Interrupted

This week was the week I was going to email out invitations for a new bible study, "Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker." I was so excited to get this started since our church bible study ended last week. However, I was interrupted with life here. I already have the emails in my draft box and something (someONE) told me to wait. I am so glad I did. You see, I am one who gets excited about something and jumps in fully clothed and ready to go. I want everyone to come with me and learn what I am learning. I always long for a big, bible study party. There is nothing better than women getting together to study God's word together. Except maybe, just maybe, there is something better; I am learning that this week and next week (and every week after that) is more about me showing God's love.

The bible study I wanted to start was about letting God interrupt your life. I haven't even started it and I can see that He has already done that. This week has been about showing His love. We had the Great Giveaway at our church this week and it was AWESOME. At the Great Giveaway, we all took our extra, nice stuff from our houses and invited those less fortunate than us - to shop for free from all our stuff. It was time well spent. I am not sure who benefited more, the people or me getting to help them. It really is only something that God can do - bless me when I choose to help others. Now you know me, I am not saying that Bible study is not important. HIS WORD IS WHAT CHANGES US! HIS WORD IS WHAT SUSTAINS US. But I think many of us are right here:

"I developed a form of spiritual bulimia where I did my devotions, read all the new Christian books and saw the Christian movies, and then vomited information up to friends, small groups. and pastors. But it never had the chance to digest. I had gorged myself on all the products of the Christian industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. I was marked by an over-consumption but malnourished spiritually, suffocated by Christianity but thirsty for God." Taken from "Interrupted" by Jen Hatmaker

My dad calls it the "holy huddle" and I blogged about it here.

Brad's grandparents are not doing well and I am now home during the day and I can help them. It has been a blessing for us for me to be home so I can help. My father in law has a habit of joking with me about why I stay home with the kids - well, here is your answer.  I am free to do things that others can't. I am here to let God "interrupt" my day. (Please, please, hear my heart on this - I have been there for those of you who can't stay home! I know what it is like, it is hard, very hard. God can "interrupt" you there too.)

I am not saying that I always do this well. I am one who gets up in the morning and has a list on a notecard (I am queen of the 3x5's) of all the things I want to accomplish that day. I am learning, slowly, that my list might not get done, my house might not be clean but I have showed God's love to someone who needed it. By the way, if you haven't read Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, now is the time.

It has been rainy here for weeks and last night my heart was so heavy with all the needs around me. I have friends taking their young boy to Tennessee to see if his cancer is back, dear friends who are battling cancer, Brad's grandparents and family dealing with aging and needing constant help, marriages that are HURTING, people who just getting through the day - THEY HURT! Secret pain is killing many,  many are hiding in their own despair.

Psalm 119: 81-82 "I faint with longing for your salvation; but I have put MY HOPE in YOUR word. My eyes are straining to see your promises come true. When will you comfort me?" (NLT)

It is overwhelming for me, but not for HIM! Let yourself get interrupted today. Ask God right now to show you how He wants to love others through you and when He shows you - DO IT. I think so often we know what we should do, we just don't want to. Ask Him to change your "want to."

I can promise you this, I have been asking God to change my heart to desire the things HE desires - HE is doing it. Things I loved before, they don't mean so much. Things I HAD to have, I look and think - "why did I think I needed that?" 1 Timothy 6:6 "Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment." It is not something I have done, He has changed my heart and I am longing for things other than what I want. He is doing the work. Ask Him, He will do it for you too.

Ok, so I know I am everywhere in this post today. One thought keeps getting "interrupted" by another. It is ADD in it's truest form. On a last note, we can't do everything well. We must walk closely with the Sprit to make sure we are doing what He asks. For us to be so busy and get nothing done won't help either. Just like I tell my kids, "listen and obey."

Compassion is a GOOD IDEA!

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Idea

Our family has been trying to think of ways to save money to help those who are less fortunate than us -here are some facts to wrap your brain around. Just in case you were having a day when you thought maybe you weren't so fortunate. 

*Of the six billion people on planet Earth, about 1.2 billion live on 23 cents a day. 

