Today is October 9, which is my grandpa’s birthday, even though the last couple of years have been his heavenly birthday.  Today if he was alive, he would have been 73 years old.  This would be kind of nice because his birthday would have landed on a Sunday.  We would have probably gotten together as a family to celebrate.  I would have hand-made you a card to tell you how much I love and appreciate you.  You certainly were one of a kind, and you were the best grandpa in the world.  

My grandpa loved roads.  He worked on county roads for years, and he loved to teach so many people, especially me, my mom, and my aunt Cindy, who were his daughters, about the creation of roads.  There are special techniques and important items one needs to know if they are going to create a perfect road.  One that can receive awards from the state for being smooth.  My grandpa received such awards for his special ability to make our northwest Iowa country roads enjoyable for all drivers. 

Our school had been doing road construction. This was recently finished, and the road is now smooth where it used to be rough and had many potholes.  I bet my grandpa would have loved to have seen that work completed.  I bet he would have enjoyed hearing that now my school has a new road.  We would have definitely had to test drive over it the next time he would have been in town.  He would have had to rate whether or not he thought it was good road quality.  

One thing you need to know if you ever want to work on roads and to just have basic knowledge about how roads work is that cement is an ingredient in concrete.   Many times people will use them interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. Cement, rock or soil or gravel, and water are the only three ingredients that make up concrete.  Cement is the main binder between all the other ingredients.  Cement is the ingredient or the glue that keeps everything together.    

I believe we can look at cement as a main ingredient in concrete in our Christian walk.  Cement is like love.  I know, I know,  this may sound weird, but when we think about our Christian walk and the reasons we are walking with Jesus, the main ingredient we need in this hard, not one with the world walk is love.  Love is going to be the main ingredient that holds everything else together.  Without love, the other items of the Christian walk would easily fall apart.  

This idea of love being the main ingredient is mentioned endlessly in the Bible.  There is the first and second commandment, where we are called to love God with all of our hearts, minds, souls and body and then we are also called to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Jesus will later state that these two commandments are the two most important and the ones held in the highest regard.  This is because all of the other commandments will fall under these two commandments.  The main component and ingredient in this walk of Christian living is to love.  

I say this because I believe we as Christians can get stuck at times in the walk of legalism.  Legalism means here that we only do things such as pray, read the Bible, go to church, and follow all the rules that we can think of in the Bible out of obligation, not with a desire.  It is important to become reflective and think about how we approach this life and this Christian walk.  Are we living from a place of love or are we doing it because we know that would make our families proud or we feel it is the right thing to do, or we are trying to impress someone else?  None of those reasons will keep us sticking to God.  None of those concrete mixes have cement in them.  

It is highly important to follow God’s commandments.  They are there for a reason, but it will be so much easier to follow God’s commandments when we love the creator of those commandments.  This is even said in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, the one who loves me will also be loved by my Father and I too will love them and show myself to them.”  This directly says that whoever loves God will keep his commandments.  They will not be easily followed without the love of God there as the main component.  Just as cement is the main ingredient in concrete, so the love of God is the main ingredient in the Christian walk. 

I have watched/listened to two recent events that have led me to realize we sometimes can try to force God’s promises to happen.  We can know God’s promises, and instead of trusting that he will keep his promises, we instead believe we need to somehow do the work that only he can do.  Neither one of these moments have been my life experience, so I can easily start looking at character’s choices as wrong and bad.  However, I soon came to realize that I can do the exact same thing. 

The first one is me watching the show, the bachelorette.  Yes, I love that show.  Is it the most Christ-centered show, absolutely not.  Why do I like it?  I don’t know.  However, there are moments where I can get so frustrated with the people on the show.  One of the bachelorettes of this season (this season there were two bachelorettes-never been done before for those who have never watched the show) was a woman who was so focused on getting married and particularly getting engaged by the end of the season.  She became so focused that she broke it off with a wonderful man because he wasn’t ready to propose at the end of the show. 

This made me realize how much some people will put into marriage and that it is somehow needed to be there in order for others to feel accepted into the world.  Why does she feel the only way to be complete is to have a man promised to her forever?  Why couldn’t she be content with a boyfriend till the timing was right? She gave away a chance with a guy she could love forever and really have it work out, but she decided she had to be engaged at that moment. She couldn’t wait a month longer.  This bachelorette did end up getting engaged to a different guy, and she would end up having a broken engagement.  

