It was about five-years ago when out-of-the-blue, a friend said, "God has asked me to wash your feet. May I wash your feet?”
Yes, I was shocked. Although I knew about and had watched foot-washing services, it had not been a part of my Baptist upbringing. It was something I always associated with either more liturgical or Pentecostal churches.
The experience was life-changing. A sign-post on my spiritual journey. For me, it was an example of someone being so sold-out to God they were willing to do anything, no matter how awkward or unusual. It also sent a very clear message to me that God knew my deepest needs and heart-cry and He was indeed anointing me for further service as I would soon be making my mission trip to India.
John 14:13 The Message, says: “So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do.”
Before the Passover meal, Jesus demonstrated how Christians are to love one another through humble service. Jesus said, “Let me give you a new command. Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”(John 13:34-35 Message)
This commandment to love one another came as a precursor to the very manifestation of the "mandate" —as Christ allowed Himself to be tortured and crucified as a sign of His total obedience unto God the Father and His love for all people.
As we bow down like humble servants, we learn the obedience of Christ that ushers in the kingdom of God’s love. Symbolically washing someone’s feet is a way of restoring them to their best for the Lord and others. By our love, we encourage people to rise above their shackling circumstances and enable them to walk upright in their anointed Calling.
How wonderful that our own difficulties need not prevent us from doing good, that in spite of our own pain, we can still bring encouragement to others!
“It is clearly not true that we have to be perfect before we can help another person. Frequently a ‘wounded healer’ is used to bring hope and well-being to another, which results in growth well beyond that experienced by the giver. Sometimes the wounded healer can bring to the other the very blessing and healing for which the healer himself or herself is seeking.” – Charles Ringma
Henri Nouwen reminds us that frequently one “must look after his own wounds, but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.”
The practice of washing another’s feet reminds us of the biblical principles of servant-hood, humility, and forgiveness. Foot-washing is symbolic and reminds us that we are called to serve others—for the glory of God.
Many churches practice foot-washing ceremonies as part of their Maundy Thursday services, but how much more life-changing when foot-washing happens anytime just because of the Holy Spirit’s leading, friend-to-friend.
Showing posts with label calling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calling. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
I Have A Dream
[“…there will also be some who are the visionaries, who can see new possibilities and who call for change.” --- Martin Luther King Jr.]
Yesterday, my business lunch date, an editor from a nearby city newspaper and author of several books, excused himself to go to the restroom. I watched him walk from the table and when I turned back to my soup bowl, I was shocked to find a young lady kneeling beside my chair.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt,” she stammered. “But I couldn’t help but overhear the words you were saying, ‘writing, God, India, orphans.’ Who are you and what do you do? These are not words I usually hear around here.”
We talked fast as I tried to give a brief explanation of what she had heard: who I am and what I do. She was totally overwhelmed because her God had been leading her to believe she is to go to India for at least a year and work in an orphanage.
“We have so much here and they have nothing. I can afford to go. I want my life to count for something. But my friends don’t understand and they think I’m crazy. I really don’t know anyone in India and I’m just starting my search for connections.”
I was more than happy to give her my business card, along with a few serious warnings about being very careful as to whom she goes to work for. There are plenty of horror stories of USA college-age girls being taken advantage of when they go to work for some of the orphan businesses (unfortunately many are in it for the money you can bring them).
I could hear the wistfulness in her voice. I saw the excitement and yearning in her body language. I felt her heart motivation to help the poorest of the poor. I am looking forward to getting together with Tracey soon and learning more about her heart-call to India.
As Charles Ringma said in “Let My People Go With Martin Luther King Jr.”: “Discontent may be the first glimmer of light. It may lead to a growing hope that things could be different. And hope may lead to an emerging vision of what is possible. To say to the oppressed that they should not be discontent is to condemn them to the dark night of subexistence. Rather, discontent is the harbinger of hope.”
I also heard clearly that still, small voice saying, “Elaine, this is what I mean by being salt and light. How can I use you in my harvest field right here in your hometown if you are always stuck in your office at your computer? I need you to be a witness here on your island. I need you to bloom right where I’ve placed you – and then I can bless you in all the traveling you want to do.”
“Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts” (Amos 5:14-15 NIV).
Yesterday, my business lunch date, an editor from a nearby city newspaper and author of several books, excused himself to go to the restroom. I watched him walk from the table and when I turned back to my soup bowl, I was shocked to find a young lady kneeling beside my chair.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt,” she stammered. “But I couldn’t help but overhear the words you were saying, ‘writing, God, India, orphans.’ Who are you and what do you do? These are not words I usually hear around here.”
We talked fast as I tried to give a brief explanation of what she had heard: who I am and what I do. She was totally overwhelmed because her God had been leading her to believe she is to go to India for at least a year and work in an orphanage.
“We have so much here and they have nothing. I can afford to go. I want my life to count for something. But my friends don’t understand and they think I’m crazy. I really don’t know anyone in India and I’m just starting my search for connections.”
I was more than happy to give her my business card, along with a few serious warnings about being very careful as to whom she goes to work for. There are plenty of horror stories of USA college-age girls being taken advantage of when they go to work for some of the orphan businesses (unfortunately many are in it for the money you can bring them).
I could hear the wistfulness in her voice. I saw the excitement and yearning in her body language. I felt her heart motivation to help the poorest of the poor. I am looking forward to getting together with Tracey soon and learning more about her heart-call to India.
As Charles Ringma said in “Let My People Go With Martin Luther King Jr.”: “Discontent may be the first glimmer of light. It may lead to a growing hope that things could be different. And hope may lead to an emerging vision of what is possible. To say to the oppressed that they should not be discontent is to condemn them to the dark night of subexistence. Rather, discontent is the harbinger of hope.”
I also heard clearly that still, small voice saying, “Elaine, this is what I mean by being salt and light. How can I use you in my harvest field right here in your hometown if you are always stuck in your office at your computer? I need you to be a witness here on your island. I need you to bloom right where I’ve placed you – and then I can bless you in all the traveling you want to do.”
“Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts” (Amos 5:14-15 NIV).
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Why? Why? Why?
“Life is hard and full of deep valleys that we walk, run, or even limp through to the best of our ability. Sometimes we simply don’t know why we’re there. Sometimes we don’t know why stinky things happen. Sometimes we don’t know why God doesn’t show up, why our prayers don’t get answered, or why he doesn’t fix our problem.
“Sometimes a surrender is necessary for us to continue in faith … By admitting that we don’t understand everything and by simply trusting God that somehow in some way, and at some time, everything that has happened or is happening in our lives is going to come together for a good purpose.” (A.J. Gregory in Silent Savior, Revell, 2009)
The Message says it well, “We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28).
This kind of faith is just plain hard to maintain when our life, the evening news, the events swirling around us keep calling out “WHY?” And those of us who by calling or choice are writers, reporter-types, seem to be born with a higher than natural dose of “need to know.”
Haven’t we all wanted to ask: “Where is God at a time like this?”
We asked it after 9/11; we ask it today as we sit glued to the news of the tens of thousands of people lost in the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan; we’ve asked it this last year as too many friends and loved ones were taken from us too soon; and I ask it tonight after learning the brilliant young Assembly of God pastor and Bible teacher died of the horrible ALS disease.
Frederick Buechner wrote vividly expressing our doubts: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
“No matter where we are in our individual journeys of faith, the Voice in our soul continues to call us to move out, to go deeper, to explore further, to widen our horizons — to move, ultimately, into a more intimate relationship with God.” (Penelope Stokes in Faith: The Substance of Things Unseen, Tyndale, 1995).
And so it is during this season of Lent 2011, I have chosen to create times of solitude and study “faith” – as much to articulate it for myself as to try and help anyone else understand it. For who can improve on Hebrews 11:1: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (The Message).
Eugene Peterson reminds us: “Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.”
“Sometimes a surrender is necessary for us to continue in faith … By admitting that we don’t understand everything and by simply trusting God that somehow in some way, and at some time, everything that has happened or is happening in our lives is going to come together for a good purpose.” (A.J. Gregory in Silent Savior, Revell, 2009)
The Message says it well, “We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28).
