Tag Archives: God

What if God made you for this?

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I heard my friend Andy talk about “the seminal question” several times in grad school. The first time he said it I was only half sure what he meant, so I just nodded and hoped for the best. Turned out a seminal question or a seminal point is at the crux of something, the thing that really matters and influences everything else.

I’m thinking of a seminal question right now: What if God made you for this?

You. Right now. Meant for whatever it is you’re facing or going through. Is it possible you aren’t just facing these circumstances because of chance, but that you were made for this very thing?

Does that freak you out? Make you angry? Give you hope?

I was having a bad couple of days not long ago. I felt insecure, less impressive than others around me and not up to the task at hand. The next morning I woke up and said my prayers, and told God about it. He hit me with a overwhelming sense of peace and a thought: I made you for this. It struck me so strongly that I wrote the phrase down, put the slip of paper in my pocket and kept it as a reminder.

There are a number of reasons God didn’t make you for this. You don’t believe in God. Right now is too hard. You think you’re above your current job or situation. You don’t believe you’re of value.

But, what if God made you for this? A seminal question. Imagine how your perspective might change if He did.

Worthy of a tithe

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There used to be this term in Christianity called “tithing.” It was a good word, rooted in the Old Testament and meant giving 10% of your income to church. I can’t tell from my pew if it’s around anymore. We use the term “giving.” “Offering” is still okay. But “tithing?” I’m not hearing it.

I’m convinced this has to do with churches wanting to be inviting to new people. “Tithe” lost it’s appeal. Probably brings up too many memories of pipe organs, scripted church services and having to dress up on Sunday morning.

I hope the Church isn’t letting it go the way of khaki pants.

Tithing does invite debate. People wonder why it doesn’t come up in the New Testament and if it’s outdated. Some debate if a specific number should be assigned at all. And then there’s the debate about where money can go and be counted as a tithe.

There are those convinced that a tithe can only go to your home church. If you want to give anywhere else, that should happen after the 10% to church. On the other end of the spectrum are people who think the 10% can go to any good work. They’d consider a gift to church, the Red Cross or the Humane Society a tithe.

I fall in the middle. I think a tithe can go to an organization that has a Christ-centered mission, and I also think the home church should have a prominent place. I stand before God on that view, but it’s one of many.

The thing that stands out more critically to me is how much I want Children’s Shelter of Cebu to be worthy of a tithe. I want us to share the gospel with children as our first priority. I want to teach kids how to pursue holiness. I want us to steward gifts in a way that honors God. I think we do all three very well.

You may not need us to be tithe-worthy. Or, you might not think anything we can do makes us so. Either way, we are better for the children when we strive to be worthy of your tithe.

Praying at School

CSC kids praying at our school (Joel Reasoner)

Darkness disappears

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mle@photofool.com

“for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light” Ephesians 5:8 (NASB).

That’s interesting. It’s not just that you were in darkness. You were darkness.

This shouldn’t surprise you. Go out on a pitch black night where nothing is visible. Neither are you. Darkness consumes and drags everything else in with it. Everything except light. Light makes darkness go away. Where there is one, there can’t be the other. Darkness is all-powerful until light shines. Then, darkness is gone. It doesn’t exist anymore.

Are you like me and sometimes fear the darkness is back? Because, as the Apostle Paul put it, “I do what I don’t want to do” and get tripped up in sin? If you have accepted Christ, don’t let yourself get tricked into wondering that.

Now you are “Light in the Lord.” Upper case light, a part of something in and with our great God. There can be no darkness, light has made it disappear. But, we and the Ephesians seem to need the reminder to walk in the light that we are a part of. Wait, but how? Thankfully verse 10 has the answer: by “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” I’m reminded to walk in what has already been given to me.

A call to stand still

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Josh Brewster Photography

The business of hearing from God can be tricky. I once wrote that I don’t hear from God audibly. I still get comments about that post, sometimes because readers got the impression I don’t hear from God at all. Whoops.