The second event happened when I met with my discipler.  We are reading a book about women of the Bible.  The two women that we focused on this week were Sarah and Hagar.  These two women were very flawed. Rachel wanted a baby, with a dying passion.  She wanted to be a mother, and culturally at the time, she wanted to be away from the shame of being barren.  Even though she was promised that she would be a mother, she decided to take matters into her own hands and decide to have her slave bare her a child through her husband instead.  What a choice! That is surely a way to take matters into your own hands.   

Believe it or not, this did not end well.  Jealousy, anger, and insecurity reared their ugly head.  Sarah believed Hagar was hoarding her pregnancy over her.  Because of this, Sarah became very harsh with Hagar even while she was pregnant.  Hagar would run away from the home, and only the love of God brought her back home to Sarah and Abraham. God had promised Sarah a baby, and she would receive her promise.  Fourteen years later, Sarah’s dreams came true when she, in her very old age, would become a mother.  She would have a baby, and like she agreed with God, she would name him Isaac.  

It can be easy to look at these two examples as complete extremes. We are not in these usual life experiences.  We are not on a reality show, and we most likely don’t have a woman we would choose to have a child with our husbands. However, we can all get so tired of waiting for God’s promises or waiting for God’s timing, that we start to stress over how we can achieve certain things on our own.  I know my particular struggle is whether or not God will really use me in the place of work that he has set aside for me.  The Lord has promised to use me to advance his word.  I need to remember to lean into the areas where he is leading me and know he is helping make ways for me to be a light for him.  

One verse that really highlights waiting for the Lord is found in Psalms 27:13-14, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  This was a psalm that was written by David.  David, while he was a king, did not necessarily always have a good life.  He had many enemies, and he had many who were after him, wanting to kill him.  He made mistakes, but he never lost faith in the Lord.  He alway stayed close to the Lord, which is why he was considered a man after God’s own heart.  This Psalm is a good reminder for all of us, to continually look for the good in the world, even when there are dark moments and there are dark people, to look for God.  There is also a song by Hope Durst called “Promise Keeper” that references the verses of Psalm 27:13-14.  Some of the lyrics to this song are “My eyes are gonna see, miracles and victories.  You are a promise keeper, and your word will never fail.”  How beautiful! 

God has never changed.  He is the same God who was with Sarah when she believed there was no way she could be a mother at such an old age.  He is the same God who promised her a child and provided.  He is the same God who provided a Messiah that was prophesied all through the Old Testament in order to save you and me.  He will also be the same God who will keep all of his promises that he makes to his people.  My challenge for you this week is to think about something that you are struggling to wait for God in.   Leave it at the altar and the hands of Jesus.  Bring him your concerns and the promises that you do not believe are going to be achieved.  Then, as challenging, as it can be, wait for God to fulfill his promises.  

Recently I have been reading the book of Job in the Bible during my devotionals in the morning.  I knew the book of Job was a good representation of how to act when in suffering, but rereading this book after I have experienced some of my own trials, I am even more invested and have learned more and more from Job. I will mention three main lessons that I personally learned from the book of Job.  There are countless others, but these are the three I want to highlight.  

One verse that stood out to me was Job 27: 3-4, “As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.”  Job had everything taken from him.  He all of sudden lost most of his livestock, his workers, his children and his health.  He was completely devastated.  This would be so easy to speak with hostility.  It would be so easy to start spewing hate or curses.  Job had to feel as though he was cursed, yet he refused to let those cursing thoughts go from his mouth.  He refused to say anything against God, and he refused to let his character go downhill, even though his life situation had. 

I will be very honest when I say, I struggle with my words.  I try so hard to get control of them, but when I am angry, I will often swear a lot underneath my breath or even vent and talk ugly about someone/something that has angered me.  This is not something I am proud of, and I am hoping it is something I can grow in.  Even this last week, I had a terrible day at work.  I was upset a majority of the day, and I swore a lot.  After I said a few of the swear words while venting, I decided to keep going.  Who cared?  I already swore today.  Then my mood just continued to get worse and worse.  I realized I did not care about the promise that Job made and not allowing any wickedness to pass through my lips and my tongue not giving any lies.  I want this verse to become a new mantra for me in the future.  

Another verse is Job 19: 25, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”  Again, Job has been through every bad item. He has gone through so much, yet he was so filled with joy about his future to come.  He knew, no matter how much he had suffered, that his redeemer, which is God himself, had a plan and knew he would ultimately be victorious over any evil in the world. Even though his life was ruined, he can look towards the real part of life that matters, and this would be the redemption and the saving of God, his Father. 