* Half the world lives on less than $2 a day. 

*  The wealthiest one billion people average $70 a day. (This places you and me in the upper, upper, upper percentages of the global population.) 

•  If you make $35,000 annually, you are in the top four percent. 

• If you make $50,000 annually, top one percent. 

* Someone dies of hunger every 16 seconds. 

*  Twenty-two million people died of preventable diseases last year; 10 million were children.

*  Twenty-seven million children and adults are trapped in slavery because of economic crisis (sex slaves, labor slaves, child soldiers, and child slaves). More slaves exist today than ever before in human history.

*  More than 143 million children in the world have been orphaned or abandoned (equivalent to more than half the population of the U.S.). 

In the last hour: 

•  More than 1,600 children were forced to the streets by the death or abuse of an adult. 

• At least 115 children became prostitutes. 

•  More than 66 children younger than 15 years of age were infected with HIV.7 

*  Roughly one billion people in the world do not have suitable housing, and 100 million are entirely homeless. 

So, just a start for our family. We are on a cash system here and we pay cash for most of all our daily expenses. I have begun to keep our change every time I pay cash for something and I don't use that change for anything else. (Unless, of course, I am in desperate need of a diet dr. pepper and I have to use it for a vending machine) I come home and put it in a can and save it. We also put any change we find around the house, in pockets, in drawers and add it to the can. Basically, if I find anything laying around - it goes in the can. 

It is almost full and we just started. I will let you know how much we "saved" and now we are praying about who we will give it too. Also, find a bank that will sort your change - that Coinstar thing takes too much of your money for itself to count your change. Or, better yet, teach your kids how to count and roll the change. ( I haven't done that in forever, I used to love to do that when I was younger.)

Any ideas y'all have out there??

I had the incredible privilege this week of flying to Springdale, Arkansas and giving my testimony to their ladies group. After a special time of sharing what God has done in our lives, I was invited to lunch by an old friend and one of her friends. This sweet, precious girl shared her story of how her 3 day old baby went to be with Jesus not too long ago. My heart broke for her, yet, I was jealous for her, for all the things I knew the Lord was going to show her, for all the ways He was going to reveal Himself to her and her family. I was jealous for that quiet desperation that I remember all too well. I am by no means wishing to enter into that kind of pain ever again, but from my side, I know what that type of heartache can bring, if you let it. It brings so many things but most importantly, it brings such a clear knowledge of God that no one can refute. Pain brings out in us a certainty that HE rules and reigns and there in nothing, absolutely nothing, that can thwart what God has for us on this earth. His plans and purposes for us will be accomplished. There is nothing more peaceful than knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that God choose you to walk this journey

with Him and for Him. He entrusted it to you, to me, to use it as our own personal offering to Him; to use whatever may come our way to be the instrument this dying world sees of His Glorious Light.

I want it to be said of me, "There is no way she did that, lived that, taught that, without the power of something, that something being Jesus."They might not recognize it at first as being Jesus but there will be a difference when He reigns in our lives. It will be recognizable. We won't do things like the rest of the world.  We will stand out. Hopefully, we are standing out. I pray that we look different.

My dad spoke at our church this weekend and talked about how we are supposed to go out and be HIS light, how we are supposed to be recognized, not for what we do in our church walls, but what we do outside. He used the illustration of a football game (you see where I get it from??) and how strange it would be if we saw the players just huddle together and not ever go out and play. They just stayed in the huddle, they liked the huddle, they weren't going to get hit in the huddle, the huddle is safe. Yes, we need the huddle. That is where we get our instructions - we get the game plan, the play book. But, after we have gotten our instructions, it is time to go out and fight the battle. Don't just stay in your huddle.  Go out and make some plays. I can't guarantee you won't get hurt, that you won't have some scars, or that it won't be exhausting. I can guarantee that one day, when our God decides that this time here on Earth is over, it will be worth it all. He is worth it all.

Don't miss the message for all my silly football talk - there is a battle going on out there and it is not one we watch at a football game. It is a spiritual battle and the stakes are high! The battle must be fought. The world needs to know (SEE) Him.