This kind of faith is just plain hard to maintain when our life, the evening news, the events swirling around us keep calling out “WHY?” And those of us who by calling or choice are writers, reporter-types, seem to be born with a higher than natural dose of “need to know.”
Haven’t we all wanted to ask: “Where is God at a time like this?”
We asked it after 9/11; we ask it today as we sit glued to the news of the tens of thousands of people lost in the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan; we’ve asked it this last year as too many friends and loved ones were taken from us too soon; and I ask it tonight after learning the brilliant young Assembly of God pastor and Bible teacher died of the horrible ALS disease.
Frederick Buechner wrote vividly expressing our doubts: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
“No matter where we are in our individual journeys of faith, the Voice in our soul continues to call us to move out, to go deeper, to explore further, to widen our horizons — to move, ultimately, into a more intimate relationship with God.” (Penelope Stokes in Faith: The Substance of Things Unseen, Tyndale, 1995).
And so it is during this season of Lent 2011, I have chosen to create times of solitude and study “faith” – as much to articulate it for myself as to try and help anyone else understand it. For who can improve on Hebrews 11:1: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (The Message).
Eugene Peterson reminds us: “Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.”
Friday, January 21, 2011
Are You Measuring Up to Your Calling?
How often have we felt like praying Jeremiah's prayer: "I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle" (Jeremiah 10:23-24 NLT).
Hudson Taylor gave us a wise perspective on life when he said: "I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked God if I might help Him. I ended up by asking him to do His work through me."
If we run the race set before us, engaging in duties God-appointed and not self-chosen, and bestowing all our energies, and that cheerfully, on the God-appointed tasks and sorrows, then may we rest in full assurance that our strength shall never fail, that our fruit shall remain, that our life shall, though apparently fragmentary, be complete, that we shall reach the end, and be counted faithful in that day. -- Adolph Saphir
This summer I was able to sit under the teaching of my favorite author at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This humble man of God's writings have impacted every part of my life--he practices what he preaches. He believes that "what I do and achieve cannot be the core of what I am. While God calls me to partnership with Him in changing the world, He first of all loves me for who I am. In fact, He loves me in all my vulnerability and need. ... I am an amazingly loved person by the God of all grace and mercy, and as such I can confidently live to fully please God in all that I do." -- Charles Ringma (Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellus)
Ringma goes on to remind us, "while we may celebrate the work of our hands as God's gift, we should never depend on it. For it is God alone who sustains us and He ought to be the focus of our adoration."
Hudson Taylor gave us a wise perspective on life when he said: "I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked God if I might help Him. I ended up by asking him to do His work through me."
If we run the race set before us, engaging in duties God-appointed and not self-chosen, and bestowing all our energies, and that cheerfully, on the God-appointed tasks and sorrows, then may we rest in full assurance that our strength shall never fail, that our fruit shall remain, that our life shall, though apparently fragmentary, be complete, that we shall reach the end, and be counted faithful in that day. -- Adolph Saphir
This summer I was able to sit under the teaching of my favorite author at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This humble man of God's writings have impacted every part of my life--he practices what he preaches. He believes that "what I do and achieve cannot be the core of what I am. While God calls me to partnership with Him in changing the world, He first of all loves me for who I am. In fact, He loves me in all my vulnerability and need. ... I am an amazingly loved person by the God of all grace and mercy, and as such I can confidently live to fully please God in all that I do." -- Charles Ringma (Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellus)
Ringma goes on to remind us, "while we may celebrate the work of our hands as God's gift, we should never depend on it. For it is God alone who sustains us and He ought to be the focus of our adoration."
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Beginning A New Journey
"No one walks our journey for us and no one else's pace is appropriate for us. It is our journey. We walk through life as unique persons created by God." --Walter C. Wright (Mentoring)
When we're still and hear the voice calling us to take on new challenges, it can be very unsettling. It may cause us to struggle knowing that we'll have to face the pain of letting go of old friends, places, and things in order to embrace the new calling.