Something to realize about this particular truth of Job is that this was written before Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.  He did not have this particular story of Jesus dying and winning over evil.  All he had was the prophecy that one day a redeemer would come. Job had complete faith, and it shows, even amidst his extreme suffering.  Job had complete faith that evil would not win.  The evil and the pain of the world would not persevere because God was in complete control.  I will admit that I often can forget how much sovereignty my God possesses.  However, I can see that if Job was able to have faith in trying times, then so can I.  

Another truth that came towards the end of this book was found in Job 42:3, “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without my knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”  Job admitted in that moment that he does not understand all of God’s plans, like none of us do.  Job described God’s plan as something more wonderful than even he could understand.  Job knew that even though he was not enjoying his life in the present moment, he knew that God was in complete control.  

The best part of all of this was that God really blessed Job towards the end of his life, even more than he had initially blessed him before everything was taken from him.  This can serve as an encouragement that God has a plan that is filled with more wonderful things that we could ever know.  I know I personally have been struggling a lot with believing in God’s sovereignty.  Sometimes I can only see two steps ahead of me and when those steps seem bad, I can become discouraged.  There may be dark times in the future, but I can not even comprehend the wonder in the ultimate future.    

I have known the book of Job is a book that showcases dependence on God amongst the struggles and pains of life.  However, I had no idea that the story of Job showcased how to also create your morals even in the midst of struggle.  I had no idea it could be used as a way of looking to God for complete sovereignty and complete faith.  Life is not always easy.  There can be trials, sadness, tears, but through God we can learn to all experience joy.  There are things we do not understand, but God wants us to trust him so we can have complete love and hope.  My challenge for you is to read over the book of Job.  I am challenging you to find any life-truths that are in this book of the Bible. 

I love to read! I enjoy holding a book and enjoying the story that envelopes from the pages.  One of the many reasons I love to write is because I want others to be as inspired by the words I put on a page as I have been with countless other authors and writers.  I have grown in my love of reading over the last few years, and I am incredibly grateful for it.  While I used to only see myself reading books of fiction and make-believe, I have grown to love and adore works of nonfiction.  My favorite being memoirs.  These are not fake stories, but rather these are true stories of what has happened in a person’s life and what life lessons they have learned from them.  I would love to give you a little glimpse of just what I have learned about the world through my last few books I have completed.  I know that not every single person who reads my blogs is a book reader, but I hope through this blog post, you too can see a bit of a glimpse of what is happening in the world around us.  

One of my favorite books I have read recently is called, “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree.” This is about a young woman named Nice Leng’ete.  She was from a community in Kenya. While she loves her people, she does not agree with some of the customs and traditions of her culture.  One of these is genital mutilation done to young girls.  She also fights and speaks against marrying young girls off, accepting abuse towards wives, and limited availability for future education for those young girls.  She has created “A Nice Place Foundation” which saves many girls from genital mutilation and has increased many young girls odds to getting future education and living independent lives.  

This book opened my eyes to a different culture.  Her book highlights the intelligent and wonderful items of her culture, but she also creates awareness to some traditions that are very present in many different places that are hard on young girls.  As a woman, myself, and as a teacher to many young girls, I could not imagine that happening to any of the young girls I interact with.  The world can be hard enough without the acceptance of abuse and no hope of furthering education. I want my students, all of them to succeed.  I never want them to feel they can’t achieve anything.  I do especially want my female students to feel they can continue in their education and have smart contributions to bring to the table. 

This last book, “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree” was a good reminder that we can love a culture, a country, a group of people, yet disagree with certain ways some items are handled.  A book that is a good reminder of the problems in the United States is the “Invisible Child, ” by Andrea Elliott.  This book was following one particular family fighting through poverty in New York City.  This originally started as a newspaper article that would gain a lot of attention, and then would be extended to this book.  This book follows a young girl named Dasani Coates and her family.  She is smart, strong, and independent, but she and her family hit many struggles with poverty and addiction.  

Often we can judge those who are stuck in poverty.  We can believe they are the ones who have gotten themselves in this position.  They choose the place they are currently in life.  I will not deny that I believe Dasani’s parents did not necessarily make the best choices, but there were many times they were given the worst chances and received very little assistance.  This is also a good reminder that the parent’s mistakes should not go to the child.  The children are not in poverty for any choices of their own making. 

