Lacking Just One Thing

Last semester while at a Brewer game with some friends I crossed a line I thought I would never even approach--I signed up for a Twitter account.  Since the genesis of the concept of "micro-blogging" I have been completely against the idea. How, I would ask, could anyone actually communicate anything of substance in 140 characters or less.  I'm pretty sure that on multiple occasions I referred to Twitter as the bane of my generations existence and vowed never to even consider "tweeting" myself.  Yet here I am, a daily tweeter.  While I'm still not fully convinced that Twitter is for everyone and I will concede that many people still do use Twitter in the most annoying, self-centered ways, Twitter has set the wheels of my mind turning quite often over the last semester.  Being able to share in the lives of friends all over the country and glean wisdom from some of the theological "greats" who have embraced this new technology has been refreshing.  This Monday is just one example of how Twitter set in motion some sweet time with Jesus.

Monday morning as I got out of bed and started getting ready for the day I was running through the list of tweets that had accumulated while I was sleeping.  I breezed past headlines from CNN, the daily CS Lewis quote, but was stopped by John Piper's first thought he had shared for the day

 Jesus to the rich young ruler: You lack one thing. Treasuring me more than money. (Mark 10:21)

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, one of my newest projects is a textbook buyback business called MadTown Text.  Over the last couple weeks I had this idea of buying and reselling textbooks on campus at better prices than the bookstores to make a profit.  Since the business would be just me and really wouldn't have any overhead costs, I figured I could probably make some pretty good money if I really pursued the idea.  So, last week I decided to jump out and really give it a try.  I talked to friends, set-up a website (via facebook of course), designed a logo, organized financials, printed promo materials, and started spreading the word around campus.  The first week of classes is a little "behind the game" in terms of the perfect time to buy and sell textbooks, but I had all the time in the world not a lot to do yet, my point finally, is that MTT kind of took over my life last week.  So, when I read that Piper tweet, a twinge of conviction was almost instant.  I had spent the whole last week pouring into this business venture, figuring out the best ways to make the most money.  I was chasing after a new opportunity, but I had to ask-was I treasuring this promise of money too much?  I decided to take my morning quite time in Mark 10: 17-31.

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' " 20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." 28 Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!" 29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

This is an account I've read a lot actually.  Money and my walk with God is something that I seem to think about pretty often.  There seem to be so many different tangents that money conversations can take-what does it look like to spend in a godly way, how much should I be giving, what is the best way to save in a godly way, should I be even be saving, can I trust God with everything and still be "financially secure" by the world's standards, what kind of action should be incited by stats like 6% of the world's population resides in America while 50% of the world's wealth resides here (taken from Randy Alcorn's The Treasure Principle)?  So deep many questions there, but on Monday the question really was simply about my heart.  I heard God asking "Randi, are you treasuring Me most?  I've called you to the life I designed for you; I have laid out a mission to glorify me with all the I have entrusted to you.  You are blessed with much, are you using it all for Me?"

As I spent time sitting with Jesus and going over the Mark passage it really stuck out to me that when looking at "every day life" through the scope of the Gospel, actions that look good on the outside just don't cut.  Running up to Jesus and bowing before Him will do us no good if we aren't going to be honest with Him about the shape in which we are coming before Him.  He can look upon us with compassion, but if we're holding ourselves back because of fear or money or obligations or whatever He can't take us in.  Finally, I saw yet again that I am incapable of any of that.  On my own, I can't put aside the false hope that this world carries, I can't look past my money and treasure Jesus more without being totally reliant on His Spirit. That was a humbling way to start the morning.  I was so thankful to the Lord for the moment He took to bring me to His feet to start the day knowing I needed Him to help me surrender every moment that I would encounter.

Posting Friday

I know you were all waiting on bated breathe yeasterday to see if I would follow through with my "posting on Fridays" promise, and alas I failed yesterday.  All week I had planned to write Friday afternoon, but on Thursday night I found out that a copmuter class I'm in this semester had a mandatory software training session Friday from 9:30-4, so my day was pretty much shot was you can imagine, and now I'm in Janesville curling for the weekend.  SO, I'mand postponing "posting Friday" to Sunday this week.  Hopefully this doesn't become a habit....

PS while you at your computer screen waiting all weekend for the post, you should probably check out my new sweet business onour facebook page MadTown Text, it's pretty awesome!

One Year Passes Quietly

 Today is one year since the earthquake in Haiti.  I really wanted to blog, I wasn't sure what I was gonna say, here is a little bit straight from my journal, just my thoughts I guess.

Today went so much differently than I thought it would.  One year since the earthquake, for some reason I thought it would be the only thing anyone would be talking about, I figured it would be all over the news, the only thing being discussed by the talking heads, but instead it came and went and no one seemed to notice.  News stations mentioned the anniversary in passing, clips of vigils and last year's tragedy flashed for seconds and then it was gone, Haiti missed the spotlight today.  I feel like there's a pressure building up inside of me threatening to explode at any moment

"HOW COULD YOU FORGET?! HOW ARE YOU KEEPING SILENT?!"