What it boils down to is a matter of trust. Do we trust a Sovereign God enough to believe he always has our best interests in mind? Do we believe he has a perfect plan for our life? Do we really understand that in the center of his perfect will for us is the only place we'll find lasting peace and joy?
And it is this joy which comes from God that gives us the strength to do whatever he ask, to go wherever he calls, to endure and embrace whatever comes our way.
As we go out on our new journey with the joy of the Lord, we will be able to affirm to others: "Surely he has done great things! Do not be afraid ... be glad and rejoice" (Joel 2:21 TNIV).
When we're still and hear the voice calling us to take on new challenges, it can be very unsettling. It may cause us to struggle knowing that we'll have to face the pain of letting go of old friends, places, and things in order to embrace the new calling.
What it boils down to is a matter of trust. Do we trust a Sovereign God enough to believe he always has our best interests in mind? Do we believe he has a perfect plan for our life? Do we really understand that in the center of his perfect will for us is the only place we'll find lasting peace and joy?
And it is this joy which comes from God that gives us the strength to do whatever he ask, to go wherever he calls, to endure and embrace whatever comes our way.
As we go out on our new journey with the joy of the Lord, we will be able to affirm to others: "Surely he has done great things! Do not be afraid ... be glad and rejoice" (Joel 2:21 TNIV).
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Becoming Who We Are To Be
We are becoming who God created us to be.
I believe that my life is more likely to be assessed in the long run by the relationships I invested in than by the success of the organizations and writers conferences I have led, books I have written or edited, or money and things I have accumulated.
I believe you and I have more to do in our lifetime. If God was through with us working for him here on earth, he would call us home.
God is calling us--perhaps to go into new unknown territory this year. And with fear and some anxiety we wonder: Am I ready? Am I prepared for this? Am I walking into deep water that will be way over my head?
We may feel like Moses and need to remember: God's mighty hand will be holding onto us on each step of our winding path on our new journey.
Moses and God had a conversation about the new journey Moses was to take:
Moses said to the Lord, "You have been telling me, 'Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But you haven't told me whom you will send with me. You call me by name and tell me I have found favor with you. Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don't forget that this nation is your very own people." And the Lord replied, "I will personally go with you, Moses. I will give you rest--everything will be fine for you." Then Moses said, "If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place"(Exodus 33:12-15 NLT).
This year we will learn new things and have new opportunities we've never experienced before. God has many ways of leading and guiding us into his perfect will.
Our growth in Christian character and service for him will likely include: new relationships, new places of ministry, new ability to pray, new avenues of praise, new adventures of faith, new steps of obedience, and new ways of expressing his love to others.
May we in all our ways submit to him--and then he has promised to direct and make straight our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
I believe that my life is more likely to be assessed in the long run by the relationships I invested in than by the success of the organizations and writers conferences I have led, books I have written or edited, or money and things I have accumulated.
I believe you and I have more to do in our lifetime. If God was through with us working for him here on earth, he would call us home.
God is calling us--perhaps to go into new unknown territory this year. And with fear and some anxiety we wonder: Am I ready? Am I prepared for this? Am I walking into deep water that will be way over my head?
We may feel like Moses and need to remember: God's mighty hand will be holding onto us on each step of our winding path on our new journey.
Moses and God had a conversation about the new journey Moses was to take:
Moses said to the Lord, "You have been telling me, 'Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But you haven't told me whom you will send with me. You call me by name and tell me I have found favor with you. Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don't forget that this nation is your very own people." And the Lord replied, "I will personally go with you, Moses. I will give you rest--everything will be fine for you." Then Moses said, "If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place"(Exodus 33:12-15 NLT).
This year we will learn new things and have new opportunities we've never experienced before. God has many ways of leading and guiding us into his perfect will.
Our growth in Christian character and service for him will likely include: new relationships, new places of ministry, new ability to pray, new avenues of praise, new adventures of faith, new steps of obedience, and new ways of expressing his love to others.
May we in all our ways submit to him--and then he has promised to direct and make straight our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
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