The last book I want to highlight is by pastor, David Platt. The book is titled, “Something Needs to Change.” David Platt cares a lot about fighting for the poor.  However, he is very honest about his challenging trip to the Himalayas.  He saw so much hurt, both physical and spiritual.  He heard about a village that has no young girls because they have been taken into sex trafficking, young boys chained up in the barn of their parent’s household, and villages almost being wiped out by diseases like chlorea-a totally preventable disease with good running water.  The story I am hearing from David was heartbreaking to read, and I could not imagine experiencing or hearing these stories that he did in person, myself.  

This book is a good reminder that God has called all of us to help the poor and the powerless.  There are struggles and there are many hurting in the world.  There are many who are away from God, who are sick, who are being enslaved or someone held against their will.  David highlights a Christian’s call to love and care for those around the world.  We are called to care for their physical needs, but more importantly we should be incredibly concerned about helping them with their spiritual needs.  We need to be more determined with bringing them to God and teaching them that Jesus is the way to ultimate salvation.  

In conclusion, it does not have to be reading, but I believe it is very important for us as God’s followers to be aware of what is going on in the world.  This is even mentioned in the Bible, in Proverbs 1:5, “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.”  This verse is a reminder that God loves when we take time to grow in wisdom.  With that wisdom we seek to gain, we can receive more guidance from Him for our next steps.  I know, not everyone reading this likes to read.  However, I do want to challenge all of you this week of finding something new about the world around you.  This could be a social justice issue, a mission group in a certain country and who they are seeking to help, or learning about a completely new and different group of people that share the world with you.    

My mind races a lot.  I can think about many different things at one time.  I know it is because I keep myself busy, and I like to keep busy.  However, I struggle to be distracted with my thoughts, even while I am spending time in my Bible Study and while at church.  This is the time when I am supposed to be the most focused, and yet I can find myself so distracted. I believe Satan is good about using any tactic that he can think imaginable to distract us from the Lord.  This could be the text we get during the service or the anxious list of items we know we need to accomplish before the night is over.  I have plenty of hours to think of it all when the service ends, but Satan is placing the anxiety in my heart at the exact moment when I am supposed to be spending time with God.  

This all brings me to one of my favorite stories and reminders of the Bible which is the time Jesus came to Mary and Martha’s house for supper.  Jesus was going to spend time with Mary and Martha because he loved them so much.  He wanted their time and their company.  Similarly to the company he wants from all of us.  However, Martha was BUSY.  She was making all the good food for Jesus to enjoy.  She was making sure the house was clean and presentable.  It is one thing to have regular human company come over to a messy house, but quite another to have the Lord, the God of the Universe and the King of the New Kingdom come over to your house when it is a disaster.  She had a lot to do.  I could sympathize with Martha.  I always try to keep myself busy and try to keep everything in order.  I love a long list, and I love getting to check any items off! 

Martha needed help, at least according to her.  She did not get that help from her sister though.  Mary was too busy spending time with Jesus.  Martha became frustrated with her sister, asking how she could sit while there was such a list to be accomplished.  How could she let her sister do all the work?!  The Lord took this time to remind her, though, that Mary is doing the right thing because she is spending time with God.  This is said in Luke 10:41-42, “But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  The Lord wanted to remind her that even though it was wonderful for her to care for the small things in the house, and to want to make him feel welcomed, he would rather she choose to be focused on him.  

There are a few steps I am taking to try to focus more during church.  I hope some of the steps I have taken would also be incredibly helpful to anyone else who struggles to focus when spending time with the Lord.  I have been working really hard at praying to avoid being distracted. I pray when I am doing my devotional so I can focus on the words that are in my Bible.  I need to make sure I do a better job at not getting distracted when I am in church.  Every time I go to church, I should make sure I pray to be completely focused on what the preacher is saying and how I can take the truth from the Bible in the sermon and apply it to my own life.  I have also done a better job at focusing on the sermon once I have started diving into note taking.  I was so happy a few years ago when I was challenged to take notes while listening to sermons.  Being able to find key points of the sermon and my action steps for the following week has helped grow me in learning from the sermon.  When I am focused on getting notes, it can be harder to fall into distraction.  

Satan is a very tricky and conniving being.  He wants to take away our comfort while we are sitting in the house of the Lord.  He wants us to be distracted by the anxieties and the evils of the world as opposed to growing closer to the God who is always present and always showing us love.  I would like to end this blog post with a prayer as one I hope to use to grow away from present distractions.

Dear Lord, 

Thank you for your love and your desire to spend time with us.  We are your creation, and you want to love us even when we easily get distracted and fall away.  I pray you will help me to not become distracted when I am spending time in your house.  I pray when I am spending time with you, I am less and less filled with anxiety and the overwhelming lists of things that need be done.  Please help me spend my time with you with my whole heart and presence.  This includes my complete presence, not just my physical presence.  I pray I can be more like Mary in the moments where I want to be more like Martha. 