Don't you realize that the tragedy that stopped you in your tracks a year ago is still stealing lives today?  Millions of people are living without homes, in makeshift tents, and on the streets, thousands of lives are threatened by cholera every day, and over the last year hundreds of people have been raped as the few people who work to enforce the law are scrambling to keep up with the demands they face everyday.  These things that seem unimaginable anomalies in our lives here in America are now the norm in Haiti.  Yet I feel like everyone seems to have forgotten, moved on and left Haiti to deal, to settle to this new status quo.

Isiah 40: 27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God "? Do you not know ? Have you not heard ? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength ; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. 

Matthew 11: 28-30
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Isiah 1:17
Learn to do good ; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. 

Haiti's way is not hidden from the Lord.   Haiti is not forgotten and the Everlasting God is moving there, calling to take the yolk of slavery and oppression to offer healing and rest.  He is calling us to seek to love, defend, and plead for.

Back to Blogging

Obviously last semester I was pretty absent from blogging.  I've decided that this semester I'm really going to try to be more diligent to blog more consistently this semester.  Blogging for me isn't just a way of letting other people into my thoughts and walk with the Lord, but its also another way for me to process and to hear from the Lord myself, so I'm gonna keep blogging. 

I have Friday's pretty free this semester, only one morning class, so I've decided that at least every Friday this semester I will be publishing a post.  Hope you keep walking with me and enjoy.

Randi

Home Again

Home Again, Home Again!!  Praise the Lord I made it back to Wisco safely last night.  I can hardly believe I'm
home, it's great but so weird at the same time.  The Lord has done so much working and moving, in the past three weeks, I think I'll be catching up for a while. I can't wait to start sorting through everything and putting together posts, be sure to check back soon for some pictures!

WOW!

It feels like it's been forever since I've been able to blog!  The internet here has been up and down for the last week.  Partly due to the sketchy weather and partly because equipment was just in limbo for a while, Praise the Lord that it looks like everything is figured out and the ministry down here can rely on the net for there own work.  Weather here hasn't really been that bac for us, we've had some rain, more than the area is used to, but it hasn't gotten in the way of life for us.  Also, the winds that have come with the tropical storm in the area have really lowered temperatures a lot which is a blessing.  Please do pray for the families living in the IDP camps.  Rain only make living in tents that much harder.

PRAISE THE LORD!!  On July 15th I aksed that you all would pray for the release of shipping containers on the docks in Port-au-Prince.  The ministry here has been waiting for supplies critical to building projects on our compund.  Last week most of our project took a day to fast and pray for the release of the containers, and the next day 4 of the most critical containers were released!!  Two have already been transported to our compound and are quickly being unloaded and put to use.

Life here has beeen a combination of sharing the gospel at IDP camps, doing working projects on our camp, spending some time at a Christian School in Port-au-Prince sharing testimonies and loving on the kids there, fellowshipping with and being a light to Chambrun, building relationships with our own team and the Haitian students who are working alongside us, and also just building relathioship within our team-the Lord has brought some great people to serve here in Haiti and I'm excited to have a whole new wave pf project friends when I get back to the States. 

So much has happened since I've been able too post last there's so much ot share, but for today I'm just going to let you in on a journal entry from July 21. 

We just had small group time to discuss the "Weh Helping Hurts" article in our project notebook.  We had a really good discussion about how we see the results of broken relationships and "god-complexes" in our lives.

At then end of the discussion, Dana (one of the Haitian students in our discussion group) told a stroy about how she has been seeing God work in here life.  She told us that before the earthquake she was asking God to show her how she could serve Him.  She said she knew that as Christians we are supposed to serve God, but that she was very shy and didn't know how she fit into God's plan. 

After the earthquake, God brought her to this summer project.  Now she said she sees how God can use her.  Before the earthquake she never talked about God outside of her Campus Crusade firends.  She said she was very nervous the first time she went to the IDP camp to talk about God to people she didn't know.  But now, she sees how God can use her in His plan.  She loves telling God's story to people who hae never heard it.

This is by far one of my favorite stories from project.  Looking at the physical and emotional mess left after the earthquake, it is almost unimaginable to think that God can use it for good, but seeinf the spiritual revival that could be possible in our generation, I praying God is raising up a generation of leaders who love Him and are going to love and lead Haiti!

Quick Update

Hey All,

I don't have much cocmputer time and the net has been down the last couple days so here's a quick update:

--Saturday we went into Port-au-Prince to visit the Campus Crusade movement there, we drove through most of the city and saw the physical devastation of the EQ.

--Yesterday we wen to an IDP camp to share the gospel

--We have been to Chambrun, the local community a couple of times, we have showed he Jesus Film, distributed supplies, and just hung out.

Hopefully I'll get a better post sometime soon, please pray for team unity.  Our team has had some great highs, but we're definitely seeing the results of losing battles to our own pride.  Please pray our whole team would be filled with love!