When I was in Cebu last I shared with some staff about my sense of call to take the President position at CSC. One of them asked later if I would write about it, given the other blog post and my shady background on hearing from God (they didn’t say that last part). I liked the idea of sharing the story.

As I waited and prayed about becoming President at CSC, one morning stands out as the day God made his path clear.

I didn’t set my alarm the night before at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit. There were prayer groups scheduled for the morning, and to be honest, I was hoping to sleep through them. Crashing for 8 hours sounded like a good plan. I even prayed God would wake me up if He wanted me to go.

Talk about a confession of laziness. And foolishness (don’t pray to God about avoiding prayer!). I woke up at 6:45. Plenty of time to get ready for the day, pack for the flight home and go to prayer groups. My attempt to pull a fast one on God didn’t pan out. And I thank him for that.

While in prayer groups, the facilitator invited us to take five minutes and pray in silence for what God would have us do for the cause of the orphan. I needed that five minutes. The President position was beginning to take shape, with or without me. I was nervous, uncertain and full of questions about what I was supposed to do.

As I prayed that morning, a picture came into my mind. I’d call it a vision, because the sense I got when I pictured this was deep inside. It wasn’t in my heart or mind…I felt it in my gut.

I pictured one of those moving walkways in an airport. They move you towards the gate with almost no effort. I could see as if I was standing on the moving walkway, and a very clear thought came to mind. This wasn’t a premonition of the airport I would be at later that day. This was bigger. I was on a moving walkway in my career. The momentum was so clear that the ground beneath me was guiding me to where I belong. Then I had a deep-down thought, that felt as if it came from somewhere else. “You’re on a moving walkway. I’m bringing you where I want you to be. You don’t even have to step forward, I’ll get you there. But you do have to stop backing up.”

Did I hear God audibly? No. I didn’t need to, He made himself clear without it. God was shaping the path before me and moving the steps beneath me. I don’t know if I’ve been hit by something so clearly since, but something like that reverberates for a long time. The best advice I got were the deep-down words of a call: just stop backing up.

Are you backing up from something in your life? I pray you too will find yourself on a moving walkway.

The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

Does God speak to you?

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I’ve never heard God.  I’ve never seen him either.  At least not in the way some people have.

Ultimately, I’m okay with that.  I don’t question my salvation or my place in God’s kingdom because clear sights or sounds have never come to me.  Though, there are definitely times I’ve wished God would speak in a voice that I could make out with my ears.

I have had people tell me that they heard God.  Right there in their eardrums were the reverberations of the Most High. Once someone told me that God audibly directed them to take a different path to their car which resulted in them meeting a famous person.  Nothing more came of it so they just assumed God was proving his faithfulness to them.

I have to admit, I can tense up when someone says something like that.  When that person told me their story I kind of wanted to ask if they were sure this was how it all played out.  It’s hard not to proceed with incredible caution when my relationship with God just doesn’t work like that.  Still, if I had questioned the validity of this story it would have been out of arrogance that this can’t be because I haven’t had the same thing happen to me.  I’m not drawing that line in the sand.

I wasn’t filled with theological questions when I heard the story.  You want to know the full selfish truth?  It made me jealous.  I would love to have the same thing happen to me.  Something like a voice in the silence, an angel appearance or a burning bush.

Why?  Because I want to be so sure I’ve heard from God that there is no other explanation for something having happened.  It’s a question of calling.  Calling is about purpose, and for a Christian, being asked to do something by, with and for God.

Calling is an amazing thing.  Calling is God saying “here, your turn.”  If you’re called, you’re being asked to respond, to fill a need that God knows you can.  Calling is a little like faith.  It’s our turn to take what we know and go.  It’s our chance to have a part to play in the history of a world held in the hands of a sovereign God.

It’s occurring to me that being called is probably never easy.  A voice would be nice, so would a burning bush, but calling rarely looks simple however the signal comes.  That burning bush was a clear sign, but one that made for a difficult path.  God was telling Moses to do something that he felt totally unequipped to do.  He believed God had the wrong guy and he was afraid.  Moses wasn’t so different from most of the rest of us.