I was hurt and I cried a lot.  People were hanging out without me.  They were having fun, and I wasn’t around.  They didn’t invite me.  I was nothing to them.  After all I have done for them! After all the presents I have bought for them! All the encouraging words! My tears went from tears of sadness to tears of anger.  My heart was quickly turning to stone, and then… God rescued me from myself.  If I stayed there in anger, I would have been filled with bitterness.  I would have been filled with hatred for so many people.  The ones that had hurt me and the ones who haven’t hurt me yet.  It was a yucky few hours. However, this is a good realization that many times we as people can be filled with bitterness.  In fact, I would say that every single person knows at least one person who is filled with complete bitterness.  They are really hard to be around, and they can make life situations really hard for others. 

The Bible has a lot to say about bitterness. In fact, the word bitter is mentioned at least 88 times in the Bible.  One of those times it is mentioned is from Ephesians 4:31, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” This verse is so direct.  There is not messing around with this verse and bitterness itself.  God wants us to get rid of all bitterness.  He doesn’t want us to be filled with any bitterness or anger.   God has taught us how to let go of bitterness through his continued love and forgiveness of our sins.  God wants us to be like him.  If he is willing to forgive us, then we need to be willing to forgive our enemies.  However, God also wants us to be willing to forgive because he knows being filled with bitterness will only hurt us.  It will not impact others as much as it will impact us.  It will impact our thoughts and inflict our heart.  We will not be filled with joy and peace, as he had designed for us.

I believe there are many ways to avoid bitterness taking root in our hearts.  The first is to feel your feelings, but in the healthiest way possible.  I wasn’t invited by people I loved people I have helped in the past, supported, and been there for.  Why didn’t they want me there?  I cried.  I cried to other people.  I talked it out, both by myself, and with others.  I was a bit angry.  I even said some swear words.  (I am not the proudest of that.)  However, in the end, I got out my emotions.  I didn’t stuff those emotions down.  I didn’t try to pretend they weren’t there.  I didn’t act as though everything was ok.  

Then I was tired.  Have you ever been so tired from your own emotions?  Have you ever cried so much that you have developed a headache.   I not only was tired, like I wanted to go to bed, but I also was then tired of being angry.  Then I did some actual thinking.  I thought about other’s perspectives.  I tried to understand their rationale and their thinking process.  This is where I really had to decide if I was going to put the emotions into my heart and let it harden my heart or let it soften my heart.  I had to become more aware of the people around me.  I had to take myself out of the center and become willing and open to forgive people I do really love. 

I then spent some time praying. If I was going to be willing to allow forgiveness to enter my heart, then I needed God’s help.   Here is what I would highly recommend.  I know we can believe God is too big and too perfect in order to care about our small little problems.  I believe we can think about God being a big God, yes, but also he cares about everything that is happening in his world.  He is caring about the little things, and he is caring about the big things.  He cares about and loves his people, so he cares about any of your concerns.  

I lastly told another believer what I learned from this experience.  Because I avoided allowing bitterness to enter my heart and my life, it was still a very big learning experience.   I needed to spend time talking to other believers to get advice and thoughts as to how to best continue in this new found joy, peace, and forgiveness.  One of those believers was my mom.  I had already talked to my mom when I was in the midst of crying, but then I talked to her again about how much I wanted to not be bitter.  Godly brothers and sisters in Christ were meant to help us in any stage of life.  Please find a person who is willing to listen to you in the midst of becoming bitter.  This is not an easy path to resist, and it is much harder on your own.  

If there is any bitterness you personally feel is growing in your heart, I pray you will find peace instead.  I do want to challenge you to think about the items that may cause you bitterness.  What are the things that when you think about, put you in a bad head space?  Who is a person that always brings up anger and resentment in your heart?  Then I do want you to spend time in prayer over those very items.  Bitterness is such a soul crushing experience.  I don’t want your heart to be weighed down by thoughts of bitterness.  I pray God will fill you with his forgiveness that can then be pushed out to the broken world amidst us. 

