignorant and are held to account.
Scripture also says that it is a sin to know what you ought to do and not do it. Therefore, someone who has reached that level of accountability can do something, that is necessarily not disobeying a commandment, but if they know it's wrong in their heart and do it anyway then they are sinning.

So we can take all of that and apply it to matters of social justice, in fact, we must because all throughout Scripture there are hundreds upon hundreds of commands and teachings on how to live justly; on how we're to care for the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, the poor and needy, etc. I believe that there is a point of accountability that comes into play here as well because back in the times all of this was written the unjust treatment of such people was common and it would have been known to them, but today in our Western society we are almost completely oblivious to those kind of things because, in our minds, they're taken care of or they simply don't exist (to our knowledge). But the point at which you cross the line from honest and true ignorance to knowing then you are accountable.

Now I'm not so much addressing those who know nothing of social justice issues and who genuinely do not know, but rather I'm addressing those who do know and who (for lack of a better word) half-ass it.

I think that it's awesome that people are becoming more aware and are changing how they live; it's a gruesome process to go from knowing nothing to then go to knowing so much and dealing with the guilt of purchases and ignorance. I think that it's worthy of honor and praise that people are doing things about these issues, speaking out against them, and taking a stand in whatever way they know how. I don't dare discourage or put down anyone who is trying! The one who is out rescuing sex slaves is of no greater value or importance than the one who is praying for them back at home!

Now that I've said that and made all of that clear, I'll get to the point I'm trying to make. What confuses/disturbs/bothers me is seeing people who profess to stand for social justice and yet deliberately ignore what they know to be wrong. The woman who knows that people are exploited by coffee manufacturers yet she continues to buy coffee she knows is not fairly traded. The man who knows that people are enslaved by cocoa companies and yet he continues to buy their chocolate. The girl who knows that the clothes she's putting in her cart were made by people in a sweat shop and yet she still carries them to the check out line.

It's almost impossible to know if something is truly fair. Say you want to buy a shirt, the company may pay it's workers who sewed the shirt a fair wage and they may give them fair housing and treat them well but what about the people who harvested the cotton? What of the people who made the fabric? There are so many links in the chain that it makes it so incredibly difficult to truly know. But that doesn't mean we give up. We're accountable for what we know. Being unwilling to find out more and to listen isn't right either; if you avoid truth just to avoid being held accountable to it; do you not also think that you will be held accountable for that avoidance?

I'm not saying it's easy, I'm not saying it's cheap either, but if you are going to stand and profess that you are taking a stand against injustice then do it with all your heart letting your yes be yes and your no be no.