Being afraid doesn’t mean you’re not called.  In fact, being afraid might be one of the signs you are.  It’s okay to be afraid.  As long as we don’t wait around for the sure sign that someone else got or question our qualifications to the point of doing nothing.  Sure God says “your turn,” but He never asks us to take that turn alone.

So God has never spoken to me the way He has to others.  Maybe He has to you.  Either way, He is speaking.

Blackmail

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Just shopping the competition...

This is Joemar.  If you have been to Cebu and met him, you already get the link between the picture and the post title.

Joe is what we call a lifer…a company man.  He loves his job, works hard and looks his best when he’s in his uniform.  The problem here is that he works for McDonald’s.  Look at the guilt on his face as he polishes off a meal from their primary competition in Cebu.  He agreed to this picture even though I told him I was going to use it as blackmail.  He even held the cup out to give the shot some dimension.

I guess Joemar is a lifer at CSC too.  He arrived on July 15, 1985, and at age 35, doesn’t show any sign of moving out of the Duterte home.  Not that we would have it any other way.

I remember first meeting Joemar.  First week of the job, first trip overseas, trying to keep all kinds of balls in the air when Marlys brought him over.  It didn’t take more then a few seconds to realize Joemar has development delays, or that he loves Superman for that matter.  To this day I find it helpful to have Auntie Sandy around to translate, but I’ve learned many of the key Joemar terms.  Even if I hadn’t, he usually seems happy to show me around or have me just talk to him.  This last trip he was showing me how he could write his name.

I don’t remember what I thought when I first met Joemar, but I find myself wondering if I realized how valuable he is when I did.  Did I think “he sure is lucky to have CSC?”  Maybe, maybe not.  But, what I know I didn’t realize yet is that CSC sure is lucky to have him.  Not because he’s such a hard worker or a good roommate, but because Joemar is a gem.  He is precious, valuable and reflects light wherever he goes.

I don’t know if I thought it (I know I didn’t say it), but I suspect my attitude when I met Joemar was “poor guy.”  I know myself well enough to know that at first I was focused on what was missing when it came to Joe.  So let’s just get one thing straight: poor me.  What a sad deficit-based approach to a child of a God.  What a blessing I would have missed if I would have only seen so far as Joe’s limitations.  7 years later I thank God that He put a gem named Joemar in my life.  Not because he had something to gain, but because I did.

Though, I suppose I could have something to offer and at least explain blackmail to him.

Dawn…and night

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Are you as bad at waiting as I am?  I hate waiting.  I hate stoplights, lines and being on hold.  I have to admit how hard it is for me to wait for God too, to keep praying for the same thing wondering if it will ever come.

Our Six

Imagine waiting for God to give you a family.  Analiza, Jenive, Bernardo, Birny, Jeffrey and Rafael have been praying for parents since 2005.  Every day and then some.  They wait and wait with no idea if the prayer will be answered.

My devotions brought me to Isaiah 21 this morning.  After reading the repeated question, “Watchman, how far gone is the night,” verse 12 stopped me.  “The watchman says, ‘Morning comes but also night.  If you would inquire, inquire; Come back again.’”

Morning will come, the light will break at the horizon and we will have our dawn.  “…but also night.”  That’s what hit me.  There is a place for the night too.  There is darkness and unknown for a reason.  You are anxious and afraid and anticipating the new day, but there is a place for that anxiety, fear and waiting.  There is especially a place for your hope for what will come.  There is a purpose for all of it.  Keep hoping, and keep asking.  The watchman invites us to keep coming back to ask the same question when we feel the need to again.

Funny how we go to God most often when we are worrying and afraid.  No wonder there is the night.  I can be so consumed by the waiting and wondering when God will answer, that I fail to savor the fact that the waiting is drawing me to God more often than even the excitement of “arriving” can.

God will answer our prayers and open a door.  Of course, we never know if it will be the one we had in mind.  I just pray that those six kids will get the answer they’re asking for.  As I pray with them, I pray for them to be blessed in their waiting too…and that you will join me on their behalf.