I am 27 years old and I have never dated anyone. I have always considered myself confident in my singless, but I am struggling a bit more with my singleness as of late.   I am starting to doubt God really has the best plan for me and sometimes this can lead me to have anxiety.  I am still a big believer God can use you in your singleness and singleness is a blessing, but it has overall been harder for me to live out this blessing mentally.  I know I want someone to love me and someone to tell me all the words I want to hear.  I want to hear that I am beautiful, smart, talented, and worth it.  I need to remember that no matter how much it would be nice to have a human man in my life to tell me those things, it would not be near as great as when the Lord, my Heavenly Father tells me those things.  I may not always listen to him, but he is saying these things to me all the time, and he is telling you words of encouragement as well.  They are all over in His word.  

The Lord tells me I am beautiful.  One of my favorite verses comes from Psalm 139: 13-14.  This says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.”  God took the time to put together how we look.  He did not just throw pieces together and this is how we ended up.  He purposely put us together and wanted us to be unique and beautiful in every way.  God is a Creator.  He takes care of His creations, which means he took care of me and took care of you, too.   

The Lord tells me I am smart.  Proverbs 2:6 says, “For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.” God continually allows us to be challenged.  This isn’t because he hates us or doesn’t love us, but he knows we are capable. We are capable in part because of the mind he has given us.  He again has blessed us with the Holy Spirit who helps us discern and problem solves on a regular basis.  This Holy Spirit has also given us power and creativity.  The Lord has blessed us to be wise and smart, and this is especially true when we rely on Him.  We may make mistakes, but this doesn’t mean we can’t learn from these mistakes and grow wiser and wiser.  He has given us this capability.  

The Lord tells me I am talented.  There are many times in the Bible when God reminds us to use our gifts to please him.  One of those is Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ, Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” These gifts he is referring to are our talents and interests, and our spiritual blessing gifts.  God has given us a Holy Spirit that is powerful and has the wonderful fruits of the spirit such as kindness, patience, self-control, gentleness, etc.  These are talents.  They are not easy to share with the world, especially amidst the sin and the lies that are given by Satan.  However, they are incredibly valuable and need to be shared with the world.  These gifts make each one of us, as God’s children, talented.  

The Lord tells me I am worth it.  I want someone to make me feel like I am worth taking the time to get to know, worth spending time with, worth giving up things for, etc.  I quickly can forget how often God shows me I am worth it. There will be no one who would be able to fight for me or show me I am worth it more than Christ when he died on the cross for our sins.  This is said perfectly in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We are not perfect.  We are actually quite filled with sin, but God chose to save us and rescue us despite all of our sins.  Through this action and his many other blessings, He is constantly reminding us we are worth it.  

I need to remember that even if I were to get married, I would still be marrying a human man.  They have sins, shortcomings, and issues of their own that we will need to work through, as I do.  Regardless of your marital status, we as people need to rely on the Lord.  This does not change when we get married or when we have kids.  The Lord’s love and his words stay the same.  I hope this week, regardless of your position in life, God created you for a special purpose and reason, and he has put you in this particular situation for a reason.   There is a God who wants to encourage you and help you, regardless of where you are in your life. 

I recently finished a book that I would highly recommend called, “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree,” by Nice Leng’ete.  It was amazing.  It was a true story about a young girl from Kenya, from the Maasai tribe that runs away from a tradition that maybe isn’t practical or healthy.  She talks highly of her people but also acknowledges that there are some traditions we can have in different societies that are not good for the people the tradition is serving.  She ran away from this particular tradition, (female circumcision) and even when she was shunned after, she still went back to her community in order to talk to them about why this particular tradition is wrong. It took some time, but she was able to get the elders to listen. 

Nice loved her father.  He died at a young age, before she was in the midst of changing tradition her community followed, but she remembers the messages and lessons he taught her before he died.  Her father taught her to listen more and talk less, especially when discussing items with people who disagree or think differently than you.  We are not going to change their opinion by coming in and telling them they are exhibiting incorrect behavior or that their opinions/traditions/thoughts are flawed.  We need to be willing to listen to their point of view and then be able to ask questions in order to fully understand them better.  This will get the people to trust us enough to listen, when offering advice or thoughts of our own.  

It is important for me to remember that God is a listener, and therefore, he teaches us how to be a listener as well.  Jeremiah 29:12 reminds us, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”  God says that we can go to Him, and he will not only hear us, but he listens and cares about the words we bring up to him.  He is an all-powerful, all-knowing God, yet he spends the time listening to the little conversations and the little thoughts of the people here on the earth.  

I am a talker.  My mom and dad will often tell me they are impressed by my ability to talk, non-stop for hours.  This then is a good reminder for me, when I am with others, I need to make sure I am giving them the chance to talk and speak their thoughts.  I need to give them a chance to give their perspective and their opinions, before I give my own.  Just as God has shown us his example of listening, we are also commanded in the Bible to listen to those around us.  James 1:19 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” While I do love to talk, I need to remember that listening is incredibly important for developing relationships with others and with God, himself.  

The other piece of listening Nice will bring up has more to do with cross-nation/international conversations, specifically amongst those in the west versus the east. Nice will describe throughout the book about working with a company called Amref that is an African sponsored company employing Africans to help other Africans.  It is highly important to them that their own people are willing to go out and make lives better for others in their country.  Nice brings up that westerners will often try to come over, help for a week or two, and then they will leave because their short term trip is over.  She is not trying to shame those people, and neither am I in this blog post, however, I do believe it is important to think about these short term mission trips from the perspectives of a group of people who are the recipients of mission trips.  

I have gone on mission trips before.  I went to Hungary and taught at an English camp when I was in my freshman year of college.  It is very important for those of us who live in the west to be aware that it is not our job to go to another country, stay for two weeks, and then fix all their problems to be like they are running in the United States.  Make everything in that country run like the states or the west does. Sometimes we can think that we have all the answers. We don’t need to learn.  We don’t need to listen.  We don’t need to think of a new way to live or to think. This is a good reminder that the countries we visit shouldn’t be created like the countries in the west.   They are not us.  They are their own country, and we need to respect that they have different solutions and will have different cultures or traditions.  

This is not just an important reminder for us when we are out on mission trips, but in any other way we are seeking to share Jesus, or we are seeking to help someone.  We don’t have to put ourselves on a pedestal and act as though we are the saviors in the situation.  We are simply someone there from God who is helping someone else.  One of the best ways to continuously be humble in helping others is through listening.  Spending time listening to others around, gives us new perspectives and shows us different ways to love. And all of this is Praise be to God.   

These past few weeks have given me a new perspective on community.  This last week I was on the high school rewards trip with the Bridge of Storm Lake’s high school volunteers.  This was a lot of time together as a group and as a small community.  Then this weekend I had the Bison days which is a day of celebration for my small town of Buffalo Center.  I ran in the 10k race, helped face paint for the kids in the park, and went to the French toast breakfast fundraiser for the ambulance committee.  Overall, these little town celebrations show the town’s desire to celebrate the people that live there.  There is a calling to be together and spend the weekend.  Even when our lives are busy, we need to make time to communicate and have a lot of fun with those that are around us.    

I am currently reading a book called “This Outside Life,” by Laurie Kehler.  It has been a wonderful book about finding joy when looking at and interacting with nature.  One chapter I read recently was titled, “Campfire,” and this had a complete focus on community and the importance of it in our walk of life.  Laurie conducted research on the importance of community for her book chapter.  She writes, “Community is the invisible vitality vitamin that researchers are just now discovering.  In many studies on why certain people live so long and so well, the power of community has emerged as just as valuable as diet and exercise.”  The research has also found that one surrounded with community has a greater potential to overcome anxiety, depression, and addictions.  

There are many who are suffering from anxiety and depression because of the time spent apart from society for months amidst the years of 2020 and 2021.  There is also more and more behaviors that are becoming harder and harder to handle for those who are in schools or involved in nonprofit/social work.  There are more and more people who want to quit their jobs because of the amount of stress.  There are businesses that are shutting down because of lack of employment or lack of customers.  We are struggling.  We are hurting.  We are trying to fix these issues in any way that we can than through actually spending time together.  We spend time on our phones trying to block out the pain, but in reality isolating oneself only makes matters worse.    

The Lord created the importance of community and even showcases this in the Bible.   One example is from 1 Corinthians 1:10, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”  It would be incredibly difficult to not have any argument amongst one another.  We all have different opinions and thoughts that make harmony incredibly difficult.  However with the Lord’s help, it can be easier to focus our energy on loving one another instead of creating divisions amongst ourselves.  

Some way I have tried to become more involved in the community is finding ways to volunteer.  There are always ways to volunteer in communities.  This can be big communities or small communities.  I, of course, started out with volunteering at school events.  Since I am a teacher, I knew the best way to get to know the kids and their parents, as well as other coworkers was through helping out at the sporting events.  They have some at least once a week, so there are lots of opportunities.  

Another big way to become more involved in one’s  community is to spend time outside when it isn’t terribly cold or unbearable outside.  (This is, at least the issue of where I live during a lot of the months of the year).  It is amazing how many people you have the opportunity to interact with, when you are outside.  While on walks, I will often run across others I can have conversations with.  I also will often find people to talk to while golfing.  While running or biking, I always have someone I can wave and/or smile at.  You will not find the community while sitting inside your house.  The best way to see others is to go amongst the area we all share-the outdoors.  

Lastly, I believe it is important to pray over your community.  Just like in everything, the main way that you are going to really make an impact on your community is through Jesus Christ.  Spending time lifting up the problems of your community is the best way to fix them.  If there is something that God wants you to do throughout your community, he will make it known to you through the Holy Spirit after time spent in prayer. Remember to thank God and show gratitude for the community He has given you.  He put those people in your life for a reason.  It is always important to show gratitude for them.    

My challenge for you this week is two things.  The first is to spend time in prayer over your community.  What are the issues in your community that need to be prayed over?  What are the blessings or the praises that you also want to lift up to the Lord?  Then I would like to challenge you to think about ways you can be involved in your community.  What is a way that you can volunteer?  What are some ways that you can help out or interact with others in your community? This can even be spending time talking to your neighbors.   It does not have to be big, but what is one thing this week that you can do that you didn’t do last week when it comes to interacting with your community, and then go do it. 

This past week was interesting for me, and I have felt a bit under fire.  I don’t necessarily have anyone say anything to me about my beliefs.  I have never had anyone question why I am a Christian to my face, but I see a lot on social media.  I have some friends on Facebook post that they are done or want to be done with Christians or evangelical Christians, or that they don’t believe they should share their ideas and thoughts.  I know it is a lot easier for people to put ideas and thoughts out there on social media rather than say it to someone’s face, but I know it is only a matter of time before I start to receive questions about the beliefs that I have and why I have them.  

I need to be able to answer the question, why am I a Christian.  This should not be that I was brought up in the church, so I stayed.  Yes, my mom and grandma brought me to church every week, but I don’t think that can constitute why I am a Christian currently.  In the last few years, I have made going to church, being a part of Bible Studies, and spending time with the Lord a regular part of my life because it is something that I want in my life.  However, if someone asked me today randomly on the street as per why I am a Christian, would I have an answer for them?  Would I be able to represent the reason well?  Would I be able to plant a seed by my answers into the hearts of those who are listening to my response? I want to be ready, so I am taking the time to write down my responses here. 

I am a Christian because I believe in the morality of Christian living.  It can be hard.  I don’t always like being the friend in my friend group who doesn’t get drunk or who doesn’t party it up completely, but I also know that it is enjoyable to be the in the right state of mind without any other influences.  It is hard to have that self-control, but I also am happy that I am in control of my body and mind as often as I am able.  I also love the message of being a loving, kind soul.  The thought of being filled with grace, mercy, patience, peacefulness, and love is a wonderful goal that I can strive for with the help of the Holy Spirit through Christ.  It is wonderful to be paired with these words.  It is wonderful to help those who are in need.  I know it makes others feel good when I help or care about them, but it really does make me feel better as well.  

I am a Christian because I know that God loves us so much that he became our Savior when we can’t save ourselves.  I was at church this last week when my Pastor Eric was commenting about a shirt he saw at a recent festival.  This shirt said in part, “working hard to make it to heaven.”  My pastor commented on just how much that doesn’t work.  He said we don’t get to take any of the credit for our own salvation.  We are given our own salvation through God himself, and this belongs to himself completely and his glory.  He is the one who is freely giving us happiness in heaven for the rest of our existence, even when we don’t deserve it.  If I were not a Christian, I would be working hard with the belief that this would get me to heaven, when it is not even close to the truth.  

I am a Christian because I believe there is more to this world than the one that we are currently living in.  I know that God has planned a place for all of us believers to be with him for eternity in heaven.  This is even said in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”  The Lord loves us enough that he WANTS us to be with him for the rest of eternity.  While the world and the days may seem long, they will not even compare to how long eternity will be. 

My challenge for you this following week is to think about the reasons that you are a Christian.  What is it about being a Christian that has brought you to the place that you are?  Are you able to easily answer why you are a Christian if someone asks?  It can be hard and take a lot of courage to respond to the question of why we are a Christian in a world or society where Christians are not appreciated, but having these thoughts ready can help us amidst the scary moment.  

It is also incredibly important to be able to voice these thoughts and our convictions with harmony and with grace.  We do not want to yell or swear at the ones who have asked us why we are a Christian.  It is highly important that we represent the Lord well.  If someone does not agree, do not allow them to disagree with how you delivered the message.  Maybe in the moment, this will be incredibly hard, but you may have just opened their minds to new perspectives that may eventually make them become Christians as well.